Oakley Farms Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 Tracked down the machine for 12 meter CTF maize drilling, ordered and coming to Oakley for next year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigJ Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 Outstanding layout 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catkom3 Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Tracked down the machine for 12 meter CTF maize drilling, ordered and coming to Oakley for next year I notice that machine is also fitted with an hydraulic crane Alex Regards Joe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Outstanding layout Thank you Craig, very kind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 I notice that machine is also fitted with an hydraulic crane Alex Regards Joe. Yes i see that, looks like its almost 3pt linkage mounted on that one, i probably wont have a crane on mine, see nearer the time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Impressive outfit that Alex, out does the 8 row planters round me. How do you see growing crops for AD panning out in the future, I can foresee it becoming a massive issue as it takes food producing land to make electricity. Plus from what I can see it seems like a largely subsidy driven industry made viable by the feed in tariff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 (edited) Impressive outfit that Alex, out does the 8 row planters round me. How do you see growing crops for AD panning out in the future, I can foresee it becoming a massive issue as it takes food producing land to make electricity. Plus from what I can see it seems like a largely subsidy driven industry made viable by the feed in tariff Yes i agree with you entirely there, its why the group im envolved in haven't committed to it 100%, 100% in the form that its a separate business running at 100% but between all 3 parties envolved its only a small percentage of the main working business, i worked out the AD is only 22% of Oakley's business thus leaving the main percentage of land available for producing food. But at the moment across all sectors in agriculture producing food is break even or below as cost of production outweighs profits. Hence the reason to get involved in AD as its making money, yes we get a lot of stick locally but like you say its a largely subsidised sector that is currently booming. As farmers we are used to market volatility and its a case of how long you can keep going until prices rise, one thing i am assessing at the moment is reducing costs across every aspect of the business to increase porential margins and stay competitive and i would erge all my associates to do the same. This comes with its own challenge as cutting costs can have a detrimental effect on quality. As for the future, will it be short lived? im not so sure as We are an energy hungry nation, but im sure if/when food demand kicks in a lot of growers will revert back to food production, as being farmers that is what we are all proud to do right? Easier said than done to revert back for cereal growers than the dairy industry, if things are to change it needs to happen now but is already to late for some. Edited April 23, 2015 by Oakley Farms 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catkom3 Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Impressive outfit that Alex, out does the 8 row planters round me. How do you see growing crops for AD panning out in the future, I can foresee it becoming a massive issue as it takes food producing land to make electricity. Plus from what I can see it seems like a largely subsidy driven industry made viable by the feed in tariff Now I don't know too much about the subject,but I can only see AD plants increase in years to come,a quick search on YouTube,shows figures like this, "corn silage '09. 3097 acres, 8 choppers, 42 semis, 13 pack tractors, 80,000 tons of silage" and this accompanying video,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2GSHgIE5RQ all very impressive stuff,and with Bio fuel at £ 3.50 a litre,there must be money in it somewhere, Regards Joe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Today down on Oakley Farm potatoes are still being planted, everything progressing well but still over 140 acres to go in. Moving to the other end of Selvinge next week which means to 2 mile trip around the park to probably our furthest north western fields on some fertile ground next to the river Isle, it floods here in winter occasionally. Chris has been ploughing up at Hinton Park for Somerset Agri Power and seems to be loving it which surprises me! John Webb then joined him after the ground had been fertilised with our new 6 meter power harrow working it down for Maize, im looking forward to getting some more of our blocks in the ground, im not panicing just yet but the phone is beginning to ring! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tractorboyjules1977 Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I reckon your phone could be running hot for a few weeks yet !!!! Getting busier day by day chap Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Good to be busy but i have two landowners who are not taking no for an answer, may have to drill with the demo machine to keep sweet but im getting ear ache! