Manor Farmyard

[phil phoenix]

A quick update from Manor farm,  Wheat harvest is almost over in probably the easiest harvest weve ever had.  Just beans to go and these can wait until after we have drilled some rapeseed.  With rain expected this week we are all systems go on Monday 15th Aug.  We bought a shop soiled 6 metre Horsch Tiger Drill from Manns of Saxham to use too plant most of our 500 acres. This requires a fair bit of pulling so we cut another deal with Claas to bring in an 450hp Axion 960 tractor.

Why an Axion? Its German designed for starters and both JD and Fendt's competitive machine's are on long lead times for supply and we needed a quality big tractor quickly. Also our Axion 870 has impressed us, its a good deal better than the old 850 we bought back in 2013 and has given us confidence. Claas have steadily upgraded and improved the whole Axion range and now its much closer to JD & Fendt in performance and yet still much cheaper to buy. We chose wheels over tracks as we must have the versatility tyres bring especially when hauling on busy roads. And probably more important than anything else, nobody is as good at service and maintenance as Claas, and HQ is 35 mins up the road!

Our Fendt 724 will be following behind the drill with our heavy gang rolls to ensure the coming moisture stays in the ground.

[phil phoenix]

The Rapeseed is now all in the ground and we were very relieved to get a day of solid rain during the middle of planting which should do wonders for the crop.  The new big Axion 960 was boss of the job, although the tiger drill did make her snort hard a few times where the ground had been baked hard by the sun.  We will be using the tool more as a cultivator for the rest of the drilling campaign and drilling duties will shortly be handed over to our Lemken solitaire.

The Claas Lexion 8700 completed the beans and the remainder of harvest last week in record time, but not without several glitches and a few breakdowns.  Me and my driver especially are regretting the decision to put a 45ft header on her, its too big!  Yes she can handle it ok, although it needs more power on steeper ground for sure, but the amount of header changes this campaign have been a real headache, yes we have some big fields but also a lot of small ones and narrower field entrances. It can be frustrating to remove the header when your just moving to the next field because the gap in the hedge isnt quite big enough. Something for me to ponder when the silly season is over.

Maize begins here on September the 1st and we are getting the team organized in the yard today. The Jaguar 980 has had its pre season service and is ready to go, and we will be running three Rolland trailers, one new to us this year. A nice John Deere green version we picked up from stockists Farol's last week. Lets hope it fares better than the yellow one we bought last year that went up in flames during a large field fire in early August. We didnt lose much acreage as the fire only took out a headland after incinerating our neighbours 50 acre wheat field, but unfortunately as we were only using one tractor and two trailers the yellow one got left on the headland whilst our driver took a blue one to the yard to empty and the yellow one caught fire. The JD driver has already hitched the green one to his 6250R and they do look grand. Our Fendts 828 & 720 provide the pulling power for two other trailers, whilst our 936 is going on the pit pusher. We have several other rigs available to assist our team supplied mostly by other farmers whose land we are cropping maize on.  

[phil phoenix]

New arrival update:

A couple of years ago or so we bought a Valtra T 234 from TNS as an ex demo tractor, and its spent most of its time moving digestate to different farms and fields, as well as doing muck spreading. The tractor hasn't been without issues but has clocked up over 3500 hours in double quick time. And so when TNS asked if we would like a demonstrator Fendt 722 Gen 6 tractor to try we put it on the Valtra's duties. TNS informed us it would be available when their new demo stock tractors arrived in September. Naturally the tractor was impressive with the new Fendt One technology on board, and soon after the demo a deal was struck! The trade in value on the Valtra was acceptable and the 722 tractor has joined our other Fendt's on the farm, the 720 ,724 ,828, 936 and of course the old 820 classic.

Maize harvest started late August on stressed crops for a few days and then stopped for a week to allow the much needed rain to work its magic. We have now recommenced harvesting and its all hands to the pumps.

Drilling, digestate spreading, cultivations are all moving forwards now as the "silly" season begins in earnest!

 

[phil phoenix]

The madhouse is in full swing and our maize team have sprinted through the crops so far!!  This has been assisted by a 15-20% drop in yield's across the board making harvesting quicker.  We had a 14 row Kemper header on demo last week which really impressed and made it hard for the trailers to keep up with our Jaguar.  It certainly won't be a long season this year and we will finish in 10 days max.

Our Winter Wheat drilling began last week in excellent conditions, moist ground after recent rains, although its still dry three inches down.  Weve decided to put the JD 8R 410 on the new Lemken solitaire combi drill as its on 900mm wide tyres and ideal for top work.  We shifted our Fendt 936 onto tanker duties along with the Axion 870 and am coming behind them with a hired in Fendt 942 on either our Kockerling cultivator or 7 furrow Lemken plough.  I decided to put our Claas Axion 960 on the maize pit which it is excelling at.

