Niels' Farm Blog 2013

[Niels]

Ol: There is no significant NPK level in the garden compost. It is mainly spread to increase OM in the soil. Muck would be a lot better but sadly we can't get any.

 

Jdeere6910: Thanks for the compliment. I would have to ask my father in law what it costs but it isn't a lot. Your right, it contains a lot of rubbish. The reason why we won't be having it anymore next year. I believe the costs are around £1,50 per cubic meter or something. Of course there is the cost of having it spread as well. The Tebbe spreaders can spread up to 24m depending upon the product they are spreading. With compost you can comfortably spread it up to 12m. As this was a still day they could spread it further as well. Ideally you'd want some overlap also.

 

590mf: The potato planter is owned by the farmer that rents some of my father in laws land. It is a belt planter that plants 4 75cm rows. It is available in the UK as well for a single or dual bed planter. Our soil is some of the best in the world. It is only 50 years old, no stones, easily workable, can grow any crop and there is sufficient water to irrigate. The only downside, it costs £75.000/ha.

[Guest]

£75,000 per ha is just a little too much for me  at this time  + here in the UK they always keep saying well they dont make it any more ( soil )  but out there in Holland i think you do  but at a price  , i ll keep my eye out for the potatoe planters next year  , great reporting by the way

[Niels]

There have always been plans to make another polder in the IJsselmeer but I don't think it will happen. To many nature people around! The saying is the same for over here, hence the price.

 

Here's another update from another harvest: Last Friday we lifted the sugar beet. Yield is ok but has been better. Pretty much what we expected for this year. we believe the sugar content will be high.

 

The harvester is a Vervaet 17T and the tractor a JD 7920 with three axle Miedema trailer. They are owned by the farmer that my father in law works for.

 

I took these pictures on another farm but the kit is the same.

 

 

 

And the heap of beet in the yard on the farm. They will come and pick them up Thursday.

 

The beet field has been subsoiler and will be left until November before it is ploughed.

 

 

[Light Land]

Good crop was it Niels? by the time the sun drys out the tops and having been subsoiled would you get one of your claydon drills through it?

[Niels]

Ol, as I wrote the yield was average/acceptable but certianly not great. It looked alright but the cold spring hit it and lately we had a lot of rain that cost us vital sugar kgs.

 

The field wont be wheat but potatoes next year. So all that will be done is plough it.

[Guest]

Hi Niels  just seen one of then big potatoe planters you use  but  this one  was on the BBC   TV  but thats better then nothing  , also i did manage a ride in a sugar beet harvest much like yours a few seasons ago , here in Uk we would normally follow beet  with wheat ?? any reason why youre following roots with another root crop ??

[Niels]

Basically the land is to expensive to grow wheat 590mf. We have around 22 acres of wheat annually and that leaves 64 acres for beet, onions, potatoes and cichory. So some overlap is always happening. On my father in laws farm it's usually wheat after potatoes.

[Niels]

It has been a good three months since my last update and since the year 2013 is over it seems a good time to finish this topic.

 

What has happened during the autumn?

 

After the cereals and sugar beet harvest the onions and potatoes followed. Land is hired out for these crops to a neighbouring farmer. The potatoes are grown for seed so they get lifted relatively early.

 

Potato lifting by the neighbour with his self propelled AVR Puma four row harvester. My father in law is the driver.

 

After the potatoes had been lifted the field was levelled. A local farmer bought a scraper this year, steered by Trimble GPS.

 

A map of the field height on the Trimble GPS screen. Despite the land being 'flat' there is a difference of 50 cm to a metre, mainly caused by machinery such as ploughing and potato lifting. This causes water to stand in certain spots and possible crop failure. Hence why it was levelled. The wheat stubble was also going to be levelled but the nearby canal wasn't finished before early December. We were going to use waste soil from the canal to fill in the dips in the field. However it turned out contaminated with wooden poles, planks and stones. This had to be cleaned and by December it was to late.

 

The last crop coming out of the ground was leaf chicory. Lifting is done by a contractor. My father in law grows the crop on contractor for another firm. Chicory (Belgian Endive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_endive#Cultivated) is a two year crop. The first year seed is sown and the roots harvested (what we do on the farm) and the second year they are placed in wooden trays and the actual leaf grows, which we eat. I haven't ever seen the crop over in the UK but it is common vegetable in Holland, Belgium and France. I quite fancy it if I do say so myself.

