Oakley Farms Posted November 28, 2013 Author Share Posted November 28, 2013 Im hoping 2 18 tonners, 1 16 tonner, 5 14 tonners and a chaser bin will keep up with two combines, definatly ok in Rape but Wheat will be a different story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 28, 2013 Share Posted November 28, 2013 (edited) Ah maybe a few too many ha ha! now i seen the above all will depend on how far youre running on the roads i d think ?? between farms Edited November 29, 2013 by 590mf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted November 29, 2013 Author Share Posted November 29, 2013 We run a 20 mile radius of the home farm, so the tractors can be running up-to a 2 hour round trip, the beauty of having a chaser bin is it offers us 24 tons of flexibility, if a trailer isnt back to the field yet it buys us half an hour, also i have long distance hauls covered by the chaser bin unloading straight into artic bulkers, a final benefit of having a chaser is reducing ground compaction, something im hot on, with a good driver on the bin sticking to tramlines etc and combines on tracks we hope to improve yields, not having trailers running all over the place espically on contract farming schemes dealing with other peoples land, we are keen to improve soil quaility not depleat it, improve yields resulting in a better return for the landowner and Oakley Farms. This is something id very much like to expand in the future with the introduction of CTF and hoping to give Oakley Farms a good name as a clean, efficient, profitable farming company. Alot of these steps are already in place such as the new grain store and automated dryer, allowing us to save money and sell crops at a premuim, both passed on down the line to the land owner, another step is buting the best kit on the market and keeping it maintained and regularly replaced as timings are crucial in the job and when you have to go you got to go, espically when other peoples profits are at stake. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 29, 2013 Share Posted November 29, 2013 Hi too true , yes i ve a big farm set up near me that runs 4 tractor/ trailers & a bin chase er but also used there own fleet of hgv bulk trailers for the long haul id think they cover a 10/15 mile run unless there here at Goole on some land they farm & that would be a round trip of maybe 25/30 ,miles . keep up the good reading m8 trouble iss its making me want one of them big combines ha ha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted December 8, 2013 Author Share Posted December 8, 2013 Last week Oakley Farms held some training workshops for local farmers. First was a Catagory H (tracked vehicle) using our Challenger, and later in the week was Catagory B + E (car and trailer) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Palmer Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 allways something going on Alex,many takers for the courses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 The truck and trailer course was more popular with only 4 on the tracked vehicle test. The quiet run up to Christmas has now turned busy with the Christmas rush on potatoes starting with both Greenvale and Branston loading out of our cold stores with is good as this is creating space as the first load of seed potatoes for next year tuned up this week and also bring in some much needed money for the new shed extension starting in the new year. Also this week Frontier Agriculture has had a boat docked at Avonmouth Docks so its been a frantic rush to load OSR out of the store to fill the boat before xmas, so this has meant loading lorries through the night, i estimate just over half the rape has gone now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 We have also converted an old yard brush into a bucket brush for cleaning the grain store, yards and roads! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 The moggy has now also had its specially built Horstine tank fitted on his back ready for bowser duties in the spring, we also had relfective strips put on, silver on the cab and amber on the tank 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 Alex, With your strong focus on growing spuds in mind, will you take one of the dairy farms back on yourself when it's current operator retires? maybe cut cow numbers back for a few years or grass down a close paddock on the arable land for a rest to free up all that land that's been in long term grass and wouldn't of had a spud grown on it in years must be tempting for a spud grower? