When is the time to confront the elephant in the room ?

[Hilly]

Then put a big tedder on it! Dad's neighbour runs 2 15 metre tedders on JD6630's covering about 40 acres and hour. Why would anyone use a 200+hp tractor for tedding?

Because it’s all they have ?

 

[Secret Agronomist]

We could grow potato varieties that need less irrigation and less N but the "market" says they want Piper!
We could use less blight sprays and so less spray passes by gene editing in resistance but the "market" doesn't want that either. However seemingly they want meat grown in a vat

 

[Exfarmer]

While we are berating the change of farming into larger and more powerful, tractors, combines, crawlers sprayers etc. There are some on this forum who have been promoting forms of farming where the tackle has been getting lighter and smaller, whether it be by DD or robots.
I am sad that the intelligentsia though, cannot get off its backside to look at the facts behind food production, instead of taking the lazy way and respouting the rubbish promoted by a those with an axe to grind , backed up by the vast corporations who want to dominate the food industry from production through to point of sale. They see the Mcdonalds and the margarine industries as the pointer of completely controlling pricing from inputs to consumer selling pap made in factories to gullible customers

 

[Hilly]

Then put a big tedder on it! Dad's neighbour runs 2 15 metre tedders on JD6630's covering about 40 acres and hour. Why would anyone use a 200+hp tractor for tedding?

I’ve been Turing hay this week with a 3185 fastrac cos it has air con and is comfortable it don’t use a lot of fuel

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I think the really interesting question is how many calories of fuel is used to produce on calorie of food? This answer is the ultimate arbiter of food production system; organic, bio dynamic, GM, monocrop arable, mixed, regenerative, ploughing, direct drilling, min til? If we reduce fuel use it is better for the climate. Is it better to eat a lamb off the hills with virtually no fuel used or wheat at 10 t/ha?

 

[Hilly]

U.K. agriculture, farmer receives grants for new cattle crush , cattle ruin the environment ...... its contradiction all day long In farming

 

[Exfarmer]

I’ve been Turing hay this week with a 3185 fastrac cos it has air con and is comfortable it don’t use a lot of fuel

Give me a cabless DB 780 over any modern tractor on a tedder on days like today, oh and my youth as well

 

[Hilly]

Give me a cabless DB 780 over any modern tractor on a tedder on days like today, oh and my youth as well

Kills me I get hay fever , it’s air con or im
Not doing doing it, sufferd enough in last no more

 

[Exfarmer]

I think the really interesting question is how many calories of fuel is used to produce on calorie of food? This answer is the ultimate arbiter of food production system; organic, bio dynamic, GM, monocrop arable, mixed, regenerative, ploughing, direct drilling, min til? If we reduce fuel use it is better for the climate. Is it better to eat a lamb off the hills with virtually no fuel used or wheat at 10 t/ha?

Sadly no easy answer, If you try and work out the answer, probably the 4 tonne crop of wheat will produce the most calories for least input, but not trying to grow it on a Welsh mountain

 

[upnortheast]

Hmmm maybe the 135 uses more fuel per acre than big tractor with big Tedder ?

My rough calc is that we use a similar amount of diesel making silage with a SPF & big supporting kit compared with 40 years ago,Zetor crystal, trailed Jaguer Ford 3000 & Int 275 with 3 ton trailers.
Only difference, a short day compared with 2.5 days

 

[Bald Rick]

I’ve been Turing hay this week with a 3185 fastrac cos it has air con and is comfortable it don’t use a lot of fuel

"Gear up, Throttle down"

Even in 1993, my Deutz has a "Econ PTO" point marked on the rev counter at 1600 rpm

I ignore it - Open the front window & wallow in the sound of an air cooled 6 cylinder on full chat

 

[Lowland1]

Boy thats a huge extreme difference you quote
depends on context imo.
i would rather drive a 4000 ...
( not that it was ever my favourite tractor there is other lightweight 'classics, that would suit me better and maybe a few yrs newer with a quieter cab and ps. )
...that i owned and paid for and on my own farm business than work for someone else on a fancy fendt.
the thing is , if there is so many looking for a way into farming ? then surely they would agree with that .

bottom line is if you genuinely want to/ like,/ love to to farm keep stock ,grow things etc in there own right fancy glossy machines to ride around on arent quite the thing.

i took the op to mean theres far too much emphasis on getting bigger/ heavier /fancier kit (imo thats the Elephant in the room) where does that end .

