Machinery for a 'smaller' farm?!

[Hesston4860s]

No land to farm at all but still have

JD 4755
JD 7710
JD 3050
JCB 530/70 special super
NH BB950
Heath superchaser qm
Takeuchi TB135 digger
Fella single rotor rake
And
PZ drum mower

 

[Johnny400]

Crop around 250 acres with arable and forage crops. 170 grass.
Machinery for the cropping side(but shared with the livestock)
NH 6070
JCB 526
JD 2054 combine
2 grain trailers
4f plough
6m vaderstadt rollers with paddles
24m fert spreader

All bought second hand
Contractor for spraying and sowing. Hire in other kit

 

[tr250]

This makes me realise we have too much kit

 

[Granite Farmer]

300ac upland farm inc 40 arces of barley and 20ac of lupin/trit wholecrop. Beef and sheep.

NH TM120
JD6330 std with loader
Same Silver 100.6
Ford 7610 with loader
NH TC54 combine
4f furrow rev dowdeswell
4m dowdeswell cultivator
6m opico harrow with airseeder
9t KTwo rear discharge dung spreader (do a fair bit of outside work with that)
8ft Claas disco mower and associated grassland equipment
KV Accord fert spinner
Berthoud Standermatic sprayer 12m
8t grain trailer
21ft bale trailer
4t general purpose tipping trailer
Straw spreader
Keenan Easifeeder 100
McConnel Rhino
9ft roller

All bought and paid for. The combine is an extravagance.

Contractor does the drilling

 

[jamesy]

300 acres here, 70/80 acres spring barley the rest at grass

NH T5060 bought new in 09
KV 3 furrow reversible (ancient) £1500 in 08
Accord DC drill (ancient) £2100 in 09
Niemeyer 7ft drum mower (ancient) £700 in 07
Haybob bought new in 05 £1450
KV static wrapper with remote (a fair age) £1750 in 06
Trailer of unknown vintage £1200 in 09
Claas Senator 80 £2240 in 13
Fraser 7" bruiser bought new in 97
Grey Fergie bought new in 56..... Drives the bruiser all winter
NC cattle trailer bought new in 97
Terex 960 digger bought 03 £22000 do a little hire work with it.

Quite happy to work with older/smaller kit as long as it makes financial sense. Also quite happy to call in contractor if needed because I can't do two things at once!

 

[carbonfibre farmer]

85acres, 65at home 20-12miles away. Wheat,barley,sugar beet, linseed, beans and half acre of spuds. All done ourselves apart from beet drilling and harvesting.
Claas dom 68 12ft cut 1988 1600h
Claas axos 320 2013 68h!
NH tla70 2006 2260h
Ford 4600 1976 7400h (x2 engine!)
Fordson supermajor 60s hrs unknown ie huge!
Fordson major late 50s hrs unknown ie huge!
12mtr sprayer and spreader
8t Marston
6t legg
plus 3 smaller trailers
overum ransomes 3 furrow plough
3mt konskilde mounted germinator
plus other harrows
Cambridge rolls
hay making gear, drum mower,rake haybob.
claas markant 65 1996
refurbished opico 9t drier
and the spawn of the devil-bl@@dy sucker blower.

Me and the good lady moved in 4yrs ago and father moved out up the rd. Both have other interests. I work 2 days wk off farm-making bits for racing cars outta carbon fibre.
Everything brought and paid for. New tractor every 6-8yrs. Sprayer,spreader and plough brought new. Everything else, farm sales, farmers guide word of mouth etc.
Make money every yr(without sfp too if it went)
Everything gets done as we like for timelessness. Never much rush in fathers case.... Have time for family (18month daughter) which is lovely.
As Much a lifestyle as a job and puts a smile on my face!
Could earn 4x plus more doing carbon work. Would never see family (at least 14hr days7day wk) working in industrial unit with no windows. Soulless. Did it for 5 years when younger and giving me a good start in life but not now.
Definitely a place for small farmers if prepared to use older gear and do other bits and bobs.

