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FEBRUARY - MAY 2012

VOLUME 20 / ISSUE 4

£3.85

WWW.FARMIDEAS.CO.UK

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY SINCE 1992

AN ALL-EDITORIAL MAGAZINE

Editor’s Notes

MADE IT MYSELFHedge trimmer is self propelled and mounted in frontTrailer lighting board testersCoach bolt clamp makes beet harvester work easyFront fork guard covers buck rake tinesTrailer with diesel powered HIAB keeps seed drill goingTipping trailer converted to carry rubber tracked diggerLevelling bar on improves seedbed and work rateEasy hook-on ATV implement ball hitchGehl grinder-mixer easy loading with molasses applicatorImplement trailer has break-back for easy loadingDual Mass Flywheel problems might be solvedSheep snacker has sheep crate on back for sick stockBelieve my Signals sign warns motorists, helps road safetyTrailer lights fitted in protected side positionHome built front linkage designed for furrow pressFront press is based on ancient W Wilder machineTrailer has hydraulic tail section for roll-on loading

FARMWORLDThe damage of Farm Business TenanciesRoll-over telecom contracts now illegalThe farm as a teaching and learning resourceFrench farmers pay to use farm saved seed - newNew JCB Android phone is indestructibleTips for extending the life of Rubber TracksPay-as-you-use bore-hole water deal for farmersAgribuggy replaces Bateman

FINANCIAL FOCUSThe need for goals and strategies

LAMMA 2012 - EVEN BIGGER Techniques at LAMMA for raising soil fertilitySoil analysis gets more logicalLAMMA competitionsMachinery - Terratech cultivators and Emily feeders

CONTENTS #80

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Volume 20, Issue 4February - May 2012

#80

SUBSCRIPTIONS& RENEWALS

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BACK ISSUES & INFO EVERY ISSUE IN PRINT

(from 1992 - approx 8 out of print)Total approx 64 issues

4,000 workshop projects(Includes Innovations Wall Poster

& CD Index of Articles)

£155.00

Index of Articles CD: £2.75

EDITORIALEditor

Mike Donovan

Graphic DesignDunstan Baker

CONTACT US11 St Marys St., Whitland

Carmarthen SA34 0PY

tel & fax: +44 (0)1994 240978e: [email protected]

Website: www.farmideas.co.ukBlog: www.farmideas.blogspot.co.uk

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Practical Farm Ideas publishes newsworthy farm ideas and products as a service to

readers, but cannot accept responsibility for the proper application of techniques or the

proper safe functioning of projects resulting from information published. Except for the

extent that Section 2(1) of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 applies no liability is

accepted for any loss or damage of any kind, howsoever caused or arising. Practical Farm

Ideas attempts to verify products claims in reports, and adheres to rigid standards, but cannot assume liability for the accuracy and

validity of claims.

© MIDO Publications Ltd. 2012All rights of reproduction reserved

ISSN 0968 - 0136

FARM WALK

With Nigel Whitcombe, SomersetMobile cattle handling systemDog bed for tractor cabATV dog carrierSpare parts built trailed ATV sprayer has 4 metre boomChinese toilet has integral hand washingSuitcase makes great store for plumbing partsATV gun carrierOld cattle crush has clever yokeMicro farm workshop has honesty box tillOne man potato line grades and bags 1 ton / hrYard Mate hand tool carries opened round straw balesTimber grip holds logs, and palletsHIAB crane remounts from trailerGantry adds electrical safety in farm workshop

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4 PRACTICAL FARM IDEAS FEBRUARY - MAY 2012 WWW.FARMIDEAS.CO.UK

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

T he past three months have been busy with increased advisory work for farm businesses and some goodevening talks to farming groups. Farmers are becoming increasingly interested in getting advice before making major changes and investments. A few ££s of independent opinion coming from outside the business

and away from their immediate locality can save many ££thousands later on.This, our 80th issue, includes pictures from a farmer's mobile phone camera on pg 24. What staggering leap from

our first issues which needed each image to be screened into dots before being printed in black and white. Farmerswho are doing projects in the workshop are invited to do the same - it makes great editorial for us, and is easy to do.

Thanks again to all who contributed their projects, either by post or allowing me to visit their farm and be inquisitive. The time taken is appreciated by the many thousands who read the magazine in the UK, together with a new group of readers in Australia and New Zealand. Welcome!

Where is Müller finding the £279.5m it is paying to Wiseman? We’ve heard a great deal about synergy, ‘strong commercial and strategic sense’ (from Robert Wiseman himself), and other positive comments like ‘complementary positions’, ‘exciting phases’, ‘similar roots’ but few of the people involved spell out exactly the financial consequences of the deal.

Müller appears to be paying a handsome price for the Wiseman company - the business noted for its cow painted trucks. The offer of 360p per share is a handsome premium over the current 250p that Wiseman has been trading. Wiseman profits fell 42% to £11.8m in the six months to Oct 1, after the company raised the price it paid farmers. Müller has global sales of £2.56bn which compares with Wisemans £917m, and staff of 16,000 compared with 5,000.

I have discovered that the cash is coming from a 250 million euro (£207m) letter of credit from Deutsche Bank, though can’t find out the rate. If it’s a reasonable 5%, just the interest on the loan adds £10.3m to the cost of operating Wiseman, which might well add to the financial pressure on the company. Take overs can provide long term benefits, but will often add to short and medium term costs as restructuring, integration, funding and finance are absorbed.

Wiseman has few opportunites to cut costs. The 5,000 employees are mainly in low wage jobs, driving and operating plant. Wiseman is unable to increase its prices, as the business of milk processing and distribution is highly competitive and returns determined by supermarkets.

It looks like the dairy farmer might be paying the cost. Müller cut the price it paid to the 150 dairy farmers supplying its factories in Shropshire by 0.5ppl from 1 February, to much farm sector criticism. The burning question for Wiseman suppliers is to what extent they will be asked to help fund the acquisition.