As a youngster if the choice was a 4000 or something bigger with Qcab and radio i’d have been in the Qcab tractor even if it looked daft now it’s the right tractor for the job every time (i still have a 4000 and a 4600 and a 4610). As for my son he’s having fun because we won’t be getting a Fendt ever especially not one as stupidly big. Yesterday he was learning how to run a Lexion 8900 and we most certainly won’t be getting one of those. I believe crop yields are static in UK because of the damage to soil done by bigger and bigger equipment not just through sheer weight but by the ability to drag tackle through the soil at times it shouldn’t be touched. Perhaps instead of promoting direct drilling to save soils we should be looking at weight limits of equipment allowed in fields.
As an aside apparently they couldn’t deliver a cultivator to a farm today as it’s brakes had locked. Come on what type of cultivator needs brakes.

 

[Hilly]

My rough calc is that we use a similar amount of diesel making silage with a SPF & big supporting kit compared with 40 years ago,Zetor crystal, trailed Jaguer Ford 3000 & Int 275 with 3 ton trailers.
Only difference, a short day compared with 2.5 days

Exactly .

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Unless you get China on board you may as well pee in the ocean, and there is little chance of that's ,

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Sadly no easy answer, If you try and work out the answer, probably the 4 tonne crop of wheat will produce the most calories for least input, but not trying to grow it on a Welsh mountain

well I was wondering if it might be no till with animals on the farm, and lower yeilds, but lower inputs, probably not organic with ploughing, but I would be inclined to say you can't beat Welsh Lamb!

 

[Hilly]

"Gear up, Throttle down"

Even in 1993, my Deutz has a "Econ PTO" point marked on the rev counter at 1600 rpm

I ignore it - Open the front window & wallow in the sound of an air cooled 6 cylinder on full chat

I plod about at 1500 revs at 16k

 

[Hilly]

Unless you get China on board you may as well pee in the ocean, and there is little chance of that's ,

Exactly , even talking about it here is a joke let alone doing anything unless they do

 

[Lowland1]

The dealer was negligent for not warning him to keep to the speed limit!

I actually told him that it was illegal plus i’m sure a 54 ft header and trailer plus tractor might be breaking some rules.

 

[Hilly]

Sadly no easy answer, If you try and work out the answer, probably the 4 tonne crop of wheat will produce the most calories for least input, but not trying to grow it on a Welsh mountain

4 ton is pub yield as well , the truth will be more like 2 average .

 

[thesilentone]

It must be next to nothing because the digesters are hauling it miles and that's green energy

Excellent point, however they have an argument, it's called the Sustainability Criteria, we don't.

With climate change being such a hot potato, we need to know our onions, and have answers when questions are asked.

If we are emitting 10.9kg of CO2 for every gallon of diesel used, how much is that for say 2000 tons of silage equivalent for the AVERAGE farm when calculating all the equipment required ?

The elephant in the room is many are not even thinking about CO2 or emissions, or fuel consumption, or in many cases economics. Years ago a Man asked how much does it cost in feed to produce a kg of meat, or a litre of milk, rather embarrassingly, no one could answer, his name was Richard Keenan. Not only did he tell us, he showed us how to improve it, a watershed moment in feeding cattle in the UK and Ireland.

However, at the moment we appear to have a blank canvass.

Blaming the Chinese, fry-up's abroad, how many live in the World, the Viking's or the Romans ain't gonna cut it......

Or, we could wait until some well connected tree hugging extremist is given airtime and states making silage is unsustainable...........