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Editorial
2006 Demo
Holt Centre in Shropshire
Wymondham Centre
Technical Page
Problems with Net Wrap
The Great British Tractor Challenge
Tough Challenge
Up And Coming Massey
Nice Order If You Can Get It!
Intelligent Ploughs
Latest Steel Technology in Hedgecutters
Spraying Record
The year slips by quicker than ever, and we are already past harvest and actively putting the next crop in. I should think some people after July were wondering how they were going to get anything into the ground, but thankfully August’s rains have helped to soften things up a bit. Some of the fields I happened to be in had enormous cracks in the ground, some I measured to be at lest 3 ft deep, doing a lot of good to land that over the years have suffered a bit with compaction. Interestingly, after a bit of rain, these cracks closed up again so much so that sometimes it was difficult to see where they were.
First of all, a big thank you to all those in the individual centres who made up the display boards for the R. Norfolk Show. They were all in their own way very good and showed the wide interests of our members, and some of the things we get up to from time to time.
Well done you boys for putting on a great display.
I hope all of you that came liked the new position for the stand at the show. Everyone I spoke to seemed pleased. We also splashed out and bought our own marquee and a large NORMAC banner to brighten things up. My thanks as always to the kind people who put a little time aside to help on the stand. Without you guys we wouldn’t be able to be there.
We had a good entry for the ideas competition with topical gadgets as well as complete complicated machines, and Fred Milk and I are now on the look out for another batch for next year. So if you have a germ of an idea, let us know and we will do what we can to help you get it to fruition before next summer. All in all, the stand must have been a success because we attracted several new members and got quite good write ups in the press.
In the centre pages of this issue, as before, you will see the club dairy, and again your secretaries have pulled out all the stops to provide you with an interesting and varied programme. Please do try and go along to as many as you can to support them and the speakers, many of whom have to take a long drive home after speaking at your club nights. Please make it worth their while.
2006 Demo
Plans are now at an advanced stage for our event being held at Hardingham Farms, Wymondham, by kind invitation of Mr. William Edwards and his family. A lot of arm twisting has resulted in as many plots being worked as in the last Demonstration at Swaffham, which bearing in mind the changes that have happened in the industry, I am quite satisfied with. As I write, I am still getting inquiries and confirmation for more plots, so the site should be fairly full of moving, working machinery. Farmers Weekly are again doing our programme, and by the time you read this, many farm journals will have previewed many of the new machines you will see there. I do beg you to support us. The event is free with free car-parking etc. A full list of exhibitors to date is within this issue.
As always, I am looking for a bit of help with keeping traffic moving, dishing out programmes etc. If a few members from the Wymondham area could give NORMAC an hour on the day, I would be very grateful. Just give me a ring on the above telephone number. As always the event will be well signposted from both Wymondham and Dereham.
You may have seen in the press that there will be no more “Power in Action”. The site has been sold, and it is said that Brian Bell, the organiser wants to take life a little easy. (I can’t see Brian ever taking life easy). I spoke to Brian the other day and he tells me that the Suffolk Farm Machinery Club would still like to carry on and plans are being formed to carry the event on. I do hope so. Power in Action and NORMAC do fulfil important functions in letting farmers evaluate working machinery on land similar to their own and it would be a tragic loss if either one folded.
The Suffolk Farm Machinery Club and NORMAC are jointly going to the Paris Show next year. Further details in this issue. It would be a good thing if you could let me know if you have an intention to go, just at this stage to get a rough idea of numbers.
Well that’s about all for now. I look forward to meeting you at our Demo. All we need is a dry day and it should be a really good day out before you really get stuck in to autumn work……See you there!
Chris Thomas
With more than a little encouragement from Andrew Gray (who allegedly shoots in that county) we decided to take a look at what for many of us was a totally unknown part of England. With Andrews contact, Guy Davies, my dealer friends at Ravenhill Farm Services in Shrewsbury and local girl Sarah Parker who now works at Harper Adams University College ( daughter of David Parker from Fulmodestone) we felt confident that sufficient hosts could be found to give us the required 3/4 days away. So it turned out, but not after wondering more than once if it was ever going to fall into place.