Milk market facts:Total production: 13,660m litres of which 6,859m (51%) is liquid; 3,557ml (26%) cheese; 1,366ml (10%) condensed and

powders; 250 - 300ml (2%) each fro cream, butter, yoghurt; exports 3% and other uses 3%.

Market shares: Dairy Crest (Cathedral City cheese, Country Life butter, milk for Waitrose and M&S) 2,185ml; Arla (Liquid for Asda, Tesco, Anchor and Lurpak) 1,900ml; Wiseman (Liquid for Co-op, Tesco, Sainsbury) 1,770ml; First Milk, farmer owned (processors, own label cheese) 1,730ml; Milk Link farmer owned (own label cheese, processors, milk drinks) 1,440ml; Meadow Foods 580ml; Caledonian Cheese (Serious Strong) 335ml; Müller 240ml (yoghurt).

It looks increasingly like the only mal-function in the Costa Concordia disaster was Captain Schettino himself. Put in charge of a hugely expensive piece of kit, with a few thousand lives involved, he decides to do things his way. That means going off course so he can show off to friends and colleagues on shore.

Thank goodness these events are rare in shipping, and remain so in air, rail and road transport as well. Yet the question in my mind is - are they more common in farming? The scale is hugely different, and the consequences less. But how about attitude? Do farm workers, tractor drivers and others get so enthused by their new machinery they take risks in showing off to others? If they do, there’s a calamity waiting to happen.

When accidents involve only damage to farm machinery, and not lives, many farmers post the pictures on websites and in magazines. Readers and viewers are asked to add a witty caption, the winner getting a prize.

In my book there’s no humour in any accident. There’s a whole world of difference between bumper cars and tractors, and there needs to be no confusing the two. The accident or near miss on the tractor should never be laughed off.

Accidents are more than insurance claims. Lives are always put at risk, if only those of the idiot drivers. Work is disrupted, delayed and costs go up. Insurance claims result in higher premiums, not just for the policy holder on renwal, but the whole class of risk.

We can all learn a lesson from Captain Schettino. He was probably quite used to taking his own course and driving the huge cruise ship in an exuberant way, and doubtless this was known in the company. He was, in the parlance, a ‘disaster waiting to happen’, and the company directors who did nothing to re-train him or remove him were in effect waiting for it to happen. Tractors, combines and farm handlers - just like cruise ships - need captains who are timid and risk averse.

Is it under warranty? On any farm there things that are covered, either by the manufacturer or by an extended warranty insurance, and others where the warranty has expired.

Each machine which has a warranty needs to have a sticker inside the cab or onit somewhere giving the expiry date, the hours or mileage limit, plus phone number or address to initiate a claim.

Repairs are always expensive. And faults often develop over time. Few drivers want to make a fuss, and so get used to a faint judder in the gearbox, overheating in the gearbox or back end of the tractor, or maybe a strange noise. If the machine is under warranty the problem needs investigating as soon as possible, while the warranty is valid. Remember that warranties expire by usage as well as date, and go over either makes it invalid. Working solely on the date of expiry is not sufficient.

That’s why we suggest having a prominent sticker in the cab showing the expiry terms of the warranty.

For the past three years the 60 year tradition of the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) has been challenged by an alternative event - the Oxford Real Farming (ORFC) Conference, held on the same days and based in nearby Magdalen College. The senior event has, of course, developed a well earned reputation for looking with some accuracy at the future at global and national issues, and over the two days provides a platform for ministers and government opposition speakers to join established experts in providing informed

VOL 20 ISSUE 4 PRACTICAL FARM IDEAS 5TEL: 01994 240978

and knowledgeable opinions. Over time the Oxford Farming Conference

has moved from being an event for farmers to one for the industry, and there are as many delegates from the farm supply trade and official bodies as there are from farms. A good many delegates would be unable to operate a modern tractor, harvester or milking plant, and the everyday dress for the majority would be a suit, and not of the boiler variety.

Despite the prominence of agribusiness, Oxford Farming Conferences have been designed to provide a balance of opinion, and the organisers have given a platform for ecologists, animal rights campaigners and others. But the overall direction of the conference is generally one of applauding size and science, including GM.

It would be easy to say that the upstart conference is more sandals and beards in comparison with the brogues and silk ties of the established event, that the new event has an agenda and ethos which is opposed to agribusiness and large scale farming. Many of the well known eco campaigners are involved in the new Oxford Conference - Graham Harvey is a script writer and previous agricultural advisor to the BBC Archer’s programme (and author of many books), and he was speaking on issues such as the need for better grassland farming, soil and health. Peter Melchett is policy director of the Soil Association, a former Labour government minister, Director of Greenpeace and also an organic farmer with 360ha with pigs, beef and arable.

Comparing the events is fascinating, not least because all farmers are well aware of the divisions between them. For OFC the future is a mixture of science and technology, the desire to grasp commercial opportunities and build bigger and more profitable farm businesses. Down the road at Magdalen the Real Farmers were being inspired by people such as Tony Juniper - sustainability and environmental advisor, Julia Wright - deputy director of the Centre for Agroecology at Coventry University. Some speakers, like Peter Lundgren from Lincs, have a direct farming background, but Rona Amiss, a new entrant to farming on a Devon CC smallholding was the exception and star of the show. She, among all the great and good from organisations across the UK, is getting her hands dirty rearing ducks and geese, beef cattle, sheep and goats, and selling them directly to the public. Young, bright, determined, her mission is to succeed with a business that’s independent of grant funding from government or other bodies. Their business plan is economically sustainable, relying entirely on the sale of produce and not the completion of forms, the successful application for bursaries of one kind or another.

What a pity it is that the farming

debate has become so polarised to have competing events in the same location at the same time, creating greater division and underlining the incompatibility of both sides. With the two events running side by side there is increasingly less chance for agreement, and the result is that farmers will be forced to position themselves. Yet it is the middle road that’s undoubtedly the one which farming really needs to take. And while both camps work hard at developing policy, with the outpouring of bold statements, there’s a crying need for some practical ideas as well, such as those put forward by the inspirational Rona Amiss.

