Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

I have decided to make a second improved layout specifically for parking my contractors tractors & tanker rigs etc and also a new barn specifically to store my Claas harvesters.

I made the framework last weekend, cut and shaped 18mm MDF in three managable sections during last week. Sprayed two sections with Rustoleum (pebble) for the stone effect and left half the middle section to be sprayed grey where the 600 x 500mm barn will be built. The right side section will be sprayed grass green initially but developed as rough ground for parking trailers etc.

I have cut and glued 4 I beam trusses to be deployed at 200mm intervals.  These will be getting sprayed once the glue has stiffened overnight and then the build can continue.

 

P1010515.JPG

  • Like 3
Posted

It's coming along. I wanted to paint the trusses dark green but I had run out of paint, then I noticed a barely used can of old Ford blue which has sat around for 5 years so used that instead.  More timbers required then side panels can go on next.

 

P1010555.JPG

  • Like 7
Posted

Corner pieces added , Juweela roof tiles fitted, guttering painted trimmed and fitted on the front (can't be bothered to do the rear)

I have two sizes of shutter doors, one for open and one for closed.  I am plagerizing Alex at Oakley's build as way of guidance, so thanks to him for trail blazing.

I will leave the roof unfinished as has Alex as it leaves access to move models and also lets the light shine in.

Still have perimeter fence too figure out and right side scrubland trailer park to finish.

P1010627.thumb.JPG.ee2a5f4fd52100d9ee020f6b2ed5a4cc.JPG

  • Like 6
Posted

With the contractors yard now finished we can start moving kit in and free up space around the A D Plant as planned.  Our main contractor Bill Legge has quickly moved in all our tankers which are now ready to go spreading liquid digestate as soon as conditions allow.  Which is not a bad thing as he is still waiting for one of his new tractors to arrive.  As a brief recap Bill knew he would have to change two machines this spring as the 3 year warranties were due to expire on his MF 8740S and his original 8S.265. Although the 8740 had been a good reliable machine Bill found that the lighter 8S could do most of the same jobs and more economically, which persuaded him to look at tractors in the 250-300hp bracket.  He decided to consider other brands to his usual first choice favourites MF due to repeated annoying electrical issues and numb brakes. Both these problems have been well documented by other 8S users with one online blogger "Four Winds Farm" having their 8S tractor taken away for four months by their dealer to fix all the issues! His newer 8S and 7S bought after assurances the troubles were "sorted" has not proved to be entirely the case, although both newer tractors have been better than the original machine so far.  So during last autumn he looked at a few different brands, Valtra from the same dealer as his MFs, John Deere, Deutz and New Holland.  All performed well but he felt that a brand from a different dealer would be best so Valtra were ruled out, followed by Deutz as the dealer was too far away. That left JD & NH, the Deeres were very good and impressed whilst the new NH T7 PLMs particularly impressed which had not been anticipated.  The new cabs being very comfortable and quiet and spacious too. The fuel economy on the demo tractor DOE's left him for a couple of days was better than the MF which was an added bonus. After recieving quotes he decided to order two New Hollands, a T7.270 which is about the same power as his 8S.265 and a flagship T7.300 machine with 280hp that comes with all bells & whistles and will be driven by Bill's son.  Bill's father used to have an all Ford fleet back in the 70s & 80s until MF won him over with the pioneering 3000 series tractors in the early 90s. Whilst Bill was at the DOE show in February he also bought an ex hire 2020 T7.225 to replace his 11 year old MF7495 which was sold last autumn.

Bill's team will be more flexible across our farm and AD Plant enterprise moving forward into 2024 and with an increasing workload due to more land more customers for digestate. And with the spreading expected to commence this week a new Bednar cultivator has arrived to mix the AD plant fertilizer in to our maize ground in front of the drilling campaign.  The swifterdisc was supplied by DOEs and was attached to the rear of his first new NH tractor the T7.270 when he went to collect it.  His T7.225 was delivered soon after the DOE show and has been busy spreading nitrogen on some of our cereal crops.  His team have also been busy spraying across the estate using both his MFs as conditions dictate.

P1010645.JPG

P1010647.JPG

P1010648.JPG

P1010649.JPG

  • Like 3
Posted (edited)
On 3/13/2024 at 6:32 PM, phil phoenix said:

All done, it has been a labour of love thats for sure.  Its nice and neat and also well lit unlike my previous effort built in a dark dingy back room.

 

P1010637.JPG

P1010639.JPG

P1010640.JPG

P1010641.JPG

Brave driver having to leave the yard,but looking very good Phil nice big dio

Edited by Paul Palmer
Posted

Just imagine there is a river running around the perimeter edge Paul and the two entrances are via bridges😉

To build a really good big one with incoming roads or tracks would just take up so much room and also time to build it. This one took three unplanned weeks off work from start to finish.

