Niels Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Since last years blog did spark some interest I will give it another go this year . I will try and keep up a little with my friends farm that you have seen during last years blog. I probably won't be visiting him a lot so can't update it as frequent as I would like. Therefore I will also try and show you some of the stuff that happens on my father in laws farm. My parents in law have a small arable farm of 86 acres in Flevoland, the famous Dutch polders. You can find it here: http://goo.gl/maps/Um4Gl The land behind the farm is theirs and this is access able via a concrete path. Actually, fellow forum member Ertlerik is only a few km away as he lives in the same village. The cropping plan consists of winter wheat, sugar beet, leaf chicory, (seed) potatoes and onions. Wheat and beet are grown by my father in law himself. The chicory is on a contract and he only has to do the spraying and fertiliser spreading. Land for potatoes and onions is rented out to a neighbour. The neighbour also does the combining and beet harvesting. They run a fleet of John Deere tractors. Father in law does the farm in the evening hours and weekends whilst he works for this same neighbour. Hopefully I will help him out a little during the coming seasons. This is the oldest tractor on the farm. A Ferguson FE 35. It was bought in the mid nineties and restored by my father in law (whose driving) and drilling sugar beet in this picture. Second in the line up is this Fiat 1000. It was bought last winter as a restoration project and also does some jobs on the farm such as flail mowing, power harrowing and such. This New Holland 7635 does most of the row crop work. It sprays with a 24 metre trailed spreader, spreads fertiliser and does the hoeing. It is also my girlfriends tractor which uses it for tractor pulling and such. This Steyr 9105 does all of the 'heavy' draft work such as ploughing, cultivating and drilling. All these pictures were taken by my girlfriend as she is a keen photographer as well. I will try and keep up with most field work during the year with the help from her photo's when I am not around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted January 8, 2013 Author Share Posted January 8, 2013 Here are two pictures taken last week on my friends farm. This a David Brown 880 which is undergoing restoration. The tractor was given to them and will be made mechanically sound and resprayed. It will probably be sold to a fellow enthousiast that will use it for a little in his 'garden'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 Your off to a good start,I'm realy looking forward to seeing the Fiat at work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tractortim Posted January 8, 2013 Share Posted January 8, 2013 glad to see a farm blog 2013 looks very promising so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deere-est Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 What a brilliant little FE and so nice to see it doing something too!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted January 25, 2013 Author Share Posted January 25, 2013 Like many parts of the UK did we had some snow and frost as well. A good moment to spread fertiliser (potash) on the fields that will grow potatoes next year. We can now spread cheaper potash with a high chlorine and salt content. These will wash out before the crop is planted. The potash itself will 'stick' to the soil and won't wash out. The tractor is owned by another farmer that co operates with my friend. The Amazone disc spreader is half owned. It was quite bumpy and we had to drive in 2-Slow. You can see the Trimble Easy-Guide GPS system fitted which ensures driving in a straight line. The fertiliser is collected from the local co operative in bulk and unloaded using a small conveyor belt. We use the same set up when planting potatoes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MF-ROB Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 Looking good Niels love picture no.2 really nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdc Posted January 25, 2013 Share Posted January 25, 2013 An interesting read Niels. I like to read about how things are done elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toyfarmer Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 A great start to your 2013 blog, love the FE35, looking forward to further updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted January 29, 2013 Share Posted January 29, 2013 What fert do you put down with the potatoes at planting time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted February 12, 2013 Author Share Posted February 12, 2013 Thanks all for the kind comments! Ol; In the pictures were spreading potash (60% K). Before planting we'll spread a little N and mainly P (15-35-0 or something). Then after the crop is sprouting we'll spread the mainstay of the N (prilled urea) in front of the ridger that ridges the rows up. The N is there for foliar growth, the P for tuber setting and the K for skin quality and a strong plant. Some SO3 is also applied, about 6% usually. Apart from our usual activities it has been quiet on the farm (or both farms for that matter). My father in law is waiting for the frost to thaw out so he can spread N on the winter wheat. Some photo's from my mates farm. We had some snow early December followed by a bigger load early January. Here's the winter wheat field next door. Earlier this week we were giving another lighter dusting. Shifting the muck heap with the DB 990 and Griesser backator. This tractor is tied up all winter to the machine. Pouring some concrete farmer style! Meanwhile potato and onion grading and packing goes on as well. The new grader we bought earlier this year is doing a good job. We've also since started cutting willow branches that will find their way to florists etc.. We usually deliver a batch of extra tall willow branches around Christmas time. Sadly the shrubs didn't give a very large crop and the remained short. We decided to wait and cut everything in February in time for Easter. (which is v early as well this year). When the weather improves we still have 3 fields left to plough. One is subsoiled and the other have a crop of mustard on them that has nicely died off because of the frost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted March 12, 2013 Author Share Posted March 12, 2013 Some more updates from recent action on the farm. We've started loading the potatoes out of the store last week. All heading to the UK again. Variety is Victoria, destined for chips. Setting up the store loader and duo conveyor for loading the potatoes into lorry's. During the lush spring week we had I also managed to plough a field of permanent pasture that my mate is renting from a dairy farmer. It was drained a few days earlier and will grow a crop of potatoes this year. Maize then and back to grass in 2015. The trusty Deutz doing it's job. A first time for me ploughing grass (other than cover crops) and it ploughed a treat. Three furrow Rumptstad on the back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Thank you for the update Niels,why didn't you spray out the pasture before tipping it over? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 Thanks Ol. We didn't spray it off because there wasn't really any need? The grass is fully burried and will die off. Saves a pass with the sprayer etc.. You can see that the furrows are nicely closed and the grass turf will suffocate. A power harrow will be used prior to planting and a hook tine ridger after that so that will kill the last few plants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 Well said Niels,you've done a nice job ploughing. A lot of kiwis spray off grass paddocks ahead of working them for control of a grass weed we call "twitch" it's runners under the ground grow through root crops and bring on take-all in wheat exp on lighter soils that's why I asked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 Do you know the proper name of twitch? I have never heard of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Elymus repens is the scientific name I found out Niels. Quack grass it's often called in Canada.It is also know as Couch grass. Pasture land is often were it gets a chance to put out it's runners under the ground as the soil isn't be moved. This week I've been driving over the stubble paddocks spraying 3l/ha of round up on any area were it can be seen (also helps get a beter fire across the stubble) to keep ontop of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMB Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Elymus repens is the scientific name I found out Niels. Quack grass it's often called in Canada.It is also know as Couch grass. Pasture land is often were it gets a chance to put out it's runners under the ground as the soil isn't be moved. This week I've been driving over the stubble paddocks spraying 3l/ha of round up on any area were it can be seen (also helps get a beter fire across the stubble) to keep ontop of it. It's called couch grass over here and it's long been an enemy #1 of mine, if you don't kill it or remove it from veg beds, it will just spread like crazy. A lot of people leave it and might even run a rotavator through the soil but this just shreds it; every piece left could grow into a new weed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 Couch grass is one I do know. Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MF-ROB Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 Nice updates Niels the grass land should make a good crop of potatoes I always love ploughing grass land Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 I am sure it will Robert. It usually does if we get a decent growing year. It will be Victoria which can yield 80t/ha (32t/ac) if you get the right season. Luckily water lodging wont be an issue on this field. It has grown potatoes about ten years ago which should help a great deal as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted March 24, 2013 Author Share Posted March 24, 2013 The potatoes are gone so there is some space free'd up. Now it's just 350 tonnes of onions left. Some onions that were cleaned, ready for grading and packing. Quality is ok to good but not fantastic. Seed potatoes, variety Melody, arriving Friday. This will go onto the land previously ploughed by me. The same lorry also brought sacks of Nitran, Patentkali and 27% N. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MF-ROB Posted March 24, 2013 Share Posted March 24, 2013 When will you be planting Niels im trying to plant a some in my granden when the weather takes up with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 We will start planting as soon as the weather allows. We didn't get any snow but it have a fierce wind and tempratures down to minus 5 or 6 so we have to wait a bit I reckon. The long term forecast is cold as well so it might be a late spring. The way the prices are climbing you can already see spring is getting later and people get nervous, which is a good thing. Last year we were out planting half March and this year half April? It won't matter much. People will just have to eat the 2012 crop a bit longer! Frieslanders, the earliest variety, will be planted first on the farm. These are for grading and packing only. Then follows the Victoria's and Melody's but we'd like to get some warmth into the soil first. If we plant them before 1st of May they can still yield very well. The last few years we've been spoiled and went on the land early. This time last year all onions and beet were in the ground. They are paying around € 120/T for onions at the minute (break even price is around € 130). Potatoes for frying are around € 230/240/T. Last year onions were 0 and potatoes € 20! Since all potatoes were sold recently the tax man had to be avoided and a new machine was purchased: 2x 8m telescopic conveyor belts (80cm width). Previously one was hired so it is good not having to bother them again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 Spring has arrived (so they say). The soil is dry enough (sometimes even to dry) but the temprature is still low and the wind makes it feel bitterly cold. Sugar beet and onions have gone into the ground this week. Preparing land for sugar beet at my father in law's farm during the Easter weekend. He usually drills his beet with a Ferguson 35 but found it a bit chilly so used the New Holland instead. There was still a bit of frost in the ground (-1, -2 at night) so the clods you see is frozen ground which quickly melts during the day. The front cultivator was home made. Steyr 9105 doing a good job with my brother in law driving her. My friend drilling the last of the onions today with his DB 770. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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