Recent headlines concerning government waste have included the money spent on the farm sector through fines fromthe European Commission on the Rural Payments Agency for the delays and inefficiency in its operation. Coupled with huge over-budget computer systems, the RPA is placed at sixth highest waster in a major survey undertaken by The Times.

In the past two years an amazing £31 billion of taxpayers money has been wasted according to The Times research which analysed more than 70 reports from the National Audit Office NAO. The waste is twice the extra cuts (of £15bn) announced by the Chancellor, and 35% of the cuts needed in this parliament. While £6bn has been wasted in delayed or defective defence projects, and £10bn in uncollected income tax, billions more are being overspent on inefficient or abandoned computer systems, transport and capital projects.

Farming, through the Rural Payments Agency, with the failure of the £350m computer system designed to manage subsidies, resulting in £628 million in ‘unforseen’ costs to the taxpayer, comes in for heavy criticism, as this total includes a staggering £175 million in fines imposed by the European Commission for inefficiences in distributing subsidies to farmers in 2007/08/09. Correcting earlier mistakes has cost £119m. By 2009 the admin costs of the SFP were £305m more than budgeted, and the NAO remains concerned that the Agency has yet to get its act in order.

While the blame rests with the government department, the mud flies wider. Questions are asked about the need and effect of rural subsidies in the UK and Europe, and how this spending squares with the currency crisis.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of policy, it seems reasonable to suggest that farmers will be happy with less focus on the Rural Payment Agency and its inefficiencies.

Worldwide, BMW are pulling in235,000 Minis (30,000 in the UK) to fix a fault in the electric water pump which could lead to a fire. How extraordinary to wait for so long before reacting. Some years ago there

was a question over the Mini power steering pump which was prone to overheating. Cars caught fire, but the company avoided a recall.

The need for recalls is greater now than in past years, when product quality was morevariable. Long gone are the days when you bought a Friday car or a ‘good ‘un’ made on a Wednesday. Today vehicles are largely made by machines. So if one has a pump which can overheat, there’s a good chance that every owner has the potential of experien- cing the problem. It applies to tractors and other machinery.

How extraordinary that a company as savvy as BMW should not react quicker.

Dealers can often do more for their customers, and get tough with their supply companies when things go wrong. All too often they seem to get protective of their franchises, and try blaming the farmer, saying they have never seen the fault before, offering some 50% fix for the problem.

‘Anonymous’ posted this comment on the failure of small family farms and their contractors.

He says the loss of small farms is a sad situation for the traditional agricultural contractor, who does regular recurring work for small farms, and provides seasonal work for the sons, and daughters, of the small farm, who bring with them skills which can only come from living and working on a small farm. It was a win win situation.

He says the traditional contractor is being supplanted by the large well machanised farmer who takes on outside work to spread the financial burden of his equipment. These large farmers put the small agriculturalcontractor's role into the last century. With a large Single Farm Payment, plenty of acres and men, this new breed of contractor can take or leave the job as it is all additional to the farming business, and not essential. His farm covers the risk of buying large equipment, his SFP is guaranteed and he is not reliant on the customer. His price cutting can be brutal.

Anon says it’s a sad state of affairs, and he thinks that the Single Farm Payment has done damage to the farming community.


Top: look forward to work and simple to control, the machine is easy to manoeuvre at constant revs. Right: Matthew’s son John with his hand on the Spearhead’s joystick control. The red lever by the steering wheel controls both direction and speed in the 4 x 2 gearbox. Far right: transport width has the machine tucked nicely in the width, while the view from the cab is more than adequate

In use for the past 12 years, this machine has transformed the job maintaining the hedges on a 1,100 acres Worcestershire farm.

After a few days using a rear mounted trimmer on a tractor Matthew Stone was ready to spend time making something which was much easier to drive. He mounted a Spearhead hedge trimmer on a worn out John Deere self propelled harvester.

The conventional tractor mounted hedge trimmer needs a flexible operator who has no difficulty in looking over either shoulder while working the controls of both the tractor and the cutter itself. Whether brand new or second hand, every hedge cutter still has the operator looking backwards as he works, and many people find it a physical strain.

With the millions of miles of hedges in the UK, there’s a clear place for a trimmer that is easier to operate, yet this is the first machine of it’s kind we have encountered in the 20 years we have been publishing Practical Farm ideas magazine.

It is easier to drive with a one-lever hydrostatic transmission which allows the engine to rev at a constant speed while the vehicle speed and direction is changed with one hand. Thesefeatures create a machine with a better work rate compared to a regular tractor. Savings in fuel, working hours and, on the highway, traffic hold-ups are all positive features. Add to this driver comfort, and the ability to put in longer hours while feeling comfortable are a further benefits. When the machine is based on a low cost (approx £4k) machine which doomed to be broken up for scrap, the attractions are even greater.

SELF PROPELLED HEDGE TRIMMER IS BUILT ON AN OLD FORAGER

MADE IT MYSELF


Top left: the arm can be rotated through 180 degrees using a ram at the base of the main square box section mounting pillar which is located to the frame with two substantial clevis pins. Top right: the engine runs cool as the rad is large and the work load light. Could do with an electric or viscous fan, or a smaller rad in front of the existing continuously driven one. Right: despite its age the Deere harvester has been reliable. Main problem was with the hydrostatic drive pump which packed up - and replaced by one from a Massey forager, which was luckily identical. Far right: the triple drive belt is behind the cover.

The machine is one which will attract favourable comments from all who spend time on standard trimmers, and is very likely to be the inspiration for other similar machines across the UK and Ireland, and further afield. The problems of the conventional machine are:

back window

to be comfortable facing directly forward

changing forward gears and moving from forward to reverse

leaving the flail arm in the same position

- it moves out as the tractor turns in

This change of use of a 1976 150HP John Deere forage harvester helps solve all these operating problems. The machine has been used as a hedge trimmer with no problems, and has made it a far more pleasant job, as well as achieving more in each hour spent on the machine.