Posted
27 minutes ago, phil phoenix said:

Just imagine there is a river running around the perimeter edge Paul and the two entrances are via bridges😉

To build a really good big one with incoming roads or tracks would just take up so much room and also time to build it. This one took three unplanned weeks off work from start to finish.

Yes i know Phil😉same with me now Phil, lack of space, but as i hopefully get older i will not miss going up to an attic

Posted

Due to the frustrating rains we were forced to come up with things to do during January, one of them was to build a mounted cultivator capable of assisting drainage across the farms which could be pulled by our 200 - 300hp tractors, a six leg subsoiler, two banks of opposing discs and a big packer roller.  The Fendt 728 was the chosen machine as it hasn't done any serious or hard work yet, thats about to change.

Our contractor has had some issues with the tyres on his new NH T7.270 tractor, one tyre kept deflating and on inspection there were found to be some serious problems with three of the four on the tractor. The tyre manufacturer is looking into it, however contractor Bill is insisting on a tyre brand change as the obvious cure, he has not had issues with previous tyres from the maker so negotiations with maker and dealer are underway. His other new T7 is now at the dealers being PDI'd and also sat on the same makers tyres!!  Silly season will commence as soon as April arrives as we can't put off the backlog of work any longer.

 

P1010671.JPG

P1010674.JPG

  • Like 4
Posted

Delivery Day!!

Our contractor picked up his new NH Bluepower T7.300 on Thursday from Ernest Doe's and then drove to the old farmyard to collect the Claas combine header, which was later followed by the 770 Lexion itself. Still more room in the shed for another harvester, which we are still negotiating with Claas for.

The new blue tractor will be going on the big Joskin tanker after easter to do some direct injecting into old maize stumbles and ripping them up at the same time.

 

P1010681.JPG

P1010683.JPG

P1010684.JPG

P1010686.JPG

P1010687.JPG

  • Like 8
  • 1 month later...
Posted (edited)

The maize drilling has all been completed and drier ground has allowed us to get our tankers out on the fields and spreading liquid digestate.  We also are still loading out dry digestate to our customers and bulking it up to spread on fields after harvesting.

With rapeseed coming along well this year we could be sending the combines in by early July, its going to be a elongated harvest as some of our spring wheats drilled in late April and could be unfit until September. And talking about combines we have just had our second combine delivered to our Norfolk base. Once again its a CLAAS Lexion on tracks and this time its a three seasons old 7700 model which our dealer Manns have supplied us with.  Its much the same output as our existing 770 machine and comes with a 30 ft header which will be more practical on many of our customers smaller fields.  Its better to have two mid range machines with many customers to keep happy, rather than one monster Lexion with a 13m header!!

We currently have a CASE Puma 260 on the farm on demo from Pecks whom are on tour with it in our area. Its the red version of our contractors T7300 machine and everyone who has driven it has been impressed, CNH have upped their game with these tractors.

 

P1010812.JPG

P1010813.JPG

P1010808.JPG

Edited by phil phoenix
  • Like 6
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Harvest is approaching fast and our two Claas combines have been readied for an early July start on some local winter barley. Some of our crops look amazing, many look average and more than I would like are riddled with blackgrass and big gaps due to winter flooding. I think its going to be a long drawn out slog this year and I am very pleased we have two combines to bring in around 3,000 acres rather than relying on one.  Our two balers are being prepped as well and could well be going at the end of June on a neighbours light land barley straw.  We have had plenty of work with our two newest tractors the Fendt 728 & JD 6R 250 and both drivers are delighted with their machines, the Fendt inparticularly is lightening quick and a joy to drive. I have requested a demo of the new 620 model when TNS have one available having been very impressed with the one I sat in at Cereals 2024.

 

P1010982.JPG

P1010955.JPG

P1010985.JPG

P1010986.JPG

P1010987.JPG

  • Like 5
Posted

The 620 looks great, I wonder how many current 720 users will switch to the 4cyl engines, Fendt claim the 4 pot will match any 6 cyl machine of similar power 200-224hp.

I wonder who will be making one, UH, ROS or Wiking???

  • Like 1
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Harvest Update.

Harvest 2024 began on friday in some winter barley and we had all 200 acres harvested by Sunday. The two combines working together to start with before going their seperate ways into our 400 acres of rapeseed on Monday.   This flurry of activity got our trailers moving to and from the grainstore and our two balers into action as well.  We have hooked up the Fendt 728 to our triple axle trailer and she will be lugging bales to our storage area and some we have already sold to a customer, and the Ely power station as the price for straw looks very favourable currently. The tractor has surprised everybody with its 45mph top speed and I can see a few fastrac users will be heading to these in the future.  As one of the lads remarked, its a 724 on steroids!!

