The Snowball and the Hill

[Henarar]

It is the general view that the prevailing wind is from the southwest. In the last 5 years however, we've had an abnormal amount of rain and wind from the North. Infact, from all directions really.

most of our sheds face east and so does the house
a mate has his cattle sheds facing north, bloody crap in the winter never gets any sun or dry's out

 

[TripleSix]

It's not what you make, it's what you spend...

All machinery does is lessen physical labour.


You could farm our place with a Fordson Major, indeed they used to.
But it's a lot nicer from the air conditioned cab of the MX135 with front suspension and power loader.

Even though it will soon need new rear tyres, possibly a repair to the air con and has just had a water pump...

 

[roscoe erf]

if you have it facing the right way as walt said and have three closed in sides even if it blows in the front it won't get that far in as the wind will stall

I can tell you don't live round here

 

[DrWazzock]

Our old granary which is part of the original farmstead is on the first floor. It runs north south. On the north end of the granary you find the raised threshing floor about 3 feet above ground level where they used to beat the grain with hand flails on a floor which still has a big door to the west and another to the east to allow the wind to blow through and winnow the grain. They took the sacks of grain up the steps at the north end for storage. The doors etc are still there. It's all been been incorporated in the new (1950's) set up, concreted out and reroofed but the basic principles of using the prevailing wind to winnow the grain can still be clearly seen. Under the granary was a waggon shed and at the south end was a staircase for taking out the bags of grain. A cattle or crew yard was added later with open fronted sheds build round an open square courtyard for the beast. Plenty of ventilation but they could get out of the rain.

We still used the granary floor right up till 1980 for bulk storage. It held about 15 tons and we'd all shovel the grain across the flat floor towards the auger which took it out the south door and poured it down into a lorry.

Old habits died hard here.

We eventually went to a bulk loading shovel in the new clear span shed as the auger got too slow and we had a bit of a scare when the neighbour managed to collapse his granary by overloading it, submerging his workshop, which was underneath, in grain. It took some clearing up.

 

[Selectamatic]

I think the potato kit can go.

Maybe the small bale kit as well. Then when people ring up wanting a bit doing we can say we haven't got it, rather than getting sucked in to charity work. Small bales can be handy though and most more profitable to sell than rounds. Kit takes up a lot of room, especially flat eight sledge and lister elevator.

We had toyed with the idea of a bale bandit to go all mechanised handling but £68000 just can't be justified. This illustrates the problem. The existing kit is tiresome and outdated but the step up to the next level is prohibitively expensive so we are stuck at this level, or we just get out.

Our old granary which is part of the original farmstead is on the first floor. It runs north south. On the north end of the granary you find the raised threshing floor about 3 feet above ground level where they used to beat the grain with hand flails on a floor which still has a big door to the west and another to the east to allow the wind to blow through and winnow the grain. They took the sacks of grain up the steps at the north end for storage. The doors etc are still there. It's all been been incorporated in the new (1950's) set up, concreted out and reroofed but the basic principles of using the prevailing wind to winnow the grain can still be clearly seen. Under the granary was a waggon shed and at the south end was a staircase for taking out the bags of grain. A cattle or crew yard was added later with open fronted sheds build round an open square courtyard for the beast. Plenty of ventilation but they could get out of the rain.

We still used the granary floor right up till 1980 for bulk storage. It held about 15 tons and we'd all shovel the grain across the flat floor towards the auger which took it out the south door and poured it down into a lorry.

Old habits died hard here.

We eventually went to a bulk loading shovel in the new clear span shed as the auger got too slow and we had a bit of a scare when the neighbour managed to collapse his granary by overloading it, submerging his workshop, which was underneath, in grain. It took some clearing up.

Your place sounds brilliant!

 

[DrWazzock]

Your place sounds brilliant!

It's a working museum.

 

[Selectamatic]

It's a working museum.

It sounds it, I'm intrigued and quite envious I think.

It's rare that we have such farms around here, old shippons perhaps, but nothing as 'modern' as you there (modern back in the day, of course).

There was a farm in the parish which, in the war years, and just after (I'm guessing) was probably on the cutting edge, similar granary to yours, a shippon for milking with hay loft above, a railway that was used to cart cow muck to the other end of the yard, where the trolley was tipped into the midden, pig sty, bull pen, boiler room. All the modern stuff, back in the day. It was kept like that, largely untouched by a pair of bachelor brothers until they died, the land being rented out for the last 25 odd years of their lives.

It's all gone now, or going, redundant stuff replaced by steel and plastic. Shame really, in many ways.

 

[DrWazzock]

Ours isn't in original condition but was incorporated into the 1950's upgrade. In some ways this gave it a new lease of life. It would not now convert into holiday accommodation as its now within the more modern grain handling system, but you can still see the stone walls, original door frames and Windows. The mill and mix system is now located where the old thrashing floor used to be.

