Charisma Farm

[Paul Palmer]

Nice updates Phil

[bluegreen]

Our maize contractor "Newcut" will be doing our Maize drilling this year using our new Vaderstad Tempo drill,  they will be hauling it around behind their New Holland T7.225 Blue Power tractor which is the newest addition to their modest fleet of blue tractors.

We also have reconsidered selling our JD6215R presently and instead will be letting the larger 8360R go..........................After consulting with our John Deere dealer we feel that the 7310R should be capable of doing the heaviest work in the autumn and that the farms other machines can support it.  The 6215R is obviously more flexible than the 8R and we have plenty of haulage work planned for the year ahead to keep the 6R very busy.

[Fenside MF]

good storyline,good models,good weathering,good yards and scenery.The more your adding to the topic makes it good to read through as I just have from the start.

[b_emmons]

great updates  

[bluegreen]

Well its that time of year when the Combines are making there way to the starting grid in readiness for harvesting to begin,...…………….Here at Charisma Farm we are just about ready for it.   After all the side issues and with money back in February we are now in a better shape but every week seems to throw up more changes.  After having to sell some recently acquired kit we had to source some good hire deals to get back on track.  Firstly Combine World struck a 3 season hire deal on a 2 yr old Lexion 760 combine which should easily boss our 2000acre harvest, its on wheels which we are fine with on our soils which are not too heavy or prone to rutting and compaction. The 760 is now out in the yard getting some final checks done before we start rapeseed in mid July, which is a week or two earlier than usual this year due to the constant dry sunny days we are having!

The John Deere 7310R hire tractor arrived from Doubledays and like our two smaller CASE Pumas it will be put on an annual contract.  The Puma 240 arrived a few weeks back and is doing fine pulling the poo tanker, silage trailer etc...…………….it will be here until late autumn lugging our  6f Plough before being off hired.

Im still considering upgrading our JD6215 for a 6250R and Doubledays are keen to do business, a demo has been arranged for July.  Our JCB Fastrac will be hauling our NH 9090 Baler this year and then when finished it will be on the tri axle flatbed hauling the bales to their various destinations.

Although the business was upside down at the start of the year we still managed to get some surprisingly good maize contracts offered to us and that's when we decided to form a partnership with our regular contractors "Newcut" to make sure we had the fire power to meet customer demands. This partnership is only applicable to the maize/ silage side of our business, the 2000 acre farm stands ours alone, although some machinery from it will be utilised at peak maize harvest times. 

Newcut already had a harvester and machinery to merge with our green harvest kit.  We bought a new Vaderstad maize drill which Newcut pulled with one of their New Holland tractors over the 3500 acres to start with and they also assisted with our grass contracts with local stud farms.  They also suggested we might want to buy a triple axle trailer that would happily sit behind a 230hp plus tractor that could be used on grain and maize to reduce haulage times. Luckily we were able to find a hardly used secondhand Joskin 25 ton trailer from a dealer 30 miles away and snapped the bargain up.

Newcuts and ourselves are not sure if we want to go into a big maize harvest with their narrow body Krone 580 and would prefer a little more clout, maybe 700hp+ , they are talking to Krone, JD and Claas to see if a deal can be made.

Newcuts  tractor fleet consisted of 4 New Hollands, a pair of 4 yr old  T7.250s a new 7225 Blue power and a 2 yr old T7210...……………………….however  demos in April of more powerful Fendt 724 and Valtra T234 tractors made a big impression on them...…………...Both machines were priced up by the same dealer TNS and the Valtra was a bit cheaper.  Actually the driver preferred the Valtra as well and the tractor was ordered a couple of months ago and should arrive in July/ August.  This deal was Okayed to still go through when we merged our businesses.

As for our heritage kit, we had to let the JD4955 go recently due to raising funds for the new maize project which requires more purchase power than our mostly hired in farm kit.

The Maxuum 5150 is off farm presently doing a tour of classic farm kit shows.  Our JD 7810, 3350 and 3050 are kept busy  with various easier tasks on the farm.  I haven't lost interest in the classics but we have become much more time pressured due to the energy crops.  I would like to add a nice old Ford to the fleet of oldies in the autumn perhaps, I will keep an eye out for something special.

[bluegreen]

Harvest is in top gear as we approach August and everything has come fit at once!!   We have progressed our way through the earliest Rapeseed harvest ever and had just cut some first wheats when some very welcome rain arrived.  Yields are down due to the grain shrivelling heat of 8 weeks constant hot sunshine...…………..something is definitely affecting our world!!

Our hired in Lexion is doing fine and had been assisted by the JD7310R on the Joskin tri axle trailer, the JD will be switching to the poo tanker /injector set up on Monday to get some liquids into the Rapeseed stubbles that have just received some rain.  Its place on the Joskin is taken by the Newcut agri newcomer Valtra T234 which all agree is very stylish in white and black livery,  the driver loves it and its front hub braking system is very useful when hauling 25 tons of grain behind it.

Our JD6215R wont be leaving anytime soon as we felt the 6250R demo tractor was a bit physically  bigger than we expected, especially when compared to other brands 250hp tractors.  We will reconsider machinery purchases at the end of the year.

The 6215R has been put on the Amazone disc /press cultivator to try and lock in some of the recent moisture on our early wheat stubbles ahead of rapeseed drilling in the next week or so.

The hired in Puma 240 has been put on the NH Baler instead of the Fastrac as we need the 4220s speed to take advantage of high straw prices and get bales hauled to merchants ASAP.

Maize crops were becoming stunted and flagging until the rain arrived and have perked up almost immediately thankfully.  And we have been busy getting kit organized for the 2018 campaign and beyond.  For the coming season we will run two mid range harvesters instead of one monster machine. This allows us to be in two places at once although it pressures us with the need for extra manpower and trailers.  We will be boss of the job this year but are likely to get more contracts next year so we have planned ahead.  Our Krone 580 will be being joined by a new JD8500 which Ben burgess offered at a keen price to beat Claas and Krone quotes.   It should arrive on September the 1st on a 68 reg plate.

This means an extra trailer was needed and once again we have gone for a Rolland which are nice well built trailers and available in time for harvest.  The first choice of a Bailey trailer was scrapped as they couldn't supply what we wanted at such short notice, nevermind.

 

[bluegreen]

Thanks for all the likes lads...………………………….unfortunately my Landlord has just informed me that he wishes to sell the property so I wont be doing anymore updates as the farm will need to be packed away or the like.  Combines just gone on ebay.

[CX820Joe]

Thats a real shame, really like reading your updates Phil

[bluegreen]

Well I shall try and maintain some input on the forum but I was lucky with the space in this current home for the money, not sure what Gods got planned for my next residence