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Corn harvest - South Devon


RichardJW1

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I have to say at this moment in time I'm not at home - photos come courtesy of the family. Father & brother are there to take care of the running of the farm. The winter barley turned out o.k. you can see in the photos that the straw was going white with that typical tired and 'weathered' look, they've already sold some corn off the field. The oats they cut were, in the words of Father, "nothing tearing"; Seems we're not the only ones and apparently a dry snap in April was to blame, coupled with rust disease that was more difficult to control than normal.

Spring barley, well early days yet, but providing the sun stays shining they should 'cruise' through it. Fingers crossed.

They were saying how stress-free its been in having the 8040 for this year's monsoon season over the old M89 [bless her cotton socks] and the usual pre-season stress that went with getting her ready - fibre-glass filler in the grain pan, porous fuel pipes etc.

I have to say that having worked at home in my younger days I fully sympathise [perhaps not the right word] with what goes in to resusitating some of these not so new machines in whatever part of the world we stand.

Anyway things were going well, round-baling hay & straw ahead of the rain clouds then the cam-track on the RP12S wore out on Friday evening!!! So in line with the celebrity fit club the 376 square baler got dragged in to service and they had a taste of heaving bales.....once again as a timely reminder of them 'Good Ole Days'.

By the way, it seems horse hay in small squares is making around ?6 a piece!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Nashmach,

Yes, we have had several calls, its sold, just waiting for the guy to pick it up. Even had calls from Southern Ireland!

The 8040 performed well, no breakdowns......which was a relief for all concerned.....sure you can imagine what its like buying something like this second hand and wondering what little surprises are lurking......not least in such a difficult harvest as this year

The previous owner had used it for cutting peas in the end of 2006 and the dirt from this had built up on the grain pan, we thought that after our harvest it would have cleared, but even yesterday we had an 'interesting' couple of hours reaching in through the sides and scraping the remanants out with a screw-driver.

The bright-metal work we've covered in waxoyl and want to pour some diesel over the grain pan.....it looks like removing it to repair would be a seriously MAJOR job!!!!

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Performed better than the Deutz Fahr 2780 that my Dad was driving for a friend to cut ours and his barley then - lets just say for the first 5 days of harvest something broke each day and then she went for 3 days like a rocket until she broke the elevator chain with only 5 acres left  >:(

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  • 9 months later...

The 8040 looks immaculate! What a smart machine!

Nice shots too, I like farmers that own all their own gear and use it all, especially the older gear, love too see it all working in the modern age!

you should see their county out on the hill working mate, seen it a few times now, pretty impressive site i must say on the hills round that way

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Thanks for the kind words folks.   :)

810, those pics were taken in the field up on the right just as you come past the Salcombe sign (before the dip in the road), they moved to the field next to it later in the evening and went on till about 7:30 but the moisture climbed up to over 17%

By the way, I hear the South Hams Vintage Machinery Club have their show on 9th & 10th August near Kingsbridge

more pics again soon.......    :)

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:D :D

Lucky I asked then eh Richard :D :D

Nice to see her immaculate as last year - what are the yields like this year?

Weekend doesn't look great at the moment - have not heard of anyone cutting yet near me but then we are nearly all spring crops with some winter wheat and oats in my neck of the wood ;)

How do you manage those big hills when you are sowing or what do you sow with ???

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On these hills brother usually puts the fertiliser on now with the 885 with dual wheels. The field we look in to here in the first picture was ploughed up once after the second WW when the WarAg committee was getting Britain back on its feet again....then we (or at least a contractor) ploughed it once again in '78 with a Fiat 780DT & 5 furr MF semi-mtd plough, we got hit really bad by the drought of '76 and with our soil being light sandy stuff and rock not so far from the surface so the grass really suffered.

Any of you fellas who 'work' steep ground will know there's a knack in getting the ground conditions just right before you venture on them, too wet and you'll make a hell of a mess, too dry and you don't get any 'bite' from the tyres. Likewise the hill itself may not be that steep but you have to consider if the cow ruts run parallel and which track you need to be in......believe me its scary stuff when the lower wheel slips off a rut part way along. Also have to weigh up where you're going to run out if you do get in to trouble. In these pictures you can see brother has been there with the County on duals, still got some left to do - the photos probably don't give the real impression quite like standing there and seeing for yourself.

In these pictures you'll some dark green patches, that's bracken & its bl00dy lethal stuff to get on, the stem is really sappy and if the ground underneath is dry its like being on glass.

(Mods, sorry for going slightly off topic here)

23r2wd0.jpg

dualledup-1.jpg

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We put fertilizer on the grass ground with a 12cwt Lely centreliner and now in the latter years brother has taken to planting the barley with the spinner as well, of course its not so accurate in terms of even sowing depth and there's no tramlines but there you go

grasseeds-1.jpg

We do have a MF30 still in the shed but it only plants about 2.5m at a time and its a bit small behind the 885.

Here is a picture from back in the '80s when I used to drill with the 165

1987.jpg

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Nice shots - not so sure about sowing barley with a spinner though :-[

We also have a MF 30 2.4m so suits our 12m tramlines perfectly - a hoe coulter not disc like yours and row crop wheels on it ;)

I note a digger has been added to the fleet in your signature ;) ;)

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i have noticed fields arround you way with no tramlines, always asumed it was down to a real good crop nice and bushy ect, guess not after seeing that reply richard :D :D :D makes a good idea mind, has to be easier than drilling even if the spread / depth aint quite up to standard,do you still manage to keep a good yeald compaired to drilling

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