SPN Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Mill Farm Organics is a family owned food producing, wholesaling and retailing business. The family has been farming and wholesaling food from their base in Milltown Village since the late 1700s. Milltown House is the main centre of operations and comprises 535 acres of land. Mill Farm is home to the horticulture operation and the dairy operation, together with an organic seed breeding operation for barley, wheat, oats and beans. The site of the old mill in the village has been redeveloped as a food campus since 2007 and is home to the organic food processing business. The food campus includes an abbatoir and meat processing plant, a dairy processing pant, and a vegetable processing plant. This site also has an Anaerobic Digester which provides some of the electricity and most of the process heat for the food campus. Newpark House is where the Bossman and his family live. It is located 5 miles outside the village and comprises 320 acres. The farmhouse and original yard were built at the turn of the 20th Century as a grain thrashing and storage operation. This farm is now home to a beef suckler operation, a free range organic pig operation, and is the base for the farm machinery and plant hire machinery operations. A new grain store was built on the farm in 2010. Abbeylands is a landholding of 530 acres built up over the last 40 years. It is located about 3 miles from Newpark and 5 miles from Milltown Village. The farm is home to the beef finishing operation and a growing sheep operation. Abbeylands House and an additional 50 acres came on the market unexpectedly in Autumn 2014 and were purchased. This purchase allows the creation of an internal road linking the main block of land with two outfarms, thus removing a 2 mile road trip. The house will be home to a nephew who got married earlier this year. The retail arm of the business comprises a supermarket, petrol station and fuel business in Milltown Village; a supermarket, petrol station and fuel business in the County Town 15 miles away; and two specialist organic supermarkets in Dublin and one in Cork. The Bossman is the CEO of the business which is owned by a family Trust comprising his siblings, some of his cousins, and their families. During 2014 an Uncle who was farming and running a contracting business at Castlebridge, 25 miles from Milltown, decided to retire. There had always been a close co-operation with the Castlebridge operation since the Uncle took over there in 1970, particularly on the machinery front, but the farm was not owned by the Trust. A package was put together during 2014 which saw Castlebridge being reversed into the family Trust and the Uncle having a very comfortable retirement. Looking around the farms at the end of 2014, we see .... Nothing new on the car front during 2014. The Boss man is still driving his 2013 Range Rover, and he still has the 2010 E92 Schnitzer for sport. Herself is still driving her Golf GTi. The young lad is now going to Ag College and driving a SWB Pajero Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 The Boss man was big into rallying when he was younger and has a collection of classic rally cars. His favourite is his 1965 Mk I Lotus Cortina, from the year he was born. Closely followed by the first car he rallyed himself, the Mk I Escort RS1600 And the newest addition to the collection, CIL999, the Mk II RS1800 that Bertie Fisher used to own. It's been dressed as it was when Bertie rallyed it in the 1979 Circuit of Ireland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stabliofarmer Posted December 31, 2014 Share Posted December 31, 2014 Don't fancy the insurance on the young lads pajero, would imagine its more than the jeeps worth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted December 31, 2014 Author Share Posted December 31, 2014 From the 80s, the collection includes an Audi A2 Quattro An Opel Ascona 400 in Rothmans livery An Opel Manta 400 in Rothmans livery And the first ex-ProDrive car that he has managed to get his hands on - the Metro 6R4 C749LFM which Jimmy McRae used to race. 2015 will be all about getting a couple of more ex-ProDrive cars into the shed, maybe a Porsche 911, a Scooby WRX, or the holy grail itself, GXI9427 (although he'll settle for an ADZ or an EDZ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 Coming soon, a full rundown of all the the fun and games on the farms during 2014. And finally, for now, a little nostalgia: The new Claas Matador in arrives in the yard in 1966. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdeere6910 Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 Love the old rally cars. What scale are they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted January 1, 2015 Author Share Posted January 1, 2015 1:32 scale. They are by Scalextric, Revell and Fly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walsh35 Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 who makes the car transporter with the mk2 on board Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 The Mill Farm horticulture operation has been developed since the early 1960s and it converted fully to organic in 1997. It comprises 3 acres of glasshouses, 4 acres of polytunnels and in 2014 there were 12 acres of field crops, including 6 acres of onions at Newpark. All produce is sold under the Mill Farm Organics brand. The front line tractors at the horticulture unit in 2014 include a 2010 NH T6020, 2011 Fendt 209F and a 1990 Fendt GTA toolcarrier. Also in the fleet are a 1978 County 762H, two 1976 Renault 551s, a 1965 Massey Ferguson 135 and a 1963 David Brown 990. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 The Mill Farm dairy unit has a herd of 150 Montbeliarde dairy cows. In 2014 the herd averaged 7,500 litres per cow. Calves are transferred to the Suckler Unit at Newpark for rearing. The milk is processed at the dairy facility at Milltown Food Campus and sold as liquid milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt under the Mill Farm Organics brand. Machinery used on the dairy unit include a 2011 Fendt 211 Vario, 2012 JCB TM310, 2003 JCB 1CX, and in 2014 a new Strautmann 1251 Verti-Mix replaced a ten year old Keenan mixer wagon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 The machinery operations are based out of Newpark Farm. Tillage operations are based on a 4 metre system. The main drill is a 2009 Horsch Pronto 4DC. The frontline tractors were bought in 2010 and comprise a New Holland T7070 Autocommand, T7050 Autocommand, and 2 T6090 Power command. The main combine is a 2013 Claas Tucano 450. It is supported by a 1993 Claas Dominator 108. Silage is harvested with a Pottinger Jumbo and a Pottinger Europrofi. The main functions of the T7070 are to plough with a 7 furrow Kverneland semi-mounted plough, to till with a 4m Vaderstad TopDown, to mow grass with a Pottinger 3 gang mower, to haul inputs to the anaerobic digester with a 24 tonne Joskin trailer, to haul digestate from the digester with a Joskin tanker, and to bale straw with a New Holland baler. The T7050 is permanently on semi-rowcrop wheels. It looks after the hoeing and weeding of the arable crops, and it looks after the bed tilling and harvesting of the potato crop. One T6090 is permanently on 1050 floatation tyres. It looks after seed drilling, some cultivations, slurry spreading and grassland management. The grassland management is a key role as the farm uses clover/grassland as the main fertility building part of the organic rotation. The other T6090 is the all-purpose tractor. It ploughs with a 4 furrow Kverneland plough or a 5 furrow Pottinger plough., does some tillage, cuts silage with a Pottinger Europrofi, carts corn away from the Claas Tucano with 2 Kroger Agroliner 14 tonners and 2 Lee 14 tonners. Two 1989 Ford 7810s and a 1993 Ford 6640 are the backup tractors. The 7810s power diet feeders at Newpark and Abbeylands in winter. They power the destoner and potato drill during planting. They cart the potatoes away from the harvester. They cart straw bales. The 6640 supports the pig operation, powers the straw blower at all three farms in winter, and carts from the Claas Dominator with 12 tonne trailers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 All the grassland management machinery is from the Joskin brand. The machines were photographed during 2014 for an article on grassland management in a farming magazine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted February 6, 2015 Author Share Posted February 6, 2015 who makes the car transporter with the mk2 on board Welly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Palmer Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 nice updates Stan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham Posted February 6, 2015 Share Posted February 6, 2015 what a great start to your topic have seen glimpse of your kit over the years , looking forward to more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Really enjoyed reading that, thank you. Looking forward to seeing more of your onion growing operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmd Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 love the county 762H tidy job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Nice to see a display with a difference! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Castlebridge Back in 1970 the youngest brother at Milltown, then in his mid twenties, inherited a 200 acre farm at Castlebridge when an Aunt of his died. The farm had been badly managed for decades and needed a lot of work to bring it up to scratch. He continued to work with his eldest brother who was running the machinery operation out of Newpark in order to bring in a wage, and also to get the use of machinery to develop his own farm. Towards the end of 1970 two new Countys were bought at Newpark, an 1124 and a 754, so the Massey 65 and a County 1004 they were replacing got brought to Castlebridge and were used to start his own small contracting business specialising in tillage and hay making. In 1972 he bought his first new tractor, a Ford 5000, as part of a deal that saw two new 5000s going to Newpark. In 1973 he bought the Claas Senator from Newpark when it upgraded to a Dominator 85. By now he had expanded his contracting and was also renting 200 acres of tillage ground for cereals and sugar beet. In 1974 he got married to a teacher. He also added silage harvesting to his range of services with the purchase of a New Holland 37 double chop and a 2nd hand County 654 from Newpark. The County 1004 drove the harvester, the 5000 carted