 

[Shutesy]

Here in Essex we farm 650 acres, 450 arable, 200 grassland. So perhaps not the smallest of farms, but given our kit list its using much smaller kit than a lot of others here confirming my view that we are underpowered in terms of size but not number! Funnily we have very little space around the place!
Case MX110
McCormick CX85
Claas Axos 320 + loader
DB 1394 + loader
DB 1294
DB 990 + loader
DB 1190
DB 885
Fordson Major
TD 6 Crawler
BTD 6 Crawler
(5 other vintage tractors that never get used)
Merlo 32.6
Deutz 6040 combine
9t, 8t, 6t and 4t homemade grain trailers
6t and 4t muck trailers
2x 14ft flat trailers
5x 22ft homemade bale trailers
12m team sprayer
12m vicon wagtail spreader
1x DP7 and 3x DP8 dowdeswell ploughs
2x discs
2x kkk springtine
2x mf 30 drills 3.5m (grass reseed) and 4m (arable)
3x sets of cambridge gang rolls
Haybob
Acrobat
Claas rollant round baler
Deutz round baler
Subsoiler
2x Chisel plough
Bracey cultivator
Cousins pigtail
Hedgecutter
Bale wrapper

So that's 11 tractors and 13 different trailers (Christ!!) and 12m tramlines on 650 acres, depressing!

Doesn't include the mountains of old (most pre 1970s, some pre war) ploughs, sprayers, cultivators, drills etc also lying about!

 

[grumpy]

Another way of looking at this is to buy some big but old kit and spend less time in a cab and more quality time with family and perusing other interest maybe ?

you know you do a good job of dispelling the myth that all big arable guys are tossers,which is held by most live stock farmers.

 

[grumpy]

You should maybe all join together and have 1200 acres with one combine, big tractor and sprayer. Which is more efficient?

it isnt actually.

 

[brynseiri]

You could do it all with about ten mf35's, no need to hitch and unhitch implements, think of the time you would save ploughing 200 acres with a three furrow ferguson plough and not having to unhitch the plough to go disk it afterwards! Seriously, do you even need 150 hp on 200 acres? Better to earn a profit than work just to pay a massive knock bill for one tractor every month.

 

[MrNoo]

600ac, NH6090, Ford 7600, Manitou 627, Weaving subdisc 3m, Vaddy box drill 3m, home made set of rolls 8m, 2x 14t smythe grain trailers, NH CX6080 24ft cut, 3 home made bale trailers, amazon fert spreader 24m, 24m Agribuggy (bought as scrap/rebuilt) McConnell hedger, relic of a KV 4 furrow plough somewhere. Do it all myself bar combining when an retired ex employee comes in, also contract combine extra 300ac.

 

[Wombat]

Another way of looking at this is to buy some big but old kit and spend less time in a cab and more quality time with family and perusing other interest maybe ?

Exactly, my aim is to be able to do all the major jobs in two weekends so it fits round the day job. Sitting on a piece of farm machinery I find a good way to stress relieve (even when stuff is going wrong )

 

[Warp Land Farmer]

180a combinable split 50%WW, 25%WB, 25%WOSR plus 60a grass / 50 cows with 48 carves.

JD 6900 11200hrs
MF 4260 4400hrs
MF 35
MF27 combine 12ft
JD 3200 telehandler
2no Lemken 5f ploughs, 1 fixed / 1 vari
12t Griffiths trailer
8t Marshall bale trailer
Amazone 4m power harrow combi drill
Amazone 24m spreader
Lely 3m power harrow
Farm Force 3.4m combi-press
Cousins 3.4m spring tine
Dowdswell 3.4m heavy disks
Browns pigtail cultivator
JD 550 round baler
Lely lotus tedder

On the look out for.... 6m folding rolls (can't keep borrowing them from friendly neighbough), 24m sprayer (contractor retires at Christmas), disk mower (don't want to rely on contractor now we have our own baler)....all will be quality (hopefully!) 2nd hand.....would love to up the 4260 for a few more HP so we could plough and follow with the combi drill.

Do it all ourselves at weekend / nights as both have 50/60hr wk jobs outside farming (and reasonably understanding wife's!)

 

[B&B Pig Man]

330 ac roughly

MF 6490 with loader
NH T5.105 with loader
Sanderson 726 teleporter (on it's last legs, and not really used)
Spalings 4 leg flat lift with discs and did packer
5m pigtail drag (ancient but brilliant!)
KRM 4m soladrill
Kuhn axis 30.1 spreader

Everything else either borrowed/hire/contractor in.