Due to a big increase in demand for digestate in dry and liquid forms plus our straw mix fertilizer alternative we are taking on more land and increasing our cereal cropping area from 2500 acres upto near 4000 next year.  500 acres coming from land used for miscanthus this year plus a decrease in our maize area of 250 acres. The rest is on new land contracts where existing farmers are retiring or calling it a day due to all the rising costs. The extra straw coming from the increased acreage will be ideal for our alternative fertilizer project next year.

As Ive said before the pace of our enterprises increase in size makes machine purchase planning near impossible, so we just look for good deals.  The Fendt 942 on hire is a 2 year old machine from Richard Parris Tractor's with 2000 hrs on the clock and theres a good chance it wont be going back when the 12 week hire completes.

Next week I will be attending an auction in the next county where I have my eye on a decent Claas Lexion 770, its 4 season's old and I know the owner, it would be an ideal partner for our newer 8700 machine and assist with the big increase in acres for 2023.

Edited October 9, 2022 by phil phoenix

[phil phoenix]

As November starts the maize harvest has recently finished, two weeks earlier than usual. And now planting is the most important task. Our John Deere 8R is doing a grand job with the Solitaire combi drill and we will have 15-1800 acres done by mid November, most of this will get some traditional fertilizer to get it going before we revert to our own mixes.  Due to blackgrass we will hold back a large area to next spring time and plant it then. It also allows more time to get our digestate products onto the land and also our own digestate fertilizer mix which is in strong demand now.

So for next year's harvest we have bought a secondhand Claas Lexion 770 combine to assist our 8700 machine in bringing in the best part of 4000 acres.  We bought the harvester at a local auction for a fair price and had it delivered last week and we lifted all its panels and gave it a good blowing down and a wash where necessary.

We also have made some changes to Manor yard, the main area space has been concreted and the barn end has had some extension work and general repairs done to it. This was achieved whilst most of our machines were working to and from the A.D plant.  For the remainder of this year we will be moving maize and digestate around to where its required and prepping the fields for next year's planting with our tankers and muck spreader's.

 

[phil phoenix]

As 2022 draws to a close I can look back on a year of constant growth and change, the business has now doubled in size and I have taken a decision to form a partnership at our second AD Plant based over 40 miles away.  This Suffolk plant and its new management staff will take on more than half the whole business and relieve a lot of the pressure from my shoulders.  My Norfolk team will remain under my management with a few less machines to run our plant and arable farm.  We have already made some changes to our machinery line up at Manor farm as some of our kit will now be stationed at Suffolk. The Suffolk plant is close to Manns Claas depot and so both our Axion 960 and Lexion 8700 will operate from there from now on. 

We will keep the second combine Lex 770 in Norfolk along with the Jaguar 980 and Axion 870.  The new plant set up plan on adding a Jaguar 990 to their fleet alongside an older 970 that they run.  My remaining fleet of 6 Fendts, 2 Deeres and 1 Claas tractor will continue although its likely we will change the Fendt 724 for another one shortly as the 2 year lease contract is almost up, and also we have been impressed by the 722 Gen 6 Fendt one tractor we brought in last summer and the option of a Gen 6 new 724 is to tempting pass up on.

One piece of new equipment definately arriving has been our new Berthoud trailed sprayer.  We decided to replace the old Lemken 5000 litre for a bigger capacity 5500 litre sprayer. With Lemken opting out of the sprayer market 2 years ago we knew a change would have to be made sooner or later, and also we had heard good reviews on both the Berthoud machines superb boom stability and the dealer Boston Sprayers. Although its worth pointing out that Chandlers Agri also hold the franchise in case of any unforseen events.

Our previous New Holland sprayer tractor struggled on hills with the old Lemken fully loaded and so we have decided to put our JD 6250R on it for the coming season, 270hp max power should be enough to pull the sprayer on our steepest land. Our young contracting brothers have decided to join our business from now on and sold off their own kit as costs have risen too fast for them to cope with.

We are looking forward to doing test drives of both the new Fendt 728 and the Valtra Q series in the next few months and look forward to another busy year.

 

[phil phoenix]

Well on the last day before our Christmas break TNS turned up with the new Fendt 724 Generation 6 tractor too replace our Gen.5 Leased machine. So I took a couple of pictures of it next to our 722. It will start next year either on the Amazone trailed fertilizer spreader or carting digestate to various locations along with our other two 700 machines.