So it was a fairly leisurely trip up to Newport on the morning of Monday May 15 th with the required stop for breakfast at the Bridge Hotel in Thrapston. We found ourselves on the outskirts of Newport by mid-day with some 2 hours to kill before our first farm visit and just by chance we found “The Fox”, a very well appointed eating and drinking establishment on the outskirts of the town and very close to our afternoon location. The staff there were a little unsure as to the calibre of those leaving the coach and heading for the door, but by the time we had spent 3 lunch breaks with them they were more than happy to lighten our pockets.
In time for a 2.0 clock start we left the Fox and travelled the short distance to Little Hales Lodge, Chetwynd Aston to be greeted by our hosts, Geoff and Robert Timmis. First impressions are very important in my book and here I could not fail to be impressed with the neatly trimmed grass on the drive side and throughout the farmyard and not a thing out of place. This is a 1500 acre farm that father Geoff had always run along traditional lines, however when Robert returned from Cirencester and took over the running of the farm, a number of things changed. Out went the stock and farm staff and Robert adopted a simple approach to growing chiefly combine-able crops and with the help of a student and his father at harvest and autumn drilling, he does the rest himself. Sugar- beet are grown on about 80 acres for the Allscott factory with a contractor taking care of most of this work. After a tour of the farm on tractor/trailer we returned to Little Hales Lodge where we enjoyed afternoon tea provided by their wives. As we walked the gardens after tea and admired this wonderful house and grounds one could see that here was a family who had certainly “put meat on the bone when there was meat to be had” and could sit back and not fell threatened by the current cereal prices.
From Newport we took the scenic route to Shrewsbury and to The Lion Hotel which is situated in the old part of town where gaining access by coach was quite testing, but our excellent coach driver, Andy coped without a murmour and over the coming days proved himself to be the best driver we had had on any of our tours.
Tuesday morning was a short drive from Shrewsbury to Little Ness where our host for the day was Guy Davies. Another farmers son who, when he took over the reins of the family farm, made some dramatic changes and not really to his fathers liking as we became aware of. This is an owned farm of some 600 acres that previously carried a prize winning dairy herd, but Guy had no liking of animals, not least dairy cows so that was the first change. He then embarked on a period of expansion that involved various contract farming agreements and tenancies so that today he is farming around 2500 acres. We spent the morning visiting 2 of the farms he is farming and could clearly see that this is an area with good soils that will produce good crops, particularly wheat. Within one of the contracted farms he has to grow sugar-beet to fulfil that farms quota, but as with many other growers in the area, it is a contractor who does most of that work. That having been said, Guy did borrow a friends 12 row drill this year and drill the beet himself and was quite proud of his ability to drill straight (not up to the standard of certain members of our group!!) At lunchtime we returned to Guys house where we enjoyed a few beers on the lawn before tucking into lunch around his kitchen table. After that it was quite an effort to get on the bus and visit other farms within his business! This farm provided two of our members with a sense of pride ( some might even say a rather cocky feeling) for Guy is a Massey man and a certain Mr Daniels could not wipe the smile off his face while the sight of a new Lexion 580 on Tracs had Bo reaching for the tissues! Again we left this farm with the clear impression that whatever was happening to cereal prices, Guy Davies was confident in the future of his farming operation and keen to expand when the opportunity arises. It was a feeling that was beginning to rub-off.
Wednesday morning and we were heading back to Newport where we spent the morning with Mark Davies at North Lynn Manor, Woodcote. This was a very traditional farm of 940 acres growing Cereals, Sugar-beet and Potatoes with once again the latter the priority crop. On arrival we had coffee before jumping on a trailer for a tour of the farm which was in a block with good access so that we were able to view everything from the trailer. It was noticeable that the beet and potatoes were more advanced than those in North Norfolk-confirmation again that the North sea gives us more than just sandy beaches!
On returning to the farm-yard we took a close look at the buildings which I have to say would have done credit to a 3000 acre farm rather than 940 – clearly here was a farm that had invested well when times were good. The potato storage and grading facility was spacious and well equipped to allow easy handling of the total production from 200acres into 25kg bags for the chip market. Next to this was a new grain store that had been built in 2005 that was designed to hold 4000 tons and when you consider that Mark was growing just under 500 acres of cereals, you understand that he is looking to the future. It consisted of a totally enclosed reception pit with mechanical discharge to hopper based wet grain silo/ continuous flow 20tph drier and after drying the grain is taken via belt conveyors to the floor storage area. These conveyors are so designed that the whole floor area can be filled to 5 metres deep without the need for any levelling. I have always taken a keen interest in grain store design and this one had many features that were very good. We concluded this visit with a look at the machinery and on this occasion it could be seen that Marks loyalty was definitely to his New Holland dealer.
