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What they say about us...

It's always fascinating to see how others tackle similar problems to the ones on our farm... great to get that little 'light-bulb moment' when you find something which will work. We've made quite a few useful things from your magazine

Mike Davies, Chester

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Simple tips that makes sense

Reports from our subscribers around the country suggest the Single Farm Payment is already causing a change in farming. People are selling rather than buying stock, and breeding cattle and sheep look like they will get very much cheaper before too long.
" I'm cutting down 50%" says a Berwickshire farmer with 1,500 acres. "The need now is for me to be self sufficient - buy in the minimum but still be in a position of selling quality product. So we'll increase the corn, cut fertiliser drastically - it will be a return to mixed farming for me."
He says Tesco require 1,600 beef cattle a week through Aberdeen. "There's no way they will be getting this quantity in a year's time - the stock just won't be there. They'll be going to Argentina for more supplies."

1. When Rob Renwick planted his beans last autumn, he did more than save himself time. He saved a lot of diesel. In fact he used about 1/3 the quantity. Rob planted them with a cultivator which he modified himself in his farm workshop. Instead of spinning the seed on and then ploughing them in a two pass job, Rob did the work in a single pass of the field, at a higher speed and at 3 metres wide.

2. Deliveries of feed to Neil Harrison's dairy farm go direct into the bunker as the roof over it can be rolled back to allow the tipper all the headroom needed. So no double handling - saving diesel as well as time. Like many dairy farmers, Neil buys 'straights' - bulk feed such as wheat, soya meal, rape seed. On most farms these deliveries are made onto an area of concrete, and the farm handler then loads it into a bunker.

3. Diesel consumption per acre is reduced by 60% over conventional methods of seedbed preparation on Simon Walter's farm. His heavy soil has improved in structure since he stopped ploughing, - but it still needs loosening to a depth of 9 ins or so. There's a lot of surface trash, and he needs to prevent the formation of heavy clods which, when dry, can only be broken up with a power harrow. At the same time he wanted to use machines narrow enough for road transporting, and strong enough to be used at twice the regular speed making use of the speed of the Fastrac tractors he has. He built two machines to do the job. They produce a top quality seedbed for him in two passes, without the use of the fuel hungry power harrow or plough.

CHANGING METHODS SAVES MORE FUEL THAN CHANGING TECHNOLOGY

"Use new, up-to-date diesel engines" is the the standard response to the question of controlling fuel costs. "Buy a newish tractor and get more power from each litre..." It's an answer which helps sales of machines, but unlikely to cut consumption by more than 10%. Set this against the capital and depreciation costs of the new machine, and will the additional costs be greater than the savings?? Using the farm's existing tractors more efficiently is guaranteed to produce positive financial results.