Oakley Farms Posted September 4, 2015 Author Share Posted September 4, 2015 Harvest Log Day 20+ Well With a man down the last two weeks Phil has stepped up into combine 1, Chris is still on combine 2 leaving us a driver short on the Rape drill, but this has been tickling along on damp days. Things are progressing though with Atherstone done, Knott Oak done, moved upto North Cadbury and hit that off before falling back into Martock for a customer and now i hear they are over at family farm Parsonage, roughly 950 acres of wheat left and the store is filling up at a rapid rate with Orchards incoming grain too, hugh pressures on the drying facility at the mo. I have had to cancel Shepody orders this week with everything going on but hope to resume to normal play next week, top priority will be getting the last 600 acres of rape in the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catkom3 Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 Nice to see you back Alex,hope all is well,after reading Brian's comment yesterday I did a bit of Googleing,and came up with this,http://www.ritchie-d.co.uk/content/1020-traileyre not sure if that is an accumulator,but it certainly can shift big bales, Regards Joe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B O R Posted September 5, 2015 Share Posted September 5, 2015 Have to admit Joe I never knew Ritchie done a big square bale handler, id say by looking at it that itd suit someone who doesn't need urgent bale clearing and maybe a but of time on their hands as the bales have to be loaded one by one rather than the automatic sequence followed by the bigger bale chasers such as Heath etc.. Another factor too is the unloading as from what I can make out you,d have to unload them one by one in the yard and rely on a handler to stack them as opposed to the chasers tipping up and stacking without a telehandler. But it certainly is nice to see it and it definitely would be a good option for someone who doesnt have 2 telehandlers to load in the field and then unload back at the yard, it cuts out the need for the loader in the field which in itself is a big saving. The first time I seen a Heath chaser in action I was totally in amazement of there ability to clear bales and also of there ingenious design. It makes you think of just how clever some folk really are, to design a machine to lift, transport and stack bales without leaving the tractor seat.... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 Is this the sort of accumulator you mean Brian? The excellent photo was found here http://farmingphotography.zenfolio.com/balingandcarting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 Do these bale handlers actually save time and money Then ? You often see say two heaths running and carting, and to be honest they only take 12 bales is it?? Where as a good bale trailer or artic rig takes double that , plus a handler to load, but overall your running half the trips and prob using the same derv with 1 tractor and handler at the end of it if not less ? They certainly are not something we see this way, i often wondered the same thing with the cooks gear we used, 1 stacking one hauling, where as a bale trailer saved a lot of trips 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B O R Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 Yes Pat thats the one.... I think Sean some of the larger cereal growers maybe use the Heath only to clear fields fast so the plough can get in, in many case they cart all the bales to a spot somewhere near the road and then the artics can be loaded, or a yard nearby is even better as the harder surface can mean better storage and not just as urgent to sell and getting on with other things like reseeding. Id say that is the chasers biggest advantage, to clear fields fast even in wetter conditions if need be, the chasers fascinate me and i wish i had a Heath in my model room, it was such a complex model to build as theres so many working parts many of which had to be soldered in situ.. If there was 2 for example drawing to a farm some miles away then i see your point of not neccessarily making the whole thing faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 Out principle reasons for using a bale chaser is CTF. Does it save us money? No and yes, it costs us money to run being an extra operation, its not really our job to clear the fields of bales as thats down to the contractor, but since we run a strict CTF system we felt obliged to do it. It has many benefits, one driver knows where to drive in terms of wheelings, but where it really comes into its own is saving us time, bales are cleared to headlands/gateways for the contractors to collect from there allowing the direct drilling of rape to happen far quicker than waiting on contractors to clear fields. This means our rape goes in when it should which is crictical at this time of year when we don't have time to waste. It works for us and the contractor has never had it so good having bales stacked for them! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 8, 2015 Author Share Posted September 8, 2015 Harvest Log The gang are still out on there own as im still stuck in hospital but im told things are going well. 2 days left at the wheat for Dobles of Hurcott, this is the ground we are loosing next year so we are not running CTF up here so the bale chaser isn't required freeing up Mark to drill the last of the rape, we also have Joe Broughton on his Massey hauling for us to free up a tractor for rolling rape, this time last year we were all done! Can't wait to get cracking into some beans now. Store is now getting tight on space! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0025 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 looks like the loaders are going to be busy loading and pushing up all that crop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 I see the idea in getting the field open for planting/tillage work , to be honest the only ones I have seen running have been taking the bales back pretty much into the farm, hence my question, multiple trips for say 1 big trailer and a handler , not seen them stacking at a headland like that ,cheers for the answer brian / alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B O R Posted September 8, 2015 Share Posted September 8, 2015 That really is some operation there Alex, and the drill is amazing. Harvest has been stop start where i work due to rain and some fields ripened before others due to more sunshine in the important last weeks. Last year was the same, theres still about a quarter of the total to cut and this year i done quite a bit of bale loading and unloading, one cattle unit which houses around 400 cattle is all bedding so a huge amount of straw had to be stored at that farm, a new chopper was bought in the form of a trailed MC HALE machine and is going every day. Strangely they sold their MF2190 baler and this year got a contractor in with a VICON 7x4x3 baler, a lot more handling at them than the big Hesstons although quite a few lorry loads of Hesstons have also been bought from ROI. 1030 7x4x3 bales came off 81 acres.....But that operation in your pictures is really on another level 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 Been the same here Brian, stop start with sometimes a week between harvesting. We had very good weather early on which was ideal for the harvesting the rapeseed and brought harvest forward a bit too