with two ten ton Munster Machinery trailers, and the 654 did the buckraking. In 1977 he bought a FIAT 880DT to replace the Massey 65. This was the beginning of a long association with FIAT, and by 1984 the entire fleet was orange or terracotta. Over the next 30 years he expanded his operation both by buying additional land, up to 600 acres, renting up to 1,000 acres of tillage land, and providing a contracting service to a number of large dairy farms in the Castlebridge area. The farm business comprises a tillage operation and a beef rearing and finishing operation. In 2014, on his 70th birthday, he decided to retire. The farming and contracting business has been reversed into the family Trust (where two of his sons and one of his daughters are already working) and he gets to enjoy a comfortable retirement. After the 2014 harvest the farm began a conversion to organic status with all the tillage ground going into a two year fertility building process. The biggest challenge will be to convert the beef operation to organic, both in terms of sourcing suitable stock, and also in terms of marketing the final product. The beef unit at Abbeylands has pretty much saturated this market already. The tractor fleet at Castlebridge for much of 2014 comprised a 2004 New Holland 110-90, 2010 NH T6020, 2012 NH T7.210 and 2012 NH T8.300. The 110-90 is used to power the diet feeder on the beef unit, the round baler, the silage rake, grain carting and is dualled up for some cultivation work. The T6020 is the loader tractor and does grain and silage carting. The T7.210 is the main workhorse doing all the ploughing with a 5 furrow Lemken, and much of the cultivation work. It takes care of spraying with a trailed Hardi sprayer and muck spreading with a Samson 12-16 spreader. It also carts silage and grain with the farm's 20ft Marston trailers. The T8.300 is too big and too heavy for the farm in reality, but the Uncle has always prided himself on having the biggest tractor in the parish. It was preceded by a TG305, and before that a G240. The T8 cultivates with a Simba Solo 330, a 6m Agrisem Disc o mulch, and drills with a 6m Lemken Solitair combi drill. It spreads manure with a Joskin Ferti-Space and slurry with Joskin Vacu-Cargo. For the silage season it gets swapped over to Newpark to power their Pottinger Jumbo silage wagon, and the Newpark T7070 comes to Castlebridge to power the Potttinger 3 gang mower. The silage harvester at Castlebridge is a 2005 Claas Jaguar 900. Combining is done with a 2004 Claas Lexion 580 and a 2003 New Holland CX880 which formerly belonged to Newpark until it was replaced by the Claas Tucano 450 in 2013. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPN Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 A new business plan was devised for Castlebridge for the coming years. The contracting business will be expanded, not least because the main competitor also decided to retire once he heard the Uncle had retired, so there is a big market there to be tapped, both for tillage and for silage. The first big change was the retirement of the T8.300. It is going to be shipped out to a farming operation in Poland that the Trust is involved in, and where the G240 and TG305 are still working today. The Polish operation is due to double in size in 2016 due to a change in the laws there so an extra ploughing tractor won't go astray. The Simba Solo will being going on the truck also. The T8.300 has been replaced with a T7.270 Golden Jubilee which is smaller, lighter, more agile, and more suited to the type of work that is planned. The second change was the replacement of the T6020 with a T7.210 Blue Power. The T6020 was a bit wasted at Castlebridge and was racking up very few hours compared to the original T7.210. The decision was made to get a second T7.210 and a second Lemken 5 furrow plough and balance the workload better. The T6020 is moving over to Newpark to work with the old Ford 6640 on the pig unit as well as other general tasks. More changes are planned for Castlebridge during 2015, including the replacement of two Marston trailers with two new Kane half pipes. The old Fiat Allis Loader is likely to get retired and replaced with something more productive, and the Claas Jaguar is going to see its acreage doubled, so it is a candidate for replacement at some stage too. But here's the picture at the end of 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light Land Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Super work you've put in to your layout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted November 23, 2015 Share Posted November 23, 2015 Good story line Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mb86 Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 Great story, hadn't seen it before now. you have certainly thought this one through! Look forward to seeing updates and from the earlier days in particular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FNHIR Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 Same as mb86, hadn't seen before, a lovely read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted December 9, 2016 Share Posted December 9, 2016 Hope your plans are still in action Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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