 

[tr250]

mf 6480 x2
McCormick mc115
mf 3065 2wd
manitou 634
matbro tr250
jd gator
polaris quad
3m sumo
3.3m cultipress
8m cousins rolls
4m kv ts drill
5f kv plough
15ton bunning
bailey silage trailer 14ton x2
griffiths 11 ton silage trailer
jf fct 900 forager
tarrup 307 mower
keenan 140
teagle tommahawk 8080
nh bb9070
welgar rp435
berthoud 20m sprayer
amazone spreader
kv 4m power harrow
connor slurry tanker
20tf cattle trailer
2x30ft cherry bale trailers
mole drainer
astwell bale wrapper
claas tucano 440 22ft
thats all i can think of 400ac arable 500 ish grass 200 suckler cows 550 ewes all fatterened + contracting mainly combining and baling but alsorts of other bits probably not small but all big arable farmer neighbors wonder what we mess about at with our little cabbage patch. labour is me and brother and dad age 72

 

[Holland new]

Must admit I have really enjoyed reading this. Its nice to see so many of you just pottering along with old gear and getting all your work done. Theres a lot to be said about been self sufficient and I'm sure a lot of pleasure gained when doing so. Stephen.

 

[DeeGee]

Well over tractored here with only 240 acres of mixed grass and arable. No tractor or Loadall is under fifteen years old but it’s so much easier to have spare machines that are all paid for.

Great to just jump on a twenty year old Massey to go ploughing, and have another hitched onto the discs or Dutch harrow, and then still have one free for moving about trailers and another on the fertilizer spinner. A couple of old Loadalls have together cost just a third of a new one, but they get the work done just as well if not quicker than one new machine, and they owe me nothing.

A 265 is always on the small sprayer in the summer for odd grass fields that aren’t worth calling the contractor to do, as is a 6150 almost always on the Lely 770 for scattering grass.

In my opinion there is a lot to be said for having surplus machines that are paid for and always well maintained. Even a brand new tractor or Loadall can breakdown or have a puncture on Christmas Day or on the last dry Sunday before a week of rain at harvest time.

 

[Hooby Farmer]

I'm really enjoying this thread. Things unfortunately have not changed since my dad was farming over 500ac still all the old machinery.
33ac of spring barley 3 combines total value, about 6k.

 

[Munkul]

160 acres dairy...
Up til last Thursday we had:
MF 4370
Case JX1100U
MF 390T
MF 390
MF 185
MF 185 w/ power loader
MF 65 w/power loader
MF 135
Manitou 634-120
Fermec 850 turbo backhoe
LOTS of small trailers

...too many machines! Good job we persuaded the old man to part with the older 390, 185 and 65 last week!
We don't bother with any cereals any more, we buy in straw, get contractors for chopping and buckraking silage, but we do everything else ourselves.

 

[JR.]

Now for really taking the p1ss.........

340 acres of arable, 74 year old father part time and me at weekends, evenings and holiday

NH TX64 plus 20ft
NH T7.210 ac
JD 6830
NH 7740
Ford 4000 (lives on hedgecutter and does spring rolling on peas)
Ford Dexta
FDI Sambron teleporter
Bateman Hi Lo 24m
Chaviot 12m (just used for slug pelleter)
2 x Marston 12t trailer
1 x Western 7t dumper
1 x Salop 6t trailer
1 x spray readymix bowser
Kuhn Axis 40.2 EMC W
Dablo 8.3m rolls
Vaderstad Rapid 4m
Maschio/Accord 4 m combi drill
Lemken Europal 7 5 furrow plough & press
Sumo Trio 2.5 with seeder
Simba 4.6m unipress
Kuhn Aero 12m for Avadex
Bomford 4m pigtail
Unknown 6m springtines
Maschio 4m (just used to smash rape stalks and pea haulm)
Various other rolls - 6m and 7m
Class Baler
Bertould 12m sprayer
Vicon Supaseeder 4m
Cousins dutch harrow.
Side shift flail
Bomford hedgecutter

Erm - as to justification, everything is paid for by farm and everything is used but not every year - the policy as been not to trade in something when the trade in value is very low and the item might be useful. (4f VN plough handy for headlands every now and then but worth £500 max, old mashio held together with stickyback plastic but great at smashing rape stalks and pea haulm and cheaper than a topper).

Our priority is to keep the farm in hand, we both love farming but dad needs more time away from farm with mum and in the alps and I have a full time job and two kids under 10 years old who are everything to me. The farm is part of our lives (a very important part) but not all of our lives.

And yes, I do appreciate that I am very privileged to be in this situation and I thank my lucky stars all the time.