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Ok help/advice needed from the regular contributors to this thread and anybody else who wishes to comment please feel free. With looking at cost cutting at the moment one area i feel i can improve on is OSR. Now with prices as they are one way i can reduce costs is to lower seed rates but still improve establishment. I need ideas and experiences of what others are doing but have a number of boxes to tick. After reading an article yesterday some have lowered rates down to as low as 1kg/ha. But to reduce rates as low as that i need to make sure every seed counts so precision drilling is a must along with consistent depth. Iv been down the route of banding seed behind a subsoil leg and some are too deep, some on the surface, at 1kg/ha thats not good enough. Currently precision planting behind our subsoiler worked very well with even establishment but with 7 legs over a 6 meter span our spacings are far too wide, ideally 10 legs at something like 570mm spacings would be better so would a new subsoiler at 10 legs accross 6 meters with precsion coulters answer my hopes? I love the whole concept of that idea and over 3-4 years due to rotation the whole farm gets subsoiled but hang on a minute, with the adoption of CTF do i need to subsoil now with little compaction and a more natural soil state and structure do i just drill with the 12m Horsch at a 30 degree angle to CTF lines? I would miss the spacings as i believe they give more room for sun and light to get in and branch better giving better yields than conventional drilling. I also love the look of the Sumo LDS but not making one 6 meters yet would be a problem as it doesn't fit inbetween 12m lines. Could it be a custom made machine to suit my requirements with all these boxes to tick? Thoughts very much appreciated. Thank You Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catkom3 Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 Any good Alex' https://www.realagriculture.com/2013/03/canola-school-planter-vs-seeder-whats-best-for-canola/ Regards Joe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Fascinating Joe, thank you for posting that, i agree with what the agronomist says with the pros and cons of precision planters as its exactly what we find over here, its just combining all these ideas into one machine that im hungry to see 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catkom3 Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 This is interesting reading Alex,not to sure if it will be of any interest though,http://beyondagronomy.com/newsletter-archive/may-1-2012 Regards Joe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 Just a short reply Alex but is seed rate the biggest cost saver on OSR? Are there other ways of saving costs? I always think you need to be very punctual on OSR otherwise it won't do as well. Very odd crop and takes a lot of detail and skill. Not to mention sheer luck at times. If you have that wide Horsch drill around in your yard could you use that for precision drilling rape? It won't be doing much round that time of year. It is always good to have your subsoiler seeder on back up if you want to loosen some land and go with a more shallow approach when conditions allow. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 Probably not the only cost saver but my thoughts are its a saving that can be applied that has no detrimental effect on yield and in some cases improves yield, as Ol has said less is more. I think perhaps a combination of the two methods and choosing soil type as to where to use which, as iv discovered with Blackdown block this year, very stoney and was subsoiled is looking quite poor, acceptable but not the best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 Saturday 25th April A nice storm of steady rain at 5 this evening has done the world of good, earlier finish for the potato planting team tonight who are working their way accross the 42 acre field called Parsonage. James started applying Liquid Fert as a second dressing to the wheats, nicely washing in now which is good timing and with cooler weather now, no scorching which is good. As from the 18th of April (orchards previous post) we undertook a legal procedure through land agent Charles Clarke of Greenslade Taylor Hunt to bid for 1200 acres of ground nextdoor to our block of Longmans at North Cadbury currently owned by Archie Montgomery, this is a bid to contract farm the ground for 5 years. A nice letter through the post today saw us sucessful. A very complicated scenario but due to financial situations, tax and many parties envolved etc a separate company has been set up called Camelot Farming, envolving Chales, myself and Julian ensuring returns back to the right people; the ground will be used to grow a certain percentage of energy crops and combinable crops. Charles works extremely hard on our behalf acquiring ground and is an investor. Part of our growth and success story is down to him. No combinable crops until Sept 2015 as thats our terms of contract but it allows the permission of energy crops from now which is perfect timing 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 How many acres are Oakley farming now Alex? Will the relentless expansion ever stop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 25, 2015 Author Share Posted April 25, 2015 Current total is 6,600 acres, a lot of that is contract farmed, we are close to limit now to where i want to be, i don't want to be any bigger for the time being as it would envolve more machinery and staff, at the moment economies of scale is working in our favour and we have become very efficient, i don't want to take on too much that quality starts to slip and we loose customers. It has helped having someone like Charles finding land, i have even started to pass parcels of land that commonly come up for rent i.e 20 acres here and there off to other local business that i also have a share in, the AD plant being one so its in our interest and works and compliments each other very well. So to put simply Pat Oakley Farms will get not much bigger but the young business of the AD plant will continue to grow and be driven by production. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 Sunday saw the plough return to the yard rained off from helping prepare maize grounds for Orchard, the afternoon saw us sieze the opportunity to plough up our buffer strips around our own ground ready to establish wild flower margins again, bit of a shoddy job but its not essential and probably the only gap in our diary to do it! The rain however didn't stop us having a play today with all systems go again, spud planting, applying liquid N and back on with Orchard ploughing and power harrowing at Pondhayes. Rain again tonight has stopped the spud team but was localised and Chris and Webby missed it Hinton direction. With my partner in crimes ever increasing workload of maize ground Oakley has been looking into kit for 3 reasons, to help out the AD partnership, be sloghtly more self sufficient and fit our CTF regime. I have to admit i slightly under estimated the workload Julian had on his plate with maize drilling and with land owners ringing up constantly iv had to act. Nothing serious not for this year anyhow but a demo maize srill from John Lock of Buglers is coming sometime tomorrow for a week. Our plan is to split into 2 gangs and hopefully meet back in the middle, keeping everyone happy and seed going in the ground two places at once along with the help of Manor Farm ploughing and power harrowing has been a life saver so far. Lets see how we get on this week. Its great to be back off holiday by the way boys 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Probably not the only cost saver but my thoughts are its a saving that can be applied that has no detrimental effect on yield and in some cases improves yield, as Ol has said less is more. I think perhaps a combination of the two methods and choosing soil type as to where to use which, as iv discovered with Blackdown block this year, very stoney and was subsoiled is looking quite poor, acceptable but not the best. I think in the UK one of the main points of worry is pest control. Mainly pigeons. As well all know rape does best in big blocks and Oakley can provide those probably. I don't know how many woodland you have in your area, but it would be my worry. You can precision drill and most seeds will come but if they get hammered by pigeons you end up with nothing? I find rape is drilled relatively thick in the UK so they have enough plants left when pigeons are done with them? Over here we aim for much less plants but don't have as many pigeons eating them. I don't know how this translates to Oakley. In reality Alex, is land in Somerset as easily available like you depict on here or is that purely to suit the story? I only know my way round Eas Anglia and know the availability of land there is a major issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CraigJ Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Love this layout Neat deeres too 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 I think in the UK one of the main points of worry is pest control. Mainly pigeons. As well all know rape does best in big blocks and Oakley can provide those probably. I don't know how many woodland you have in your area, but it would be my worry. You can precision drill and most seeds will come but if they get hammered by pigeons you end up with nothing? I find rape is drilled relatively thick in the UK so they have enough plants left when pigeons are done with them? Over here we aim for much less plants but don't have as many pigeons eating them. I don't know how this translates to Oakley. In reality Alex, is land in Somerset as easily available like you depict on here or is that purely to suit the story? I only know my way round Eas Anglia and know the availability of land there is a major issue. Well Niels, not to the extent that i depict on here but the majority is real. The 2.5-3000 acres owned is 100% real and is where my layout started off at and was based on until i discovered PX Farms and decided id like to build my layout business in a similar fashion in scale and attributes so went down the contract farming route, the customers i started taking on where real life situations of farmers in dire straits in the local area, but i was careful in picking on location and blocks of fields grouped together. Now i take on customers from word of mouth and can be more open to turning down snotty 20 acre plots and pass off to the AD group i am involved in so really a win win situation. So really the availability is no but the stories and landowners behind the stories are 100% real. An example would be the farm i work on in real life is included as a contract farmed area as is the farm i previously worked on, thats 800 acres straight away on top of the 3000 owned so it soon amounts up. As for pigeons and woodland we have our fair share but i would say locally we little trouble, perhaps that "luck" we were talking about earlier. Intresting comment though, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 Love this layout Neat deeres too Thank you Craig, i hope you enjoy reading following it as much as i enjoy keeping it going, nothing i love more than following the farming year through and coming up with new ideas as the layout develops. I loved my Deeres to start with, espically my 2 6830's which were a complete novelty 5 years ago when new with that you can change the wheels over to row crops on both. But now a change is looming this summer as technology moves on, keep up with the Jones' whoever they are? We never lead the way with our tractor fleet, prefer to wait a little while until models iron out teething problems and are tried and tested so to speak. Its always nice to have a new model though, just not when it spends longer in the workshop that out earning money, lets face it they all have problems whatever colour you buy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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