big arable

[jac]

Just returned from Oxford in the UK. Our nephew has started a new job on a large estate..3000 acres of mainly arable. Two words.. Holly Crap !!!!!!!.. The way these guys produce wheat is awwwsome. GPS mapping on all the equipment. Fertiliser applied to the last ounce. So is the sprays. 500 hp combine that takes out 30ft at 8mph !!!.. I know it sounds as if im letting the side down but when you see how the operation works it does raise a lot of questions for me.. If these guys go to the trouble to have fertiliser spread so acurately is it right for me to use a land driven spreader that basicly spreads indiscriminatly? What happens to the cheap wheat when oil goes or gets pricey? I know some will say “yea but these guys need to have acuracy because of the sheer size”.. but we should be aiming for that too because collectivly the small guys add up…I’ll report better in September as I’ve taken the job of combine driver for this season.. rightly or wrongly I had little choice.. work aint the most abundant up here in Scotland right now.. and as a good friend of mine said. “You do what you got to do to keep the wheels turning”.. Highway I now know how bad you felt thinking of buying a tractor !!!!.
John

[mitchmaine]

hey john, welcome home. let’s see, at 8 mph, that’s an acre per hour per foot of header length. or a shy 30 acres per hour. you could harvest my grain in about 15 or 20 minutes. takes me a couple days. i’d like to try that rig out for the afternoon. sounds like a lot of fun. watch out and don’t get drawn in by the darkside. best o’ luck, mitchl

[jac]

Mitch that combine was the one that broke the harvest record last year. Dont worry about me being drawn into it. In the back of my mind is the fact that none of it is truly sustainable. Totally dependant on oil. All that area and only 4 men getting work !!! It is amazing seeing the technology swing into action though.. Full report in September.
John

[Marshall]

John, If you are anything like me, using that equipment will only make you appreciate what you have even more. I used to help a neighbor that farmed using large machinery. It was fun at first but then got to the point that I didn’t even like to do it any more. To this day if I had a choice I would pick the horses. I don’t have a choice because the horses are all I can afford!!

[jac]

Marshall I know exactly what you mean. If I had the choice Id make my living using horses but it got to the stage that I might have to sell horses and that wasnt an option so the combine won.. Its only for 12 weeks to see us over a bad patch…
John

[Marshall]

Yeah, I would do something I didn’t really like to keep from selling the horses too. Also any combine would beat a factory job as far as I am concerned.

[clayfoot-sandyman]

I wish I could get someone to combine….we’re a tiny 32 acres; and all my neighbours are atleast 10 times that so all their combines probably wouldn’t even fit down our drive – whenever I mention harvesting 2 or 3 acres of grain they always look slightly distant! I’m more or less resigned to just doing hay and fodder beet for the cattle and sheep and buying in for hens/pigs for the time being – keep eyeing up reaper/binders on e-bay but the level of disrepair on them (a dusty pile of parts usually) is a bit of a turn off and then there’s threshing etc.
Would love to grow some grain down here though.

Whilst we’re on the subject of arable, one supposed ‘transition’ solution is ‘Silvoarable’ combining forestry and arable which proponents claim has many benefits; increased yields, dual cropping etc.
http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/silvoar.html

Maybe one day our fields look like this!

[Author]

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