quick in terms of when the rape was finished the wheat wasn't quite ready and i remember the first few blocks of wheat the straw was still a little green. But we are nearly there now, the last 1000 or so acres of wheat has been very dusty, quite black due to rain but isn't a bad sample and now we have just over 1000 acres of spring beans to knock off which won't take long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 Harvest Log Well finally out of hospital and just been catching up around the estate, the last day of wheat here which is great and a huge relief, also the last of the Expower OSR will be in the ground at Montgomeries later today, a little late but in the circumstances ok. Hope to be back on the combine tomorrow when we get over to Wigborough into Wizard spring beans. I desperately need to sort out the last losds of Shepody if they will take them. Since iv been away we have had 2 amazing pieces of kit on demo from Hamblys which has really helped push things on over the last week, first being a Richard Western GR30 chaser bin and a Horsch Leeb self propelled used for pre em on rape, im highly impressed with both bits of kit. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 9, 2015 Author Share Posted September 9, 2015 Another cracking video of Andrew Tetlows boys 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B O R Posted September 9, 2015 Share Posted September 9, 2015 (edited) Good update Alex, the chaser bins for CTF is really taking off in England, i see in the mags that quite a few manufacturers are pushing hard to get big chasers into England to obviously get the word out that they do them and its possible to have one on your farm, Fleigel being one of them. Over here we are on a much smaller scale both in field size and machinery requirements, but i enjoy reading about what id describe as the big players in grain production so all we can do is follow on in a smaller scale and be in awe of you,s. And i guess you,s probably do the same when it comes to Germany or some of the American states. Great video of the big Class rolling through a huge golden field, as I said IN AWE ps I see a large number of CLASS combines both here and with you,s and leads me to believe they are the current leaders of this market, for a long number of years here New Holland were in the driving seat and from what I believe Massey Ferguson moved production to Italy I think and in turn took a major step backwards from the decent reputation they built up with their Droningborg take over. Like the tractor market I always say "every dog has its day" I do know CLASS put a huge amount of research and pump huge amounts of collateral into combine research and innovation, to me they are currently dominating the market so fair play to them Edited September 9, 2015 by B O R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Well Brian again i have to agree with 100% of what you just said. When i first looked into CTF 2 years ago and agreed with its principles and wanted to re create in 1:32 scale it was still in its infancy, but now like you say its really taking off and so are manufacturers getting on board with the idea, including chaser bin makers. Now what i really want would be one of these, it ticks all of my boxes, currently only one in the UK and has been specifically designed by Horsch for the UK CTF market. With Claas i too believe they are thr current market leaders, they really hit onto a good thing when they first brought out a Lexion, then every year they make small tweaks to better the machine even more. They are the first to come up with in my opinion ground breaking harvesting technologies including Cemos Automatic, Terra Trac, APS, Vario cutterbars, the sheer throughput of these machines is staggering. I love cruise pilot which is fantastic, keeps machine working at max output and is so reliable even on headlands. Laser pilot was another that comes to mind along with automated reel to ground speed. Now im a very fussy person but my money wouldn't be anywhere else than with a Claas Lexion, sure the cab maybe slightly noiser and they have a tendancy to catch fire but another thing is the back up, second to none. More improvements to Dymamic cooling etc keeps this machine at the top. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 10, 2015 Author Share Posted September 10, 2015 Another Harvest Log Day, all wheat finished now, slightly later than planned start on the spring beans at Wigborough today due to clearing the back log of wheat that is running out the tip pit door! This is due to the rate it was coming in off the field along with the last of Julian at Orchard Farms wheat coming in too, timing couldn't of worked out better getting all this through before we started beans. Its great to be back on the combine with the dust flying, Rob Vaux is a happy chap once again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0025 Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 so the big question is are u going to have a new lexion for 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 12, 2015 Author Share Posted September 12, 2015 so the big question is are u going to have a new lexion for 2016 No we will stick with what we have got, got two machines we are happy with and perform well, also too many extras to keep changing over like 12.3 meter headers and auger extensions for CTF. These two will be with us for some time i hope unless they have a 'thermal event' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 12, 2015 Author Share Posted September 12, 2015 Something Oakley is settling into now with all the rape and cover crops drilled is pulling down last years rape ground a second time with this exact outfit ahead of drilling Winter Wheat around 20th of this month. We have 580 acres of beans left to combine, get them out the way and we will look at drilling and carrying on with digging potatoes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted September 12, 2015 Share Posted September 12, 2015 What sort of age do you run your combines to on average in the past then alex? Our were usually 3 harvests max was 4 once after swine fever hit us big time , then swapped, but we had less acres 1200 over the 3 farms , so were not running huge combines anyway , Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 12, 2015 Author Share Posted September 12, 2015 We usually run them for 5-8 seasons, although it depends on circumstances, we had a Lexion 450 which was troublesome so she only stayed for 2 years being swapped for a 480 which stayed for 4 years, changed for a 580tt which stayed for 8, now having two although acerage has gone up they are cutting slightly less than when we had one so probably stay for longer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted September 13, 2015 Author Share Posted September 13, 2015 (edited) The dust is flying down at Joe Broughton's, Yeabridge. Another bonus day of harvesting under our belt due to forcasters being wrong Edited September 13, 2015 by Oakley Farms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tractorman810 Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Make the most of it alex, just started raining here,heading your way,forcast was way out wasnt it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Good thing Clive only took head on shots Alex. His is a 770. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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