One more machine is also about to be changed, our woodsman's old John Deere 3350 has been traded for something a little more modern which will arrive in the first week of January from Doubleday's secondhand stock near Kings Lynn.  The 3350 was bought 20 years ago as a handy tractor and clocked up well over 10,000 hours. Tony the woodsman uses it as part of his forestry management team which includes a new wood chipper. The 100hp Deere lacks the power to fully utilize it even though the chipper isnt particularly big by today's standards.  The replacement tractor has the extra beef and also maneuverability required for work in amongst the trees.

More updates in the new year.

[phil phoenix]

Tony our Woodsman was pleased with his new tractor for forestry maintenance on the estate. We found a nice conditioned, last of the production line JD 6125R at Doubledays a few weeks ago and asked for a few items to be attended to before we received it.  A repainted set of wheels and a good wash, polish and valet have brought it back to life and it even got an admiring looking at by Dave the 6250R driver. We said goodbye to our seldom seen 3350 which had been with us 15 years and is now 30 years old and still starting first time in all weather.

Tony hitched her up to his old french log trailer and went off to pick up some logs with it for its first job.

 

[phil phoenix]

After a busy start to the year and the successful joint venture at our Suffolk based AD Plant we are now clear to focus on the Norfolk operation. And once more we are utilizing the advantage of bringing in a third party with man power and machines.  Bill Legge has for the past 4 years visited us in early February with a large tracked Challenger and Keeble cultivator and proceeded to work on all the wheelings in our maize fields. This time however we have signed a new agreement with him to provide three tractors and drivers to keep us working at maximum efficiency, after the Challenger has done its cultivation works. 

Bill currently has three tractors and employees including the big CAT but now has the contract in place to bring in another wheeled tractor. His own fleet includes the 875E CAT, a three yr old 400hp MF8740S and a 5 year old 265hp MF7726S.  All three were bought ex demo at over a year old and are maintained meticulously. He has always been a Massey man and is now looking at another suitable candidate to fit into his fleet.

Bill's involvement removes more pressure off our management in seeking decent reliable staff. Also I can re arrange our machinery needs around Bill's fleet. So we currently run an JD 8R 410 & 6250R, Three Fendt 700's plus a 936.  We have just retired our old 820 into the farms hobby tractor, and sold the old 828. Our CLAAS  870 Axion has joined the 960 over at the Suffolk plant right next to the CLAAS dealer.

Bills 8740 has gone straight onto the Joskin slurry tanker which is served by our Articulated Lorry/Tanker contractors W.R.Chapmans.  His soon to arrive fourth tractor will hitch up to our other Fliegl tanker.

The 820 Fendts retirement came because of Bills expertise with hedge cutting contracts, he has put his 7726 straight to work on our hedgerows and dykes since January and will finish in March.

We will also be having a new arrival shortly as Ernest DOEs have informed us our machine is in and they desperately need the yard space due to a 70 tractor hire fleet deal! So we will pick it up on Saturday morning. 

 

Edited February 15, 2023 by phil phoenix

[phil phoenix]

Another busy week is over and we are at full tilt once more. Muck spreading is going well, land preparation for maize and spring crops too.  A first bit of ploughing for our new Fendt 724 too start the week. And then on Thursday our contractor Bill Legge turned up with his new tractor. Its a 18 month old ex demo Massey Ferguson 8S.265 with the Dyna E Power gearbox which is ideally suited to lugging our Fliegl tanker with is injector tines.

Bill asked TNS to switch over the rear wheels from R42 to R38s so that they could fit 650/85/R38s tyres which can then work on low tyre pressures when needed.

[phil phoenix]

Having collected his new Massey 8S tractor, Bill then went to Ernest Doe's at Littleport to collect our brand new Big New Holland Baler.  The new 1290HD squeezes much more straw into this traditional size, which means we can fit more straw into fewer barns. Its also a good bit quicker too with forward speeds of 30mph possible😲

We will be keeping our existing 1290 Kuhn as well, this means we will have much more straw available for use with our digestate mix alternative to fertilizer.

[phil phoenix]

We made a space in the barn for the new baler, now we need another for the soon to arrive new drill??

[Jack390]

The 8s looks really smart 👍

[phil phoenix]

The new 8m Vaderstad drill landed on wednesday and was immediately hitched up behind the big Deere and readied for a swift 1500 acre campaign beginning the next day. Our 6m Lemken combi drill had largely drilled our heavier more difficult ground in the autumn. The Vaddy is ideal for our loam and lighter land which suits a fast culti drill. She replaces our 5 year old 4m Horsch Pronto.