In the 1960s a pair of simplex radial bins were fitted for drying with a fan and 21 kW electric heater bank. In the 1980's we rescued an Almet continuous flow drier from the local mill and installed it here. The simplex bins were then used for cooling only. Myself and a school friend dug the intake pit for the drier when we should have been revising for O levels, but it didn't do us any harm. Still using this drying system today. 20 tonnes a day down from 22% to 14% is possible. Good in a wet year.

 

[unlacedgecko]

On the other hand....

They all need loving.

And Bridget Jones is cute as hell. More so than the plastic faced stick insect that is Renee Zelwegger.

 

[spin cycle]

TBH doc....if having old kit and moving it about to keep it dry is you're biggest problem then you're a lucky man.....look at the '3 stresses test' on dairy section

we're all guilty of worrying/freting in our 'bubble' though

 

[DrWazzock]

TBH doc....if having old kit and moving it about to keep it dry is you're biggest problem then you're a lucky man.....look at the '3 stresses test' on dairy section

we're all guilty of worrying/freting in our 'bubble' though

You are right. People on here have far bigger problems. I am just mulling over the general direction of my business really and wondering if there is anything I need to do to simplify or rationalise it.

I need to make a few tweaks but generally I am happy with it.

Thanks for the advice folks. I'll leave it at that.

 

[vulcan]

It's a working museum.

any chance of any pictures of your place sounds fascinating.

 

[DrWazzock]

I'll put some in the "today at work" section when I get a chance.

 

[Selectamatic]

I'll put some in the "today at work" section when I get a chance.

Can you tag me in to that, I dont look at that thread very much...

 

[DrWazzock]

We aren't that unusual really. There is a whole wealth of agricultural architecture and history hidden away around this county, but granted a lot has disappeared over the past 30 years. I find it fascinating and quite poignant.

 

[Campbell]

I've heard this a few times from casual observers. "can't understand farmers, they keep straw in great big barns, but leave expensive machinery outside in the rain"

 

[New Puritan]

@DrWazzock - did you ever put some photos up of your farm? It sounds fascinating, and like others said above I also don't usually look at the TAW thread.

Also, I was looking at some other threads earlier and found one where you mention an oil press. Did you ever get it installed / working?

 

[DrWazzock]

@DrWazzock - did you ever put some photos up of your farm? It sounds fascinating, and like others said above I also don't usually look at the TAW thread.

Also, I was looking at some other threads earlier and found one where you mention an oil press. Did you ever get it installed / working?

I'll get some photos up when I get time. I sold the oil press on to an expert as it was one project too many for me. There is a limit to the number of different enterprises you can have running at one time, particularly when you don't employ anybody. It comes back to the snowball and the hill. I am now trying to melt the snowball by rationalising my business, cutting down on the number of different strands within it and trying to be more like the master of a few trades rather than Jack of too many. I need to curb my enthusiasm for machinery projects, and stick to the essentials. I have got rid of the cattle for the time being as I try to make time to tidy up 40 years of accumulated junk, some of it inherited, some of it self inflicted. I want a tidy yard, a tidy mind, a tidy business and a hopefully a tidy profit. Getting there gradually.

 

[New Puritan]

Thanks @DrWazzock . I appreciate I am taking this thread not only off-topic but possibly in the opposite direction, but I am interested in the oil press idea. You have the benefit of having been a farmer for a lot longer than I, so whilst you are sensibly looking to rationalise what you do, I am still searching for ideas as to which things might work on my (very) small scale.

Just out of interest, do you run the farm on your own or with family help still?

Was the oil press like this:



...

 

[DrWazzock]

Thanks @DrWazzock . I appreciate I am taking this thread not only off-topic but possibly in the opposite direction, but I am interested in the oil press idea. You have the benefit of having been a farmer for a lot longer than I, so whilst you are sensibly looking to rationalise what you do, I am still searching for ideas as to which things might work on my (very) small scale.

Just out of interest, do you run the farm on your own or with family help still?

Was the oil press like this:



...

Run the farm with brother. The oil press was a screw and barrel type, driven by an electric motor. It was a Kernkraft KK40, an industrial machine. An enterprise can be built around such a machine but it requires considerable time and effort and knowledge to get it up and running. You need good sales and marketing for the product etc etc. So, as I am fairly busy anyway I decided to abandon it as a project. One less thing to get bogged down in for me, though it could and does work for others. I sold it to a bloke who had built up such a business supplying cold pressed oils.

And this illustrates quite nicely the snowball concept. It's easy to bog yourself down in a multitude of nice hobby-like enterprises but they can become very demanding of time and energy for little return.

Better to concentrate on maximising efficiency of a few main strands of your business that mesh well together. So I concentrate on combinable crops and sugar beet. The bagged spuds have gone. The oil press has gone, the cattle have gone for the time being anyway, and I find that by paying more attention to detail on what remains, I am actually doing a better job than running round like a headless chicken from one to another. My brother runs the sheep enterprise. That keeps him busy. We help one another when necessary particularly with forage and areas that overlap but having some separation of responsibilities stops us from getting under one another's feet.