The project involved some major alterations to the forager, and also the hedge trimmer itself, but few which would cause an experienced farm engineer many difficulties.

Adapting the John Deere harvesterThe machine needed two main changes 1. a mechanically driven clockwise turning PTO in the centre front of the John Deere and 2. a 3-pt mounting system for the hedge cutter itself. In

addition he strengthened the frame of the machine, and also replaced the original diesel tank which was under the cab floor with a combine tank fitted on top, so providing easy room to work on the drive mechanism.

Fitting the PTOThe mechanical PTO drive uses the triple belt pulley that used to drive the forager’s chopping cylinder. Matthew built a cross shaft with a 90 degree box to drive a PTO shaft fitted to the front of the machine, driven by a slave pulley. The pulley still uses triple belts, and he fitted a tensioning pulley on the back of the belts which is tightened with a hydraulic ram. The pulley puts the PTO in and out of gear, allowing the engine to be started with no load. The drive from slave pulley to the 90 degree box has a flexi joint to take up any misalignment or vibration. He set the PTO up to turn at 540 as he was planning to use a 540 scrub cutter on the front in place of the hedge trimmer.

“Taking the power down one shaft to a pulley, through triple vee belts to a second cross shaft and a bevel gear may not be very pretty in engineering terms, but using the existing shaft and pulley saved expense. It also allowed the PTO to be easily positioned under the transmission and meant there was no need to alter the existing gearbox, and it all works without a problem,” says Matthew

Adding a 3-pt linkageThe front 3-pt linkage is built on a new frame he made to go across the front of the machine. There are a pair of lift rams, a top link clevis and stabiliser bars, so the hedge trimmer is mounted in exactly the same way as it might be on the rear of

MADE IT MYSELF


a tractor. The PTO drive is in the centre and so lines up easily. Strengthening the frameCloser inspection of the frame showed it had cracked and been welded in some places, while some other cracks needed treatment.

“My guess is trailers were hooked to the harvester - maybe even loaded ones being brought back at the end of a day - which added stresses the frame wasn’t designed to take,” says Matthew.

“While modern harvesters have hitches, they were’nt fitted to these old ones, and perhaps you can see why.”

The damage made him slightly concerned about hanging a heavy hedge trimmer on the front, and so he decided to add extra strength to the frame for the front as well as the rear.

Adapting the hedge trimmerFitting the unaltered hedge trimmer to the front 3-pt has the flail head facing backwards - so it needs to be turned around. Matthew altered the dipper arm and not the head itself, turning it around to face the other direction, so the head mounting was therefore untouched.

The top of the dipper arm needed to have the breakaway ram positioned on the other side. The head swivel ram is unaltered but the

top bracket of the arm changed around so the link bar is the right way round. This was the easiest way to modify the machine so it cut in the other direction.

The advantages of a self propelled hedge trimmer are no less than those of the self propelled forager. There’s no comparing a self propelled forager to a trailed one, and it’s much the same with the hedge trimmer. Just as the forager driver has the work directly in front of the machine, so the hedge trimmer’s flail head is seen through the windscreen rather than the back window. The rear steering axle makes lining up work easier, and the sharp steering lock on the John Deere provides a tight turning circle. Reversing to get into corners or to line up a swath properly is no problem and can be done quickly.

There are major transmission benefits as well. The ability to have a continuous change of both speed and direction on a single lever with an unaltered PTO speed is of as much benefit when hedge cutting as foraging. The benefits of hydrostatic drive is experienced every minute the machine is being used.

The machine is used on the 1,100 farm, and not out on contract - yet would make an excellent contractor’s tool.

Top, left to right: the main drive from the original pulley has a hydraulic operated tensioner; the new shaft with a flexi-drive unit and, on the left, the bevel box which drives the PTO spline;the front PTO and stabiliser bars on the hedge trimmer. Middle, left to right:looking forward to the back of the front plate made to carry the 3-pt linkage. The horizontal ram pulls the tension pulley into drive or idle; the front view of the 3-pt mounting plate showing tops of the lift rams and hydraulic outlets; the lower part of the lift ram and frame. Note the strut going back under the machine. Above, left to right:a weak spot in front of the engine bay where there’s been welding and also a gusset added; looking towards the front of the machine, showing the box section struts added to stiffen the John Deere chassis. The PTO drive box is clearly seen;the dipper arm head is turned around ... and the breakaway ram is on the other side.

MADE IT MYSELF


Above left: the light tester designed and built at Holme Lacey College has a socket for the trailer lighting plug and clips for the 12v power sup-ply. Right: plug this into the lighting socket on the back of the tractor or Land Rover and you can see if the socket is working properly. It’s better than testing on a trailer.

The declining interest in farming led to a dramatic reduction in the number of people wanting to do farming related courses. Well established agricultural colleges threw in the towel as their student numbers declined, and farm education became focussed on fewer sites and institutions. Holme Lacey in Herefordshire bucked the trend and kept up its involvement in the industry, adapting what it had to offer to the changing circumstances of the time. As every farmer knows, in the 20 years from 1990 to 2010 there has been massive changes in terms of farm size, the level and technology involved in mechanisation, and also the impact of safety and product legislation which has heaped a new level of responsibility of those in the business. The Holme Lacey courses were modified and adapted to reflect these changes, and the result is a regional college with education that suits and reflects the needs of today.

Richard Rudge is a senior lecturer in the agriculture department, and he allows his interest in the practical side of farming to percolate to his students.

“Solving farm problems needs skills - you need the ability to do logical analysis and then the confidence to work with a whole range of workshop tools. So while theory is clearly important, the practical aspects of student development are of vital importance as well,” he says.

Richard shows students the way by using the design and construction of useful gizmos as class exercise. This way allows all students to be involved in all of the various elements of the job - and any who want to make a replica for their own farms can obviously do this as well.

Trailer lighting is a source of regular problems and the consequences of a mal-function are considerable. Farm vehicles have an earned reputation of having poor lighting, but Richard’s teaching should improve the lights on implements and trailers in Herefordshire! The cause can be either on the tow vehicle or the wiring on the trailer, and Richard Budge, with the help of his students, has built two detectors which check the system.