We also bought another Rolland trailer in racing green and what with the new NH baler its been an expensive start to the year!  The chequebook is now closed till summer, although we will be checking out the new Fendt 728 & Valtra Q tractor's when demo's are available.

 

[phil phoenix]

Our contractor has been concentrating on injecting and spreading slurry on a variety of crops with our two tankers. Their other frontline tractor the 7726S finished its hedgecutting campaign and has now begun spreading fertilizer, before joining the Fendt 700 digestate delivery team.  Bill Legge also brought over one of his refurbished classic MFs, a 2003 MF 8220 which has been used on a set of rolls behind the Vaderstad drill.

He also has a newly refurbished 7495 tractor which will be lending a hand as we enter maize drilling as soon as the weather changes.  We drilled around a 1000 acres of cereals in between the showers and will try and finish the rest this week.

We attended two events last week, an evening presentation on the new Fendt 700s and a daytime demo of the new Valtra Qs. Both machines were very impressive, not least the price of a 728 Fendt which was eye watering and 20k more than the Valtra Q305, and also 25 hp less at rated power! I don't rule out having a new Fendt 728 but not this year. As for the Valtra, if we can strike a deal, as TNS want to get one or two out in the field, then watch this space.

[phil phoenix]

After a very challenging and mostly wet March we finally got back on the land for about a week at the start of April. We managed to get some more Barley in the ground but it just got too late to risk anymore and the land unplanted will be getting incorporated into maize again this year. 

We were fortunate that the Valtra Q305 demo tractor arrived perfectly timed too start out Maize drilling campaign whilst our big John Deere was still scrambling to plant the last of the cereal crop with the Vaderstad drill.

TNS are hoping for a sale with the Q series and I must say I am tempted after an impressive demo. However its more likely at this point that we will hire one in for the summer busy season and consider a purchase once its had a good trial.

Our contractor is doing a fine job getting the liquid digestate onto the land and both the Fliegl & Joskin tankers are proving their worth behind the two big MF tractors. Bill and his lads are showing why its so important to have a highly efficient team of competant & reliable staff to meet our customers demands. His third tractor is now pulling the Amazon fertilizer sprayer on land ahead of the maize drilling team.

[Fenside MF]

That massey 8s looks spot on  R38's,nice looking yard too filled with nice models😉

[phil phoenix]

After a hectic and late Maize planting campaign due to wet weather, we got finished in very late May. However once it finally stopped raining it now wont start again and I am pleased I kept the order for a new irrigation drum open when it seemed the rain wouldn't stop!  That will be our only purchase until the autumn once we have properly evaluated the new Fendt 728. We liked the Valtra Q but need to demo the Fendt to compare. Our dealer TNS informed me that first deliveries had taken place of the 728 and that in total they had 21 of them on order with just 2 delivered!!  Our three existing 700s are doing just fine and plenty of digestate has been delivered by them to farmers fields.

This coming week we will be recovering the final off site maize crop from 2022 which is stored in poly tunnels and not accessible by articulated lorry. One of our Fendts and our main contractors new Massey 8S will be undertaking haulage duties. Bill decided to part with his 7726S which had 6000 hours on the clock & buy a second 8S.265 to improve efficiencies. The 8S is considerably more fuel efficient and with the security of a long work contract with us Bill decided to get another.  This one will be doing both trailer work and in furrow ploughing in the late autumn & winter and so has been specced on 650/65/R42s for those tasks. Its also an eco shift version with the dual clutch and although other users have had issues Bill's tractor has been fine, also MF have made mods to the new machines leaving Beauvais so all should be well. Next month baling will start on our customers barley fields and the new New Holland baler will be let lose, probably behind Bills MF8740S as it will need plenty of grunt on some of our steeper land.

[phil phoenix]

Just in time to help water parched crops we have the first of our new irrigation reels. Our Fendt 724 will be our main tractor on irrigation duties this year and will be setting up the new machine on some stressed spring wheat crops. Our winter crops have all put down strong roots and look pretty decent but could do with some rain.

We also have 90 acres of sugar beet in the ground, sown in late April after we obtained a quota from British Sugar. The price was much better for this year so we were happy to grow some. It will be contract lifted in November. It has come through quite well but also needs watering.

A new telehandler is also due any day as our 10 year old JCB 550-80 has gotten long in the tooth. Its a big powerful handler and has been ideal for loading our muck spreaders, but we have decided to change to a competitive brand due to niggling electrical issues on both our JCB handlers. Watch this space.