With “The Fox” just around the corner and our afternoon host nearby, it was the place for a lunch stop and after some apprehension on the part of the landlord yesterday when 20 dubious looking men got off a coach and entered his pub, by now he was comfortable that this was a group that just wanted to eat and drink!
By now the weather was not so good and by the time we left “The Fox” it was raining which was to rather spoil the afternoon visit to Neil Furness at Caynton House which was just North of Newport and next to Harper Adams.
A very mixed farm growing potatoes, sugar beet, cereals, oilseed rape and an area rented to Huntapac, a Lancashire company who grow carrots. We were transported around the farm on a covered-in trailer borrowed from Harper Adams, but most were reluctant to leave the trailer at the various field stops. It was disappointing that we were not able to see this farm in the best light because the preparations were faultless and our host was I am sure a good farmer. So it was back on the coach for the scenic route back to Shrewsbury and another pretty uneventful evening at the Lion, although some ventured out to watch Arsenal perform in the Champions League Final – nothing memorable there and it was on to another hostelry for a nightcap.
The last morning and after breakfast with the now familiar coach party from Devon, we boarded the coach and headed back along the Newport road for Harper Adams University Farm where we in the hands of Scott Kirby, the Farm Manager. He had very kindly enlisted the support of a number of colleagues from the University which made for a very interesting morning. We toured glasshouses where trials were being carried out on trickle irrigation on potatoes, to laboratory situations where plant breeding and modification of cereal plants were under the microscope and then to the bio-gas plant that had been the catalyst for this particular visit. It was very new having been officially opened only 2 weeks before by The Princess Royal and at present was having some final insulation added to the boiler. Its main energy source is woodchip that is burnt around water pipes that produce steam. This is then fed under pressure into a turbine that resembles a jet engine which in turn powers a generator – the resultant electricity is then fed into the supply line for the University. I regret to admit that I cannot recall the kilowatt capacity of the generator, but it did not seem vast in relation to the installation. Another factor which poses a question as to the viability of such installations is that we are led to believe that the burning of bio-mass such as miscanthus(elephant grass) is the most “green” way to produce electricity. However it was pointed out that miscanthus is generally harvested in March and at 35-40%m.c. which means that to be able to burn this material for the whole 12 months it would have to be dried before storing it. A little counter-productive !
At present wood chip is readily available, but long term that might not be so. We rounded off the morning in the company of the University College beef specialist who explained to the group the work he was carrying out to assess various feed regimes as affecting growth rates and killing out %`s. I have to say I really enjoyed the time at Harper and was very envious of any budding young farmer who had been given the opportunity to study at what is a wonderful facility.
As we left Harper it was approaching lunchtime and you can guess where we chose to take lunch – correct, The Fox. One of the main criteria for our trips is good food and good beer – The Fox had both. And so we left Shropshire with a good feeling of its farmers who certainly benefit from fertile soil, adequate supplies of water and have not been slow in harnessing both those factors as they set about their business. It was clearly evident that during the more prosperous times in the past they have made good money and in many cases have re-invested it in buildings etc. My often heard phrase since our return is that “They have put meat on the bone when there was meat to be had”
An enjoyable trip, but after 3 very good visits to different areas of England, I have to confess to missing Scotland –and so to 2007 and maybe A1 North again.
During the summer, members of Wymondham Centre went on a couple of interesting outings. Firstly, forty seven members visited the Stanford battle area where they were given a guided tour of the old villages of West Tofts, Starston, Stanford, Buckenham Tofts, Tottington and Langford. A total of 23,000 acres which has been home to the armed forces since 1942. Members were shown a video and many old photographs of the villages before the war. A collection was made and a cheque presented to the Army Benevolent Fund before departing.