 

P1020058.JPG

P1020059.JPG

P1020061.JPG

P1020127.JPG

P1020124.JPG

P1020126.JPG

  • Like 2
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

The dry spell has set in now and we have made significant inroads with the harvest.  The rapeseed is in the barn albeit less tonnage than we had budgeted for.  The barley is also cut and again nothing special, although the barley straw all baled now was excellent.  So we have moved into wheat which I'm sure will be a very mixed bag due to all the wet weather during the year. Crops drilled successfully in the early autumn look terrific and yields from the first of those fields are above average.  We have also cut some later drilled wheats simply because they had just died off and their yields were well below average. We had kept our two Claas combines working together in rape and barley but as we began wheat they have now been seperated.  The new to us 7700 is doing fine as I would expect, but the 770 which was faultless last year has already experienced a couple of breakdowns, however nothing too major and is now working again.  Oilseed rape drilling will begin on Monday in anticipation of some wetter weather soon, our big JD 8R has prepared a few fields during this dry spell that we just couldn't get into last year or spring due to the awful weather. These fields are to be drilled first with our Vaderstad drill and then we will switch to the Horsch direct drill and move into wheat stubbles to plant the remainder. 

One issue from the past year has been addressed this week, the buying of a second sprayer.  We simply couldn't keep up with our spraying schedule due to all the bad weather , the windows to get in the field were so limited that even though we had invested in a 5500 litre trailed Berthoud rig it couldn't cover the ground fast enough on its own. We prefer trailed sprayers as it allows us to justify having an extra tractor on farm to deploy elsewhere when the spraying is up todate, and after shopping around we found an excellent shop soiled Fendt Rogator 344 at Chandlers agriculture.  Apparently Fendt stopped making these even whilst the self propelled Rogator's go from strength to strength, and as you would expect from Fendt the fit and finish is very good. We will use it as our back up machine but it certainly will aide timeliness if weather windows get short again over the coming months. Our contractor Legge's are just focussing on the digestate side of the business and the spraying duties are now back with the farm. We have hired in a Claas axion 870 to pull the Berthoud whilst we decide tractor policy for the coming year ahead.

 

P1020226.JPG

P1020224.JPG

  • Like 5
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Out with the old and in with the new, we have traded in our 5 seasons old Jaguar 980 for a new 990  50 years edition.  More power and a few upgrades plus another great offer from Claas made the change a no brainer!  With our cereal harvest flying along with 75% cut and virtually no drying cost's, we should be able to start on Maize in just over 2 weeks time, and then see how good the new Jaguar is. 

 

P1020157.JPG

P1020264.JPG

P1020267.JPG

  • Like 3
Posted

Harvest 24 is almost over with just a little wheat to cut once its fit and then beans and some spring barley we drilled in April just to get something in a few fields affected by the excessive wet autumn and spring.

As baling gets caught up we will release the big Fendt 936 to start a ploughing campaign. We don't plough much normally but the state of some fields can only be corrected by a total reset. Presently the JD 8R is ripping its way through miles of wheelings in our fields and doing a great job with the Bednar deep tine cultivator. Mind you its like concrete in some fields and the driver George is having to make two passes to get the desired depth reached.  It is very important to re establish some deep channels across the fields this autumn to help improve drainage in case we get another very wet spell.  

Our Fendt 728 continues to impress and we will shortly be taking it off the bale trailer and back onto our other deep tine cultivator and press to help share the work with the big JD 8R.

We took the new Fendt sprayer out this week for its first jobs and the driver was impressed with its features and stability.  The larger Berthoud sprayer is currently parked up waiting to start its autumn schedule whilst its recent yolk (a hired Claas Axion) is out muck spreading. And although the Claas is a very good tractor we have been swayed by the brilliance of our Fendt 728, and have managed to secure our dealers second demo unit. The 24 reg tractor will join us just as soon as it has completed promised demo's to other customers and the arrival of the dealers new replacement tractor.  

 

 

P1020462.JPG

P1020465.JPG

P1020463.JPG

P1020467.JPG

P1020466.JPG

  • Like 5
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Arriving on farm this week was a new Kawecko walking floor maize trailer, this will be our first of this design.  We first looked at a Ktwo but they were going out of business when we were ready to order, so we spoke to a local sub contractor who was using Kawecko and Bergmann trailers bolted to Scania lorry chassis and were given a glowing reference for the Kawecko Radium.  They have been moving maize and the digestate all over east anglia for Pretoria Energy all year, so its a testiment to the products durability. Our Claas dealer Manns helped us get the trailer into the UK as they have an agreement to use Kawecko tankers with their Xerion saddleback tractors.  We aim to start Maize next week as September begins with around 3000 acres to cut and a brand new Jaguar 990 chopper to do it with.

Cereal harvest is all but over with just a couple of sizeble fields of beans to polish off over the weekend.  Then its full bore ahead with cultivations, wheat & barley drilling and maize harvesting.  We plan to put up a photo of the maize team for 2024 next week, and hopefully our second Fendt 728 will also have arrived by then which will affectively replace the role of the Claas 870 Axion hired in tractor in the photo attached.

P1020499.JPG

Edited by phil phoenix
  • Like 3

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.