Trailer light tester Checking trailer lights without having a tow vehicle with a fully operational lighting socket is useful for many farms. Being able to walk around all the towed trailers and implements, push the plug into tester and see an answer directly is far better than relying on sporadic testing done when the trailer is hooked up. By then there’s no time to do a repair. Richard reckoned that many students would find the tester useful, whether they were from farming families or were planing a career in agri mechanics.

The result of the educational exercise is a box with a socket for the lighting plug, and a series of lights on top that shine when the circuit was made. There’s no need to go to the back of the trailer to see the lights. Faults need investigating in the normal way.

The tester has crocodile clips to go on any 12v battery, and when the toggle switches are pressed the current is sent to the different circuits, and the LED lights glow.

Building the tester does more than make a useful machine, as it provides a practical application of theory, and a useful start in designing and understanding vehicle circuits.

Socket testerTrailer light failure can equally occur on because the tow vehicle is at fault. There are several 5v LEDs and 1000 ohm resistors inside this box. As the lights are tried the corresponding led lights show whether the vehicle’s electrics are working properly. On the top there is an extra connector which can be used to conduct a resistance test on the earth return to the battery. For this a multimeter is used.

Followup: Richard Rudge, Holme Lacy College,Holme Lacy, Herefordshire, HR2 6LLt: 0800 032 1986 e: [email protected]/Courses/ft_agri8.html

PRACTICAL FARM EDUCATION IN HEREFORDSHIRE

MADE IT MYSELF


Above: the removal clamp made for the job. Left: workshop simulation - the coach bolt head is locked by tightening the bolt at the bottom, and the socket fits through the ring at the top. Below: here’s the problem - coach bolts that you can’t get to with threads that are stiff with dirt and rust.

Here’s a nifty tool which will help anyone adjusting or replacing the tines of a cleaning turbine or cyclone on beet harvesters that use coach bolts to fix them. Suffolk farmer Richard Cook struggled enough times to think of a solution to the problem.

The problem is that the bolt head is smooth and there’s no means of gripping it. The bolts are dirty and rusty so the nuts are hard to move at any point on the thread. When the job needs doing there are generally a dozen or more bolts to undo and replace, and each can be a labour of love and frustration. For it takes more than fingers to hold the bolt, and mole grips are not much use. Holding the bolt head tight into the square with a finger or thumb is near impossible for one person, and hard enough for two.

When the tine bolts are old and the square worn, the problem of tightening becomes greater.

This tool solves the problem by pushing the bolt tight into the square hole, and holds it there for the whole time you are

undoing or tightening. So the job is easy for the full length of the thread - the bolt is locked tight and you just use the normal socket spanner. When the nut is tight on you remove the clamp with a few turns on the nut on the base, and move to the next coach bolt.

Replacing coach bolts on cyclones or other kit becomes easy, and therefore almost pleasurable.

The clamp is not too difficult to make. You need a short length of thick plate with a hole in it, and a 12mm or so nut and bolt, and weld the nut to the plate, then thread the bolt on and weld another nut on the end and make a slight dish in it with a sleeve which you weld on. The dish needs to be shallow, just to locate the head of the target coach bolt. Welding this edgeways on a short length of strap (so it fits easily between the tines) you fit a ring at the top which goes around the nut you’re removing, leaving space all round for the socket to go in to. It’s easier to follow the picture!

COACH BOLT CLAMP MAKES BEET HARVESTER REPAIRS CHILD’S PLAY

MADE IT MYSELF


Top left: the buck rake guard converts it into a kind of front mounted link box, allowing safe transport of useful big items such as spare wheels. Top right: the bright;y painted frame, covered in warning tape, stands upright for easy mounting on the rake. Middle, left to right:there’s a single point to fix on the buckrake, a link which goes over the top and is held with a pin in a clevis welded to the frame of the buck rake; light mesh at the back; side tines are all in sheaths so no damage caused by side swipes. Above: it’s designed strong enough - buck rake and guard all lifted with a single pallet fork;a neat way to stow and carry a heavy link

An unprotected buck rake is a safety issue, even if still remains a common sight on rural roads in the summer. Police in some parts of the UK are taking the issue seriously, and are stopping drivers and telling them they can go no further. When there’s a busy schedule with silage to be done on ten farms at once, the delay caused is one which any farmer or contractor can do without.

Paul Nixon from Central Scotland has designed and built a cover for his rake which can’t be faulted, protecting motorists and satisfying the local police. Not only does it go onto the rake easily, there’s just a single coupling to locate it solidly to the buck rake frame. Apart from the law, and minimising the effects of a bump

with an on-coming vehicle, the guard converts the rake into a useful carrier.

Paul made the frame with 2in box and has a front bar of 6in channel - this was the steel he had around. Tube and box section form the sleeves that cover the side tines. These are important, as many accidents occur right at the side - where the near miss was just a few inches too close. Unprotected side tines would have a devastating effect when penetrating a thin clad car.

Painting the guard brightly and covering with safety tape helps keep on-coming traffic away, and so far the frame has not been tested. Long may that continue! Nor have there been any objections from the boys in blue - some who have provided compliments.

BUCK RAKE GUARD FULFILS SAFETY REQUIREMENTS


Top: look at the hefty drawbar and the way it goes far back under the trailer, plus the angled struts which take the side forces exerted when turning. The road trailer is cut off so the jacks are right at the front. Above left: the diesel engine and hydraulic pump remain untouched from its time on the road, and present a unit that’s far less attractive to thieves than a Honda engine. harder to remove as well. Above right: the high capacity crane straddles the deck of the trailer, has hydraulic legs, and can load a one tonne bag at full stretch

This HIAB equipped trailer is particularly useful when drilling corn, as the ex-road trailer can carry 14 tonnes of seed at a time. While there are few farmers today who don’t cart seed to the field edge, most have to rely on a loader of some kind being around to lift the bags. In many cases the loader is useful for other jobs, and it’s role in the drilling job takes little time.

