Oakley Farms Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Thought id start a topic about what i get up to on day to day life, i work and live on a 500 acre farm in Somerset where we grow 400 acres of potatoes on rented land, our own land is used to grow maize and grass for local dairy farmers. We also have 136,000 broiler chickens over 3 sites. At our farm we are passionate about the environment and education, we hold open farm sunday every year with 1000 visitors though the gate, open farm schools day where 500 children come to learn about where there food comes from, we have a biomass wood chip boiler used to heat hot water for the whole site, and is the heat source for the poultry sheds. The chicken we rear are to RSPCA freedom food standard for higher welfare. As of last week we also have become a LEAF demonstration farm. I will post up pics of all sorts as it happens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 Thought id start by posting up some pics of the machinery, first up we have 3 Fendts, 724, 828 and a 939, we have a Cat handler too. We run x3 16t AW trailers for spuds and hauling chicken litter for our spreading business. We also have a 8m Vaderstad Rapid drill and 4.5m sumo for contracting work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 The spud equipment is as follows, a Grimme Varitron 220 harvester For planting we use x2 George Moate Tillerstars and a Structural PM20 belt planter Grading is taken care of by a Tong Caretaker 1800 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 Some random photos from around the farm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbo Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Nice topic Alex, looking forward to seeing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Tidy equipment there, nice too see some real life pictures to go with the model ones. Look forward too seeing updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 neat pictures, what do the hens eat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Hell if a farm Alex, can see where the inspiration for your layout comes from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted July 21, 2014 Author Share Posted July 21, 2014 neat pictures, what do the hens eat? The main ingredient in the birds diet is wheat, along with rape, soya, barley, oats, vits & minerals all formed into pellets and delivered by ABN and blown into silos beside the sheds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 Interesting, thank you. Why do you keep hens Alex? are they good $$ makers? easy care? is the grain they eat grown by your folks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted July 22, 2014 Author Share Posted July 22, 2014 Yes they are good money makers and there is a huge demand for chicken in the UK right now. No all cereals sourced by the mill are supplied by Frontier. I wouldn't say easy care as its a very "attention to detail" to make things the prefect environment to the birds to grow, they are very on the edge animals due to breeding so the smallest thing can make a difference to weight which knocks on to profit and loss, so we maintain temperature, humidity etc ect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Nice to follow this topic Alex. Very surprised to hear the farm doesn't feed it's own wheat to the chickens? A good friend of mine (where I do the combining) has 90.000 chicks for meat production and feeds them all his own wheat plus bought feed like you mention. Chicken muck is put back on the fields so it's a closed system and works very well for him. If he had to buy in wheat from a mill the costs would get out of hand. Great to hear your earning some money as the margin between profit and a loss is very very minimal here! Ah well, eggs are 10 times worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CX820Joe Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Is the Lexion based on the farm, Alex? You didn't mention any cereals at the top, just spuds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 14, 2014 Author Share Posted August 14, 2014 Is the Lexion based on the farm, Alex? You didn't mention any cereals at the top, just spuds The Lexion is the nieghbouring estate's, bring it over every year for open farm sunday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 16, 2014 Author Share Posted August 16, 2014 A trip out to Yesterday's Farming today at Haslebury Somerset, a good display of vintage tractors, landrovers, trucks/vans, ploughing match, harvesting and threshing demo and most importantly a beer tent! A nice turn out from the forums very own Julian (orchard contractors) and family with an impressive collection of David Browns. My favourite part of the day was watching two steam engines ploughing with a cable, how things hsve changed! A few pics of the day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 I thought id start to put up some pictures of how i started out in farming, firstly being a harvest student at Dillington Farms back in 2005 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 Once that had finished i went to work for a contractor for 2 years when i finished my 3 year Ag college course. I didn't particularly enjoy contracting but it was a good way to gain experience, silaging, baling etc. I then started a job on a 800 acre arable and potato farm staying there for 5 years starting at the bottom doing jobs such as Destoning, grain and potato hauling, and running the tong grader and cold stores. By the second year we had given up growing potatoes ourselves and i worked my way to the top taking on the drilling, spraying, cultivations pretty much everything as by then it was just the boss and myself. When i started we had 3 Fendts 716. 818 which was mine and 930 along with a MF6499. When spuds were given up a lot of kit was sold including the 716 and 818 so the 930 was handed to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 Kit sold included Grimme CS1500, Stanten planter, Dewulf self propelled harvester, Sumo trio 4 metre, Tong Peal Caretaker grader. The Fendt 930 was run for another year before i received a new tractor, the Fendt was too big now for what we needed so decided to run two tractors the same and link all the machinery so that the pair of us could do everything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 21, 2014 Author Share Posted August 21, 2014 The new tractor i recieved was a MF 6495 Dyna6, got on well with it and was nice to drive, reliability was its let down. So the line up of kit now included MF 6499 & 6495, JCB TM300, Knight Self propelled sprayer, Sumo Trio 3 mtr, KRM 4.8 mtr drill, 10 mtr Vaderstad rolls, 9 furrow Overum push pull plough set up, Simba 4 mtr Toptilth, x2 Richard Western RC14 trailers, Bailey 25ft flatbed, Spearhead Hedge trimmer, Claas Lexion 470 vairo 750, Case digger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 How do you get on with the push-pull plough set up Alex? Any pictures of that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Nice fleet and good update Alex. How did you find the massey gear box? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 The 6499 marched on with it, my 6495 struggled so i stuck to mill till with the Sumo, didnt like the set up myself, no good on the road and by the time you unhitch and go back for the front plough you could have half a field done with just the back, only good for big blocks. Dont have pics but will post up the same as what we had. As for the gearbox i liked the Dyna 6 but the 95 went through 3 gearboxes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 This was the push pull plough setup we had Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catkom3 Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 This was the push pull plough setup we had image.jpg Ah,an Överum,I made a model of one of these back in about 2007 Alex,it was a push / pull. Regards Joe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakley Farms Posted August 24, 2014 Author Share Posted August 24, 2014 Very smart Joe, bigger than ours, pushed 3 and pulled 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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