Farm digger uses

j6891

Member
Location
Perth & Kinross
Thinking of getting a 13/14 tonne ish digger. Is there anyone running anything similar that have found "extra" uses for it rather than just digging. Obviously loading muck would be a start but what about handling bales, loading bags of fert/seed, putting in fence posts etc. Probably just looking at more ways to justify it 🤦
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
We put the odd fence post in, good for levelling tracks, straightening stuff, dragging kit out when it gets stuck, cleaning ditches, draining is probably one of our biggest use though and has saved us a fortune not only on not having to pay a contractor but in the time saving from not needing to wait for one.
Also good for recovering trailers for the neighbour 😂
6AA1A54B-25A4-4928-BAB1-782C9C055D3E.jpeg

Honestly, once you get a 360 excavator you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it!
 

j6891

Member
Location
Perth & Kinross
We put the odd fence post in, good for levelling tracks, straightening stuff, dragging kit out when it gets stuck, cleaning ditches, draining is probably one of our biggest use though and has saved us a fortune not only on not having to pay a contractor but in the time saving from not needing to wait for one.
Also good for recovering trailers for the neighbour 😂
View attachment 1037283
Honestly, once you get a 360 excavator you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it!
Yes timeliness of a lot of these jobs is worth a bit I'd say such as getting stuck. All ring fenced here so would just be tracking about however slowly. If your not on the hire clock then does that matter if it takes a while? Handier bucket with no teeth?
 

tomlad

Member
Location
nr. preston
Id be looking for a low loader rather than loads of tracking about , tracks / running gear is expensive
Quite possibly so sre lowloaders .... can move bales tho too.
 

clbarclay

Member
Location
Worcestershire
There are many tools like that, which you wonder if you can justify and then once you have one, wonder why you hadn't justified one sooner.

We bought a low loader to principal move two scrap combines and then probably sell once that job was done. A decade later and wouldn't want to be without one now.

I don't leave a digger down the field over night now after one attempt to steal it from the middle of the farm.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Never been without a digger since the 60ts current model is JS 145 , blade is a must imo , would probs go Hitachi if I changed , this one's been a pain , silly things all the time , and slew been noisy for 12 month and no one can cure it , used to use it on the pit when we did clamp
 

Phil P

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
North West
Yes timeliness of a lot of these jobs is worth a bit I'd say such as getting stuck. All ring fenced here so would just be tracking about however slowly. If your not on the hire clock then does that matter if it takes a while? Handier bucket with no teeth?
For our job time is definitely money! It’s happened on a number of occasions where we’ve been following the plough with the drill and found a stopped drain. We’ve just gone and got our machine and fixed it, usually drilling again with in a couple of hours. If we had to wait for a contractor it could be days a week or even more before we get going again.

Toothless bucket mean we don’t damage drains when looking for them and if your ever working near a gas pipeline of electricity main toothless is a requirement or you can’t dig. Unfortunate we have a number of pipelines across a block of land including and ethylene pipeline which means we have to have someone from the pipeline company with you to dig in that field 🤦🏻‍♂️
It’s handy having a few different size buckets though, we have a digging, trenching and grading bucket so always got the right one for the job.
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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