 

The roots are unloaded in the yard and later loaded in containers with the forklift. They can take some beating, like sugar beet. Not the whole root is needed, only the top 4 inch.

 

When the chicory had been lifted my father in law started ploughing with his Steyr. Wheat was drilled on the potato land end November using this combination:

It's a John Deere 8420T crawler with a 4m Gramegna crank shaft spader and Amazone disc drill. A power harrow isn't needed as the land is light enough. We don't want it to fine as it will slump over winter. No brassica's are grown so slugs are not an issue. After levelling the field was subsoiled and cultivated. Subsequently it acted like a sponge and was terribly wet, even for the crawler. Some patches had to be hand sown but these will be ok since the land is young and in good order. I expect a yield of 3,6t/ac.

 

[Niels]

Also a small update from my friends farm. Due to the fact that I moved 150 km I haven't been able to visit the farm often during the second half of this year. Early potatoes were good, needed to be irrigated often and trade was fine. Due to the cold spring and hot summer the onion yield is bad. My mate tried to sell some end December but the trade is slow. Prices hover around € 17/100kg. The potatoes is a different story altogether. Two fields of Victoria and Melody were still in the ground early October when the area was hit by a rainstorm that brought 120mm. This made it impossible to lift them and caused them to rot in placed.

 

On the 23rd of October we were able to get back on the land again. We tried the trailed Standen which lifted the crop fine but the little Deutz couldn't get along so a contractor came in with his Case CVX 195 and four row Grimme harvester. The MF is hired from a local dealership and trailer behind it a new addition. It's a 16 tonne Dutch build Breston that will be shotblasted and resprayed this winter. You can find pictures of this field earlier during the topic when I ploughed it.

 

As you can see it is far from dry. Due to the powered axle he was able to keep going and we got them all lifted. The second field had been flooded nearly 100% but we managed to get that out of the ground as well. Those are being graded at the minute for packing but the quality is poor. Also the Victoria's are average but still in store. Half of them will be gone this week/next week.

[Light Land]

Thanks for the update, I enjoy them a lot.

[Niels]

Good to hear that Ol.

[Tractorman810]

that's a fair old size trailer for you guys to buy neils, is it a shared number like some of your other kit ?? or just for you guys

[Niels]

No Sean my friend bought it for his own use. He used to work together with another farmer that owned 4 trailers. We would loan these during the harvest season but the collaboration has been minimised in latter years. He bought his first 'large' trailer back in 2011 I think and was on the look out for another cheap one so he is not relying on someone else. It was originally a 14 tonne but he welded extensions on it. It was build specifically for it's owner that used it to haul flower bulbs that contain a lot of soil. It had to be strong so it is very heavy duty and has HD truck axles with leaf and air suspension. Shotblasting and spraying costs around € 1.500 I think so that is still cheaper than buying a nice example. 16 tonne might be a bit large on the farm now, with the largest being 120 hp (Deutz 90hp chipped) and a 100hp DB 1690 and 1410 but in the future it is likely there will be another large tractor.

[Hicksy]

Nice update Niels, I like the tri axle trailer

[Tractorman810]

another tractor eh, newish model deutz or a likes or a classic db / case to match in to the current fleet . did wonder when I saw it, looks a hellish large trailer, but I guess with heavy duty axels etc its more than likely bigger than the standard version of the same trailer truth be known

[Niels]

Thank you Philip. The three axle is not as big as you might think, it holds 23 tonnes. The farm has 3 of them.

 

Sean, I think it will be another modern(ish) Deutz. They have been looking at DX's and AgroStars before but spare parts is an issue with these models. Especially the AgroStar. Another Case/DB would be nice but finding a 4WD 1595 or similar is very difficult. Those that come up for sale (if they do) are wrecked or very expensive. It makes more sense spending that on some more comfort, powershift gearbox, perhaps aircon, front hitch etc.. Mind you we don't have any hills so small tractors can pull large trailers. This is what the trailer would be like when standard: http://www.agrifoto.nl/foto/Augustus%2009/IMG_9533Custom.jpg. The wheels make it look a bit bigger but isn't really. The furtest it will have to travel is only 2 miles.

 

On the other hand an extra tractor can be hired as well, like the MF 6290. The dealer charges little money to rent out traded in examples. The problem is that you don't know what you will get. Some are really thrashed.