Forty six members embarked on an early morning coach visit to the Terex Compact Equipment factory at Coventry. After coffee, a presentation of the Terex Group was shown. A total of 41 companies world-wide making it the third largest construction equipment manufacturer. Members were then split up into smaller groups and taken on a tour of the factory. After lunch, kindly provided by the company, the group then went on to the Terex-Pegson factory at Coalville, Leicestershire. Here 270 employees make around 12 crushing machines a week, each costing £250,000. After a detailed tour of the factory, the group moved outside where the machines were demonstrated to an appreciative audience. An altogether good day, and an especially good one for Richard Mack who learnt that he had just become a grandfather to twin boys!
Wymondham members also went on a farm walk to Drayton Farms, Manor Farm, Horsford where they toured 941 acres of arable and grassland. The farm is on light soil, but they do have the benefit of an underground ring main irrigation system. A total of 2300 tonnes of potatoes can be stored in two cold stores. Other crops include wheat, sugar beet, Oil Seed Rape and barley. A 120 cow suckler herd was seen comprising of Aberdeen Angus cross and Hereford cows Steers are sold to Waitrose as the farm is part of the Waitrose Aberdeen Angus Scheme and has been since 1997. Refreshments were provided in the workshop where a vote of thanks to the manager, Richard Mace was proposed.
Problems with Net Wrap
Every season, many people have problems with net wrap or film when baling or wrapping. They are very unlikely to be the fault of the net or film itself. Usually there is a problem somewhere in the system, from weather and crop conditions to the machines themselves.
A common problem is the net splitting into two or more widths on the roll, no longer feeding into the baler as a complete width of net. The result is the bales are only partly covered and wrapped.
Netwrap is knitted with a raschael stitch, similar to the stitch used in knitting machines, and consequently the stitch can be pulled out in the same way. Because of the way the net is knitted, the risk of a stitch being pulled out may be quite high in certain circumstances.
Netwrap is made up of warp and weft, (franze and shuss in netspeak) the warp being the long chains that run the length of the roll and the weft is the zig-zag joining threads. If the warp is left longer than the rest of the net, after a poor cut of the net in the baler for example, it can be pulled from the net very easily. For instance, after the net is applied to the bale and cut, a short tail end is left hanging in the chamber ready for the next bale. If this tail of net has one or more long threads hanging as a result of a poor cut, the stitch can be pulled out very easily, resulting in a split net.
The reasons for this can be many. Poor handling when loading the net into the baler, poor cutting action inside the baler, usually caused by the net roll tension not being set correctly. This presents a slack web that doesn’t cut cleanly.. When you do get a split net, there will be a single loose thread left. It will be quite likely that this will in itself get caught up in the feed roller, so it is important to stop baling and sort the problem out early. Cut the net cleanly away from the split and reinsert in the baler. The net tension system should be checked and the tension increased on the net roll to ensure the net is held tight at the point where it is cut, ensuring a clean uniform cut of the net, without leaving long tails.
The Great British Tractor Challenge
2,141 tractors working in one field, including several from Norfolk (NORMAC members?) clinched the Record attempt from the Australians set a year or so ago.
What is more remarkable is that every machine had to be a proper cultivating piece of equipment. No converted lawn mowers here. At least 12 Doe TripleD’s were working in one section on an old airfield at Hullavington in Wiltshire. As you can imagine, just about every model of every make was there from early IH Titans to the latest TM New Hollands. When the flag went down to start the challenge, you couldn’t see the other end of the field for dust and fumes, but the air cleared and a great cheer went up as the challenge was completed. I am told the Irish want to have a go at beating this and there is also talk of another challenge from New Zealand.
Following 22 days of trials under real conditions, working day and night, New Holland succeeded in the challenge of completing 500 hours of uninterrupted work under real conditions with a TM190 tractor. From Mid April onwards, drivers took turns at the wheel ploughing and heavy cultivation work as well as road transportation across five farms in the Bordeaux region of France. The 194hp TM190 was a standard tractor straight off the line, PDI’ed just as if it was going to a customer. An added trial saw the tractor working with 100% biodiesel. The average fuel consumption figures using a Kuhn eight furrow vari-width plough was 25-26 litres per hour. The only stops were for routine maintenance checks recommended by the service programme for the specific use of biofuels, which require maintenance at shorter intervals.