It all makes the crane fitted trailer an ideal machine, and this one is even better than some as the crane is driven by a diesel engine and pump located under the deck. So no need for a loader, and no need to hook the crane up to the drill tractor’s hydraulics. And with a crane of this strength, there’s no need to have the drill hopper adjacent to the

trailer - it can handle a full one tonne bag at full stretch. The result is more acres sown with few interruptions.

The artic trailer has 10ft cut from the front of the deck to make it easier to get into gateways, and a high capacity drawbar fitted to the front. This is anchored to the main frame some distance behind the front panel, and heavy struts hold the drawbar in place, designed to resist the side forces which occur when the trailer is asked to turn sharply. The parking jacks stay where they were, and are now right at the front of the machine.

The trailer was bought ready equipped with both crane and power pack, which made the conversion one of changing the trailer design.

HIAB TRAILER LIFTS 1 TONNE AT FULL STRETCH

MADE IT MYSELF


Left: this easy to load trailer makes real sense for the farm digger which fits neatly on the converted Marshall tipping trailer. Above: the trailer was stripped down to its chassis before the axle was removed.

Right: the chassi before boards were added - they run lengthwise and rest on the short cross pieces. Below: ready to be loaded. The scrap Marshall has another 20+ years ahead of it - all for minimal cost

Moving rubber tracked diggers from site to site is a simple job for David Muir and his father Jack, now that the machine is driven onto this trailer. The Dumfries farmers use the digger all over their farm, and it is useful to move it without wasting time. Driving the 3 ton JCB 803 plus on its tracks was a slow business, and adds wear to the tracks. Today they drive it onto a trailer they made from a scrap Marshall tipper, and move it around the farm at tractor speed.

The trailer was bought from a neighbour as scrap. They stripped it down to the basic chassis before rebuilding into a wider machine which loads the digger between the wheels.

The design meant adding a 6 x 3 channel to the sides of the chassis and making the axle 18in wider, which allows the digger to fit between the wheels rather than on a deck

above. It makes the trailer more stable and the loading ramps shorter. The added sides sections have an angled support from the drawbar. The side channel and chassis are level at the top (one way to do this easily would be to turn it upside down after the axle had been removed). The front rest for the original tipping body remains in place.

Five cross pieces welded between the chassis and the side frames hold the decking boards that fit longways in the recess that is framed by the steel sections.

A pair of ramps are made on the back from 2 x 2 angle with 2 x 1 box across the top. The ramps are held up with stays. They hinge from lugs welded on the back plate of the trailer.

David and Jack added some mesh in the inside part of the frame to carry spare drain tiles and draining rods and things.

THEY BUILT A TRAILER FOR THEIR RUBBER TRACKED DIGGER

MADE IT MYSELF


Top left: Nordsten 4 metre drill provides excellent results in the field and needs low power on the drawbar. Top right: spreading seed down a 4m box has it’s tricky moments. It can be helped with a telescopic handler, or by using an auger hopper as described in our issue 20-1 published Spring 2011. Right: levelling board is adjusted with screw jacks, and is supported with box section telescopics. Far right: the drill is flexibly mounted in slots that allow it to ride independent to the cultivator

Many box seed drills have been replaced by air powered machines with hoppers that are easy to fill from a tonne bag. They make the old box drill look relics from the past, yet as Richard Cook says, they can compete, and also exceed the work done by newer machines.

This machine plants directly into ploughed land and plants OSR directly into stubble. It has both a tramline kit and Pre-Em markers.

Sowing speed with the tines is faster than a power harrow. Performance has been recently improved by adding a levelling bar to the front of the cultivator. The bar knocks out lumps and smooths the way for the cultivator tines which work well in this easy to work soil.

The bar uses trailer screw jacks at either end to adjust the height. The setting is critical - too high and the there’s little effect, too low and the bar is working as a bulldozer which massively increases the power needed and adds so much strain that the bar and brackets will bend and break.

Richard has mounted the bar using three freely moving telescopic brackets, one in the centre and the side ones attached to the adjoining screw jack. The brackets take all the sideways force from the leveller. To keep the bar level the jacks need to be turned an equal number of turns. When correctly set the bar grazes the top of the soil, knocking just the top few inches of lumps off. It’s height is controlled by the setting on the drill, which goes through the top link setting on the tractor. The drill height is fixed by its wheels.

Drill ‘floats’ on cultivator frameThe piggy back on the cultivator was originally made with fixed holes for the drill mounting pins, so the two implements were rigidly linked, but even on their flat fields they found this set-up was too tight. Variations in the field contours caused the cultivator to either be partially lifted or driven deep, resulting in uneven work. The answer was to adapt the mounting plates on the frame with slots which allow the drill to move 3ins. This provides adequate flexibility for the 4m wide machine, allowing the tines to work at a constant depth.

Close coupling allows use of a lightweight tractorThe drill needs no more power than that provided by the Fiat 88-94 tractor that weighs around 3.5 tonnes and has 85 hp - that’s less soil compaction and less diesel. Transport is not so difficult on the farm where the arable land is almost in a single block. A low loader would be needed for road journeys. The drill is flexible and is used to plant oil seed rape directly into stubble. Richard blanks off spouts so the drill is using every fifth one - one open, three blanked, one open etc.

The Nordsten is a good set-up on this farm for the following reasons:1. It suits the soil type2. Soil damage is low3. Output acceptable4. Seed placement and germination good5. Costs are lowWould ‘getting up to date’ make an improvement?

RECENTLY ADDED LEVELLING BAR PUT ON NORDSTEN BOX DRILL

MADE IT MYSELF


Right: close coupling means the drill combination is within the Fiat’s 4 tonne lift capacity. Far right: the covering harrow can be lifted and lowered on three chains. Not the tines that make up the pre-emergence markers

Right: here’s a ‘why didn’t I think of this!’ modification which will help thousands of readers.