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted December 13, 2013 Author Share Posted December 13, 2013 We currently work with one of the dairy farmers on a rotation that allows us to have virgin spud land every 5 years and we reseed grass leys afterwards. There was a rumour that one of the farmers was giving up in the new year, if that is the case the land would either be swallowed up for arable or we would find another tennant, both farms have small fields and steep ground so finding another tennant would be the best option. However i am conscious about tiring the ground out with intensive rotations so next year see's a change, we are including spring beans into the rotation to fix nitrogen into the soil, and the chap who we sell all the straw to has secured a contract to supply a power station in return bringing back compost and chicken dung, this will improve organic matter and help to restructure the soil especially after spuds. I think a good idea would be to drill some winter cover crops to also help soil, but that will come down to time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted December 13, 2013 Author Share Posted December 13, 2013 Another option i have considered is chopping all the straw but its such a valuable asset, chopping the rape and bean haul certainly helps. If or when we move over to CTF chopping straw will happen unless Cabury Park Farm can come up with an idea to pick up bales without leaving 12m traffic lines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted December 15, 2013 Author Share Posted December 15, 2013 While i have 5 mins i thought id let you all know some plans for 2014 as before i know it it will be xmas and new year; so it is now confirmed that Les the tennant farmer of Knott Oak Dairy is retiring from 1st Jan, a replacement has been found who is self sufficient therefore Tim who drives our Newholland won't be needed to carry out feeding, bedding up, slurry tanking etc anymore, that contract will end. Therefore Tim will now be moved to the other dairy farm where he will become full time tractor driver, Simon Madge who runs this farm has also bought the Newholland from us so that will keep Tim happy, in return Tim will help out with hauling in busy periods so we will still see him on here from time to time, this has left us a shortage for hedgetrimming, fertilising, and rolling operations so we have taken on a new chap called Philip Wright, he has moved down from Scotland and will be a tractor driver taking on all of Tims duties as well as full time sprayer operator, helping assistant manager Joe with running the drier, grading lines, cold stores and also is pretty handy in the workshop, he is an all round cracking bloke. His new tractor is due in the new year. We now have a new girl to help run both the Grain Lab and Potato Quality Control office, sorting logistics, passports, samples etc etc, her name is Katie or QC Kate as the lads call her! 2014 is a special year or Oakley Farms as it celebrates 25 years in the ag industry, this will be celebrated with a few 'special' bits of kit and i will go through some of the history as to how the farm was built up. Also happening next year is Open Farm Sunday, Frontier Ag official open evening of the grain store & LEAF demo day. Work is starting on the shed extension after xmas, this involves a lean-too off of cold stores 4 & 5 and will become an undercover loading bay for potatoes with 100 ton ambient temperature storage in one half and a small cold store in the other half (number 6). The loading bay will have access to stores 3,4,&6 without a forklift leaving the building, this was planned when building the sheds in the start but sufficient funds were unavailable at the time to complete with the grain store going up and investment in new drying facility zapped alot of cash! I will also be putting in proper refrigeration units into the cold stores and exterior vents to finish of the sheds. On a final note to do with sheds a new grading line is being purchased which will see some changes to the grading shed, a soil bay will be built outside will extraction elevator coming through the shed wall and windows will be put in for a viewing gallery for farm visits by Greenvale, Branston, Sainsburys and Tesco executives, this will become more frequent when becoming a show farm for Sainsburys Potato Quality and Frontier Ag grain drying and storage facility. On a last note the crops are looking good, OSR is doing well, lots of autumn growth, drilled into good seedbeds helped, the Horsch drill worked well but next year i think we will block every other coulter to improve establishment further, Wheat is also good, slightly poor on very light soils and a bit behind on last years spud ground but will pick up in the spring no doubt, next years spud varieties are Charlotte (the last year of salads unless they make money as the packing plant is becoming unjustifiable) Melody and Harmony under contract for Branston, and Jelly and Sylvana for Greenvale. Bit of an essay tonight but from Alex and everyone at Oakley Farms i wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope for your continued support in 2014! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 3, 2014 Author Share Posted January 3, 2014 Happy New Year everyone! Thought id start 2014 with what acreages we have this year, how the rotations have worked out its a big year for Oilseed Rape with some 2,880 acres in the ground, with only 900 acres of winter wheat planted due to the introduction of spring beans which we shall drill 770 acres in March most of that will be in the new block of land at Yarlington where we have subsoiled due to the previous tenant only running 3 metre kit, the land was taken on late in last autumn so i thought rather than pressuring the drill to get winter wheat into rubbish seedbeds resulting in shocking yields we would do the job properly and spend time digging ditches, cutting hedges, widening gateways and giving the ground a good lift up ready to press on in the spring. Spuds are around 320 acres this year which about normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 3, 2014 Author Share Posted January 3, 2014 (edited) Philip has now joined us taking the place of Tim and main sprayer operator. He spent his first with me riding around showing him the estate, all the ground, meeting the farmers we farm for and a tour around the buildings, after that we went soil mapping and marking boundaries onto the gps system for all the contract farming ground as well as our own, for this we used the game keepers weapon, the gator! Phil's next job is to spend some time in the workshop with Steve going through and servicing the piece of kit he will probably will use first, the Amazone fert spreader, as come February he will out on that Rape ground Edited January 3, 2014 by Oakley Farms 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 3, 2014 Author Share Posted January 3, 2014 As some of you may have just picked out from the last pic, Maurice has had a slight accident with his tractor, he was up Branston delivering spuds on the flatbed when a lorry backed into the front of his 68 and ripped the front linkage right off. We have got it back in the workshop whilst waiting to hear from their insurance company, not a good start to the year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 3, 2014 Author Share Posted January 3, 2014 A few small things that have happened lately is between Christmas and New Year whilst the yard was quiet i had a little play on the digger and ripped out a piece of hedge between the yard and a 200 acre block right next the farm which we call Oakley anyway, should make things a bit easier than running around the lanes Also a mistake we made in previous years was with GPS, we mixed and matched systems, John Deeres had Starfire, sprayer and Challenger had Topcon, Lexion had Claas' own system and Tims Newholland had Teejet which caused us nothing but problems as nothing would work together or follow the same AB lines, it has proved very expensive and has really got us nowhere so i came up with the solution to streamline everything to one system, Trimble. We have taken off all the Starfire systems from the two JD 68's and the 69 leaving them with nothing as they don't really need GPS, and fitted Trimble to the Challenger and the new Lexion 780, Phil's new tractor will come with trimble on it since he will use it for fert spreading, and rolling. Now everything will work together, the first step towards Controlled Traffic Farming at Oakley 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 I love this thread, keep at it Alex. Be easyer for the staff with one gps system to master but a sod when the signal is down. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Realy like this topic some great equipment, layout isn't overcrowded either which is good and the storyline is good as well. Nice how the staff have names I tried doing that but ended up forgetting who was working for me. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) Realy like this topic some great equipment, layout isn't overcrowded either which is good and the storyline is good as well. Nice how the staff have names I tried doing that but ended up forgetting who was working for me. Thats great Dan, made me laugh about forgetting who was working for you Edited January 4, 2014 by Oakley Farms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 5, 2014 Author Share Posted January 5, 2014 Tony House who we farm for at Ashill gave me a surprise Christmas present to help fight compaction. Very amusing Tony! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 This week i have fitted exterior vents on the coldstores to finish the sheds off The new extension is coming along nicely however im now waiting for interior paint which is due next week so this is on hold for the time being Maurice has been hauling wheat out today using Joes 69 as his is still poorly in the workshop, 3 loads a day contracted with Lloyds of Langport feed mill all this week, that will keep him out of mischief Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 No winter/spring sown milling wheat grown Alex? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 7, 2014 Author Share Posted January 7, 2014 Yes ol the majority of the winter wheat goes for milling but we segregate the poorer quality wheat which goes for feed, this way we can pass the premium to the land owner for high grade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 Extension has now been finished which wraps up all the major building work on the farm for now, all sheds are now as i want them Two new irrigators have been purchased for potatoes, found a nice parking space beside the new extension Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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