For the challenge, EZ-Guide Plus and EasySteer systems were used to increase driver comfort while carrying out cultivation tasks. These systems proved invaluable for the drivers working long hours into the night, greatly reducing levels of stress and fatigue.
Introduced earlier this year, the MF5470 tractor would be a useful addition to any tractor fleet. At 125 hp this is a compact four cylinder workhorse that would find many uses on any livestock, mixed or all arable farms.
Powered by a four cylinder 4.4 litre Sisu engine, the new 5470 offers a superb power to weight ratio that, combined with the new Dyna4 transmission, makes it an outstandingly versatile machine. Dyna 4 transmissions offer four powershift ratios in four ranges giving a total of 16F/16R speeds. This makes it an ideal loader tractor as well as it being at home with front and rear combination machinery for top work and spraying. Front suspension is optional. Various factory fitted options are available such as 120 amp alternators, 6000kg lift capacity, a 4:1 creep and 8:1 super creep speeds, ground speed PTOs and additional fuel tanks. Altogether the spec. is not quite up to the 6400 series, but it is the flagship of the 5400 fleet.
What must be any tractor salesman’s dream came true for Jack Thompson over in Ireland earlier this year. Jack landed an order for 74 New Holland TM140s and TM155s all in one hit.
Jack works for New Holland dealer WR Shaw, and for many years they have been supplying the Bord na Mona, which supplies peat for fuel for the generation of electricity, peat briquettes and horticultural products. These tractors will be used by the Bord na Mona group in eight locations around the country in the peat extraction process.
As always the contract for equipment is put out to tender, and a number of factors are taken into consideration before an order is placed. Service support is a very important factor, and Shaws have a good reputation in Ireland.
As an interesting postscript, back in the 1930s up to 1952, Garrett,s of Leiston, Suffolk supplied specialist peat extraction tractors to the Bord. These were tracked vehicles with Gardener 4LW engines. It would be interesting to know if any still exist.
With our NORMAC Demonstration coming up on September 14 th, now is a good time to take a look at the latest ideas from our plough companies. Even though direct drilling is the talk of the town these days, ploughing is still the most popular primary cultivation technique, and will probably remain so. Plough companies are still investing in research to improve efficiency, both in lighter draught, thereby reducing fuel costs, and in improving the headland management, thereby helping to get the best out of the operator, quicker turn-a-round times, and consequently more time actually ploughing. Tractor / plough combinations are getting larger all the time, and with tractors now bristling with electronics, ISObus systems etc, it is inevitable that ploughs should now become electronic as well.
Kverneland are up there with their A.T.S. system. This Automatic Turning Sequence system is available as an option on the new 7 – 12 furrow RW/PW semi mounted ploughs and is now standard equipment on the 12 – 14 furrow PT/RT series. A.T.S. controls the ploughs lifting and reversing rams and requires one spool valve with flow and return.
There is an in cab control box or it can be controlled via the tractors ISObus connection, and linked to the companies Tellus terminal.
In the field with the semi-mounted plough, when the outfit reaches the headland mark, the driver lifts the front section on the three point lift. When the rear section reaches the mark, the green button on the control box is pressed to activate A.T.S. Then, in a timed sequence, as the plough is moving forward, the centre of the plough rises on the central wheels, the top link of the rear plough retracts to lift the bodies out of work. The front plough rotates to top dead centre and the rear plough rotates the full 180 degrees. The tractor is then turned at the headland and the A.T.S. button is pressed again to rotate the front plough into its working position. At the appropriate points the front plough is lowered, and the A.T.S. is activated again to lower the centre wheels and extend the top link to put the rear section into work. Each stage of the sequence can be altered, and the new setting saved and shown on the display. Joystick levers on the control box allow the operation to be done manually. Pressing the button during the sequence stops the system until the button is pressed again.
To allow for the increased viscosity of cold oil, A.T.S. has a manually selected cold start setting. The operator uses the tool setting button on the control box to go into the programme and increase the time interval, which is the added to each stage of the sequence. When the oil has achieved its operating temperature, the added time is deleted to return to the original setting.