Here’s an interesting solution to a very common farming prob-lem. The difficulty of hooking trailers and other implements onto the ball hitch of any ATV are well known. The ball is hidden under the carrier, there’s not much space above, and strength is needed to lift the implement.

The problem is obvious - the ball is in the wrong position. So the solution is to move it, or this is what most people con-clude. It means that farmers decide the answer is to modify the ball attachment on the ATV, and over the years we have shown a number of answers - fitting the ball to a telescopic arm, or even one which is moved by an electric actuator.

Tom Burge who farms on Exmoor and is for ever attaching and unhitching trailers and other implements to his ATV, saw the problem differently to others. The problem was not that the ball was in the wrong place, but that it was difficult

to get the hitch onto the ball. So rather than adapt the ATV, he modifies the mechanism on the trailer. And all that’s needed is a simple extension on the lift-up handle so it can be used from further back. This way there’s no need to make any alterations to the quad bike itself. Which means no possible alteration to loading limits or queries over alterations from anyone. It also means the modifications will take minutes and cost pence.

Tom simply welds a length of bar to either side of the hitch handle, extending them back by about 9 inches to a vee which he welds together. He used some 1/2 in square bar, but rebar would work as well. Now there’s no need to stretch under the ATV. He can lift the trailer with one hand and open the ball jaw with the other. He welds these hitch exten-sions on all his ATV implements.

ATV TRAILER HITCH-UPS ARE MADE EASY

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Top left: this Gehl grinder has an improved loading system, and a molasses tank with metered output. Top right & above: the hopper is mounted on a frame with an axle and two wheels in the front, so it can be moved about by hand. It takes about a ton and is filled with the loader bucket. Below left to right:10ft, 4in auger works at optimal angle and swiv-els through 180 degrees; hydraulic motor is driv-en from tractor hydraulics, and controlled with a spool valve from a New Holland SR wagon with Forward-Stop-Reverse and flow regulator.

The bull-beef herd needs around a half ton a day of meal. It could be time consuming job, moving grain from store to mill, and then the product out to the stock. If done by an outside contractor, whose costs included both labour, travelling costs and time, depreciation and the running costs of expensive equipment, the cost of the final product is greater. Mobile mills such as the Gehl sort out many problems, and do the work where you want as well as the feeding out, but they can still be difficult to fill, particularly older models without the latest augers fitted to them.

This Gehl is used to grind 2 tonnes every 6 days, and the loading hopper “saves masses of time” says Richard Cook. He’s the regular operator, and finds it very helpful to be able to put the mobile hopper where it’s not in the way of the loader. With the wheelbarrow type handles on the hopper he can move it easily.

The grain goes up the hydraulic powered auger which is mounted in a bracket on the Gehl, and is lifted off by hand when the machine is being moved. The auger is light because the hydraulic motor isn’t heavy. The hoses

GEHL GRINDER-MIXER HAS FARM DESIGNED UPGRADE

MADE IT MYSELF


Above, left to right:hydraulic motor came from a scrap sugar beet harvester; molasses is mixed as the grain moves to the output auger; the molasses valve is fitted into the cap, and so can be easily changed from one drum to another; loading auger fills directly from a free-standing hopper that is filled with loader bucket, the grinder mixer can be loaded conveniently close to where the corn is stored.

stay on the machine and push-fit into the motor.

Mixing molasses into the ration is done using a tank on the side. The treacle goes down a pipe into the unloading mechanism and is mixed into the grain by the output augers. It stops the mixer becoming gummed up and is a fast and easy way to get the molasses incorporated.

Beef unit replaces milkGrinding and mixing the ration is not only a cheaper process than any other, it enables the ration to be tailored to the stock on

a weekly basis. There’s no need to have a storage space for the meal. Richard makes the ration of 25% barley and 75% wheal, add in minerals and 25 litres of molasses for a two tonne mix.

The bulls finish in 12 - 14 months. They are kept in bunches of equal sizes, and are frequently reassessed and sorted so there’s relatively equal competition at the feed trough. The cattle are housed in yards that were needed for the 70 cow herd which they have replaced. The finished stock go to MacDonalds, who pay a reasonable price for the cattle.

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MADE IT MYSELF


Above: break-back trailer in loading position; twin legs provide frontal stability to deck; heavy duty drawbar frame - tip angle remains the same whether on tractor hitch or not. Right: great idea! Checker plate allows mud to escape, and always gives grip. Far right: the deck in rolling position - note the narrow tyres

Use a wheeled JCB on wet land and you’re soon all over the place, moving it about by walking on back acter and front bucket. Substitute the CX for something on rubber tracks and there’s a totally different experience, with a machine that moves and turns the way it’s designed to. The only disadvantage is that the tracked loader is not built for travelling - it likes being carried!

With older rubber tracked diggers becoming affordable in plant sales, there’s a financial and practical temptation to pension off the old digger and get a tracked one instead.

The majority of farmers are well equipped with front end loaders in the shape of their telescopic handler or tractor and foreloader. So the farm back hoe or ‘JCB’ is kept for its ability to make holes with the back acter.

The best thing about the back hoe digger is that you can drive it from site to site. Once it’s in work the lack of grip becomes an issue on many farm jobs - the machine was, after all, initially developed for construction sites where it worked on hard surfaces.

Easy loading flexible digger trailerMoving a rubber tracked digger around the place is easy when there’s a suitable trailer that goes behind the tractor. Farms with low loaders are well equipped, but those with standard farm trailers for grain, silage and bales need a simple way to load and unload, and then have a trailer which conforms with road traffic laws in terms of load, axle capacity, breaking and so on.

This trailer has been designed to fit all the legal requirements, and you can get the digger on and off by simply driving it up the deck. Added to this, there are no hydraulics to connect.

The trailer works by having a hinged drawbar that has a pair of clevis joints under the chassis of the trailer, and a removable pin on the drawbar itself. It rolls on a single commercial axle salvaged from a curtain-sider, and this is equipped with disc brakes which are converted form air to couple with the tractor hydraulic braking system.