 

 

[phil phoenix]

Our new telehandler has arrived from JD dealer Ben Burgess,  its a Kramer KT557 and will lift 5.5 tons to 7 metres. It replaces a JCB 550-80 which has been a good machine but not reliable enough to guarentee a repeat sale. We liked the old Claas Scorpion which was also a Kramer and decided to give their new machine a go.

Our neighbours will start their barley harvest in a weeks time and that gives us a first opportunity to try our new New Holland baler out as we have the straw contract.

 

[CX820Joe]

I quite like that Kramer handler and did wonder about getting one myself but I am quite happy with the Claas Scorpion for now and a pair of Manitous.  
I heard the Kramer based Scorpions were better than the following Liebherr machines l, though that was a few years ago and suppose they could have sorted them now.  I wonder if we will get a model of the current Scorpion incarnation? I don’t think there is a lot on the horizon telehandler wise. 

[Fenside MF]

Just saw one of those kramers last week in the yellow and grey colours,that model went under the radar of everyone on here 😄

[phil phoenix]

In this part of the uk its JCB with probably half the telehandler market, and then manitou & Kramer. Most of the Manitous were supplied by JD dealers before the franchise change so I expect Kramer's market share to keep increasing in the years ahead provided the nutcases running this country dont get us all blown up!!

 

[phil phoenix]

Its mid July on the farm and the rapeseed will be ready as soon as the weather drys up a bit.  We had a last inspection today of the Claas Lexion 770 we bought to harvest our Norfolk crops this year. Our other combine the Lex 8700 is now working on our Suffolk unit and handling over 2000 acres there.

We decided to hitch the new NH XD baler to our contractors Massey 8740S as it will have to cope with a few steep inclines and 400hp guarentees no pulling issues.  We will probably hook our 2nd smaller Kuhn baler upto our JD 6250R when the wheat harvest starts in earnest.

Our contractor Legge's recently decided to sell their Challenger 875E after 3 years use as its not really doing enough to earn its keep and its expensive to run. Besides he has also just bought a second MF 8S.265 and needed to balance his books before considering any other aquisistions.  This however left me with a bit of a problem as we only have one big tractor presently, our JD 8R 410 to do a lot of heavy work this autumn having sent the big Claas Axion & Fendt 936 up to our Suffolk unit. 

Last year we hired in a Fendt 942 to help us out but I prefer a tracked unit for cultivating, especially with the Horsch tiger drill on the back of it in sticky conditions. So recently when visiting TNS our local Fendt dealer, I was asked if I was interested in an incoming Fendt MT 943 challenger with barely 3000 hours in three years on the clock.  The machine was absolutely spotless and was traded in for a bigger 1100 series tractor due to a significant acreage increase.  So a deal was struck, six months hire initially with an option to buy at the end of this period if we wish to take the offer up.  The hire starts on August 1st when the tractor is delivered. The vario gearbox will certainly be more frugal than Bill's old 875E thats for sure.

Having recently visited Cereals we took the opportunity to look at the working demonstration of CASE & Bednar equipment. We were impressed with Bednar's kit and especially the Terraland chisel plough which genuinely offers an option to ploughing. It leaves a nice weatherproof finish with its double discing arrangement. A on farm demo has been lined up for early August to put one through its paces and properly evaluate it.

All our Maize is looking grand this year, most was drilled into good moisture and the last 500 acres or so which went in to drier conditions has since benefitted from plenty of liquid digestate and is rapidly catching up with the rest of the crop. Its going to be a busy autumn with lots of on farm orders of both liquid digestate and the dried material and first mixes of this with straw to provide a fertilizer alternative.

 

Edited July 18, 2023 by phil phoenix

[phil phoenix]

Our new to us Fendt 943 Challenger has arrived along with a demo Bednar Terraland TN 3 metres Chisel Plough. We are excited to see how well this pairing goes as it could possibly reduce the ploughs use by 50%.  We don't have too much for the Bednar to do right away, but enough to see what it can do.  Then we will be hitching up the crawler to our Horsch Tiger drill and start drilling Oilseed Rape.  This years crop was a mixed bag, some did very well and some was a disaster!!  But overall it did well enough to give it another go next year. And the price has been all over the place as yields fluctuate.

Our Claas 770 Lexion is already resigned to just grabbing what it can inbetween showers, and drying expenses will be much higher than last years very cheap harvest.

On a brighter note 90% of our maize crop looks fantastic, the other 10% was drilled late into dry soils and has struggled. Although a good dowsing with liquid digestate has markedly improved it from poor towards average.

We have made a late decision on the maize harvesting machinery, but more about that in the next update.