The RW9 series of ploughs from Gregoire Besson also has an electronic system as well as a redesigned headstock which is intended to make plough operation easier and to reduce shock loads on the plough and tractor. The simplified operation comes from a memory turnover ram that enables the length of the ram stroke to be altered from within the cab and on the move, to change the inclination of the plough which is shown by a pointer on the front of the headstock yokes. With this feature there is no need for inclination stops to be fitted. The ram stroke is altered with a three way switch box in the cab which is connected to a dedicated tractor spool valve and controls three electronic spool valves on the plough. The control box is also used when altering the front furrow width and to engage or disengage a hydraulic transport lock.
A suspension system in the headstock takes out shock loads on the plough when turning at headlands, and impact loads on the plough are also eliminated by the use of a twin wheel depth control system, which is manually set with a hydraulic option. The wheels on their pivot do not hit stops during turnover, but rotate through gravity and a balance pendulum action. For road work the top link bracket pivots independently of the headstock, and the depth wheels are swung through 90 deg and act as transport wheels.
Combining the charactics of a mounted and semi-mounted plough is a way Lemken have found to make it possible to pull more furrows with a smaller tractor. In fact 6 or 7 furrow ploughs can now be handled by tractors of 150 – 180hp. This is done by the ploughs ability to transfer weigh to the tractor back axle without lifting the whole plough.
On the Transanit plough, ploughing depth is set hydraulically and a sensor constantly monitors the pressure in a hydraulic top link. If too much slippage occurs at the preset pressure, the system automatically shortens the top link to transfer weight from the plough’s rear depth wheel to the tractor‘s back axle. This top link pressure is set on an in cab control box which is also used to set front furrow width, plough inclination, auto turnover sequence and the rear depth wheels transport lock. Toggle switches on the box allow for manual functions as well, and there is a display panel to inform the operator as well. During the turnover process, pressure settings are neutralised automatically and re-established when turnover is complete. The VariTransanit will be available next season in six and seven furrow formats.
Pottinger is not a name one associates with ploughs, but they have come up with possibly the most sophisticated electronic set up of them all. Using the tractor’s ISObus terminal or an in house control box, functions and adjustments covered include turnover sequence, furrow width setting, front furrow width, draught position, ploughing depth, and on auto reset Nova models, reset leg trip pressure. The Servo Intelligent system also incorporates an automatic draught point setting. The operator simply inputs the tractor wheel width and the front furrow width, and the control automatically adjusts the draught point so the plough always tracks correctly. All the hydraulic cylinders are fitted with position sensors relaying information back to the controller. Other information is made available to the operator including working width, depth and area covered, as well as current spot and average work rates. (Why is this needed when the tractor has this anyway?)
All good stuff, and I am sure they make driving a lot less tiresome and ploughing more efficient, but what will the resale value of all this sophistication be when they are 10 years old or so? Only time will tell.
Latest Steel Technology in Hedgecutters
Replacing three existing models, the PA60,PA650 and the PA6500, the new PA65T hedgecutter from McConnel is a lightweight machine, and consequently can be mounted on a lightweight tractor. The secret of this new model is that it is made from a new steel alloy. This is an ultra high strength Domex steel, and it enables a 6.5m machine to be able to be mounted on a 70hp+ tractor. It is linkage mounted for quick attachment, and the long reach is attributed to a 1m telescopic dipper arm.
The hydraulic system is totally independent. A 90hp gear pump supplies oil at 125lts/min at a pressure of 310 bar. Oil filtration has also been considerable beefed up, and now has two spin on return line filters. Top up oil is poured through these filters to ensure cleanliness within the oil tank at all times, and two suction filters keep contaminents away from the pump. An oil cooler is fitted as standard, and the tank baffles are fitted in such a way that all the oil is circulated right round the system. All pins are now 45mm and all the pivots are bushed. At the head end, the pins and bushes are protected from dust by extra seals. Higher spec hoses and leak proof soft seals improve reliability and adjustable wear pads on the telescopic arm are easier to adjust with four bolts rather than inserting shims.
The PA56T spec also includes power slew, a 1.2m direct drive multicut head with rotor rotation reverse and an angle float. Cable controls are standard, but Easy Drive or proportional digital armrest controls are available.
Prices start at £16,810.
Whilst digging around for the JCB Car article I came across a note that a Fastrac 2140 with a 28m sprayer boom currently holds the World spraying record at 257 acres an hour, somewhere in France. Come on you Norfolk sprayer boys- I bet you can do better!!
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