Cheffins sale at March

4 MFs with less than 500hours! Why do people buy machinery and sell up? Be good for some people I guess.

 

[John 1594]

4 MFs with less than 500hours! Why do people buy machinery and sell up? Be good for some people I guess.

only a few hundered yards up the road from us

grapvine says its down to family disagreement, land has all been let to a friend who has taken it on with crop

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

http://www.cheffins.co.uk/catalogue/machinery/m-and-s-raven-and-raven-farms-ltd-409-0

 

[Flat 10]

only a few hundered yards up the road from us

grapvine says its down to family disagreement, land has all been let to a friend who has taken it on with crop

That's quite sad. Some nice gear.

 

[John 1594]

That's quite sad. Some nice gear.

both him and his late father were very good at building their own kit, the "knight raven" is thier design licenced to knight, i remember the prototype, his father built the frame from box section, the crumbler roller was from a power harrow, and they cut an old naud 4F rev plough up for the leg sockets and used those to mount the tines on the frame

anything in the catalouge marked as "RAVEN" is of thier own manufacture

 

[Flat 10]

both him and his late father were very good at building their own kit, the "knight raven" is thier design licenced to knight, i remember the prototype, his father built the frame from box section, the crumbler roller was from a power harrow, and they cut an old naud 4F rev plough up for the leg sockets and used those to mount the tines on the frame

anything in the catalouge marked as "RAVEN" is of thier own manufacture

I had just worked that out when I saw the name the dispersal sale was in.......... but thanks.

 

[Flat 10]

John- you just need to make an invention to sell, you could have made a cultivator like that it sounds like!

 

[John 1594]

John- you just need to make an invention to sell, you could have made a cultivator like that it sounds like!

how about a sub £500 pressure washer


joking apart, the bloke im now driving the massey for wants me to build him a machine what will peel the ploughed furrow off the edge of the poly whats covering the flowers, and lift the poly up leaving it loose to be folded back across the beds

im thinking a single, concave adjustable offset disc on top, and a lifter/shear built from nice smooth round bar to run under the poly and gently ease it out

 

[Marsh lad]

how about a sub £500 pressure washer


joking apart, the bloke im now driving the massey for wants me to build him a machine what will peel the ploughed furrow off the edge of the poly whats covering the flowers, and lift the poly up leaving it loose to be folded back across the beds

im thinking a single, concave adjustable offset disc on top, and a lifter/shear built from nice smooth round bar to run under the poly and gently ease it out

Who James Lacey does ?

 

[John 1594]

Who James Lacey does ?

Yes

 

[Sonoftheheir]

Got the right idea I reckon!

-
[URL='http://www.cheffins.co.uk/news/']View other news
End of an era for Cambridgeshire farmer

The married dad of two – who farms 1,200 acres of arable around March and Emneth – was diagnosed with type one diabetes aged four.

Despite the condition Mr Raven was always keen to move into the family business, which was started by his father and mother, Michael and Susanne, in the 1970s.

The physical nature of the work and the long hours that it inevitably entailed meant constant monitoring of his blood sugar to ensure it did not drop to potentially dangerous levels.

Now, at the age of just 36, Mr Raven has decided to retire from farming so he can spend more time with wife, Sara, 35, and children Katelyn, nine and Harry, seven – before the condition takes its toll.

"I’m something of a workaholic and I’m always busy," he said. "It’s nonstop. I can’t keep going forever and given my underlying health problems I felt it was the right thing to do.

"We’re fortunate that I’m in a position to be able to say enough is enough. I’ve always managed my diabetes well. But I’ve heard stories of people over doing it and passing away at a relatively young age. What’s the point of retiring at 55 when I might not be able to make the most of it with my family?"

Mr Raven’s father started the family business in the 1970s, when working for electronics firm Pye in Cambridge, beginning with just five acres of land. By the time he passed away in 2009 the enterprise had grown to 1,050 acres – including 450 acres of tenanted land.

Mr Raven, who grows a mixture of wheat, winter barley, oilseed rape and beans, said: "My dad always wanted to follow his dream and be a farmer. I joined the business officially when I was 16, but I’d been working there since I was little. When dad died I took on the entire farm with immediate effect."

Mr Raven has always been passionate about machinery and it was this love that led to an ever increasing workload. He repaired and maintained the farm’s tractors, combine and lorry, while he also invented his own machines and attachments such as straw harrows, tractor weights and grain buckets. His most successful enterprise was a subsoiler cultivation machine that was taken on by an agricultural dealer and sold to a number of farms.

When his land flooded in 2013 he created a home-built attachment to fit on the farm’s digger to help with drainage, while a drop in wheat prices three years earlier inspired him to build two giant grain stores so he could save the harvest for when the market improved.

His farm machinery – which also includes four very low houred and late registered Massey Ferguson tractors and a Case IH axial-flow combine harvester – will be auctioned at an onsite retirement sale on April 8.

Mr Raven said: "I’ll miss it but I’m not going to be resting on my laurels. The home we’re moving to at Wimblington has 10/15 acres for hay, while I’ve still got my digger business and saw hedge cutting equipment to keep me busy."

• The farm sale is being held by Cambridgeshire auctioneers Cheffins at M & S Raven and Raven Farms Ltd, 433 Wisbech Road, Westry, March, Cambridgeshire, PE15 0BA at 10.30am on Wednesday, April 8.

[/URL]

 

[Daniel]

Got the right idea I reckon!

http://www.cheffins.co.uk/news/end-of-an-era-for-cambridgeshire-farmer-1318-

Surely you only contemplate jacking it in in January/February?! By the time we get to the end of March the feelings passed!

 

[bluegreen]

Its a real shame that a farm with quality MFs is packing up, why couldn't they have all Deere kit!! A few less Green uns aboot the area wouldn't go a miss

 

[John 1594]

i ploughed the field next door to the sale site if anyone fancys critiscising my ploughing...........

 

[Sonoftheheir]

http://www.cheffins.co.uk/news/end-of-an-era-for-cambridgeshire-farmer-1318-

Surely you only contemplate jacking it in in January/February?! By the time we get to the end of March the feelings passed!

Ha! I mean the right idea for him with his illness.
Don't think you could build up from 5-1200 acres nowadays?

 

[John 1594]

he is keeping his JCB digger and the saw blade hedgecutter so i assume he will potter about and just do a bit with thiose from now on

 

[simon-0116]

both him and his late father were very good at building their own kit, the "knight raven" is thier design licenced to knight, i remember the prototype, his father built the frame from box section, the crumbler roller was from a power harrow, and they cut an old naud 4F rev plough up for the leg sockets and used those to mount the tines on the frame

anything in the catalouge marked as "RAVEN" is of thier own manufacture

John is lad called stephen, think he went to caythorpe ag college.

 

[John 1594]

John is lad called stephen, think he went to caythorpe ag college.

yes, aged about 36?

 

[Sonoftheheir]

yes, aged about 36?

Says all about it in my post up there ^

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

So not long till it starts, should imagine it will be busy.
Hope some pictures will get posted?
Can't get there myself today