The axle is carefully positioned, so when the front pin is removed the rear of the trailer is heavier than the front and the body tips back. With the drawbar fixed by the pin the

IMPLEMENT TRAILER HAS BREAK-BACK FOR EASY LOADING

MADE IT MYSELF


trailer stands normally. The 20ft deck has a solid floor in the front, while at the rear

there are two checker plate sections that provide the machine with additional grip. With the pin out the floor is at an angle of approx 20 degrees.

The digger is driven up the deck, and when the weight is over the axle the trailer deck will drop down onto the drawbar, where the pin pushed in for safety. Inching the machine slowly up the deck means the pivot point is reached gradually, so the deck drops forward gently.

Unloading is the reverse process, revering the digger until the weight moves over the axle and the bed tips.

Building the trailerAlthough the design is very different to other trailers, a large number of components comes from other farm machines. The deck and underparts came from a Merritt Login low loader with a steering axle at the back. The deck was turned upside down and lugs welded to it so the axle and drawbar hinge

points were positioned in the correct place. The drawbar comes off a Simba Press and is made with

heavy wall 150mm box section. The deck drops onto a pair of 50mm stands and the tongue for the pin is 25mm plate.

The deck has a stop bar in front, and the rear section has heavy checker plate for grip and to allow mud to drop through. This clever design feature means there is never a build-up of mud making a slippery surface.

As the trailer is designed for hard surface work the axle is fitted with narrow section tyres, allowing the trailer to be reasonably narrow on the road. A protected lighting board is fitted to the rear panel, which also has a pair of very short stands on it.

Designing the trailer with a twin axle - so heavier diggers can be carried, requires considerably more engineering, and would make a useful engineering challenge.

With its 20ft long deck which is mounted low between the wheels, the trailer makes a useful general purpose hauler on the farm.

For the thick end of 100 years flywheels have been solid chunks of cast iron with not much to go wrong other than the starter ring round the edge.

In the past ten years they have been ‘improved’. They have two parts - dual mass - which are stuck together with rubber shock absorbers that allow the parts to move and absorb the bite as Jeremy Clarkson lets the clutch out at 5,000 rpm. The rubber saves the transmission getting a hefty jolt, and eventu-ally falling apart.

Which is a great, but perhaps slightly expensive idea. It’sone taken up by many makes of diesels such as Audi/VW in the Passat and others, Ford in the Transit, Mercedes in the Sprinter, GM in the Vauxhall and Opel diesels,and others.

The dual mass flywheel doesn’t last as long as its predecessor - not by a long chalk. And, according to some, the more gentle you are with the clutch, the shorter its service life. Letting the clutch out at low revs, driving in gear on tick-over - all the tricks of a hyper-miler - help wear the DMF.

“Expect 70,000 miles from it, and I’ve known them fail at

less,” one mechanic reported. The part costs anything from £550 to £700, and the work to

replace is maybe another £400. The symptoms are juddering when the clutch is used, noise

very similar to a thrust bearing on its way out, and difficulty in gear changing. Some have one symptom, others do them all. You can drive to compensate for a while, but once the fly-wheel has started to break up the wear gets increasingly great. Eventually things will come apart, and can smash their way through the bell housing. Gearbox damage is likely.

Commercial companies have become fed up with the cost of replacement, and some are getting the parts welded together and re-fitting. There’s an excellent place around the edge to weld, and more than enough scope to make a solid job. Not only does welding save the cost of the replacement part, it means the job won’t be needing to be done again.

Latest models of many of these vehicles are now fitted with a solid flywheel, which says something about progress. It will of course be done under warranty.

DUAL MASS FLYWHEEL - COSTLY REPLACEMENT UNLESS YOU WELD IT

Above, from far left: flywheel with the centre turned clockwise as far as possible; turned the other way; were these holes oval when the flywheel was new? This one had done 76,000m.

MADE IT MYSELF


When using the tractor link box for feeding sheep Exmoor farmer Tom Burge would always pick up sick ewes for the return journey back home. When he moved to a snacker behind the ATV there was no where to carry them, and this was a real disadvantage as it required a second trip to the field. The casualty was in the field longer waiting for treatment, which was especially irritating on a busy day.

While the snacker was a big improvement for feeding, it failed as a ewe transporter. So Tom built a carry frame on the back. And when he replaced the snacker with a 300kg Rota-Feed, he made a ewe crate for the back as soon as it was delivered.

The frame has compartments up the side over the mudguards and a full width carrier a the back that’s around 14ins deep. The addition rests on the main frame of the machine, and he designed it so the weight was as far forward as possible. There’s a door with a spring latch on the compartment so loading is easy.

He made it using 1in box section and galvanised plate which is pop rivetted in place. The crate can be lifted off the back of the feeder quickly, and fitted to the next one, if it has the same design. It also means that this machine can be sold on as a standard snacker without modification.

The carrying box collects ewes suffering from twin lamb disease, prolapse or other problems, and Tom can motor up and load in no time. He finds it easy to spot problems at feeding time, as the sick one don’t move so fast, or at all.

Electronic counter measures quantity of feed put outOne reason for moving to the Rota-Feed was because it put out piles of nuts rather than spreading them in a continuous line. Tom finds there is much less waste this way, and he can feed standard nuts rather than cobs. There’s a metre separating the piles, and that’s enough to prevent sheep moving from

one to another and walking on the nuts. They gather around a pile and stay there for a reasonable time before moving on. With the old machine they would walk up the row of nuts, expecting something better.

The feeder is improved still further by having an electronic counter fitted to the feed chamber, with the display mounted on the ATV steering bar. Tom used a Proxi sensor that plus in to a lead from the quad. The alternative would be to convert a bike computer to do the job.The counter means he can feed the exact amount needed by each group of sheep, rather than guessing and probably over feeding as a result.

Twin axle benefitsThe weight of 300kg of feed in a machine weighing another 200kg or so is a reasonable load on a single ATV trailer axle, and Tom will definitely be buying one with twin axles next time. The singles sink into soft ground, and put a very variable weight on the drawbar, giving the quad in front a tough time on occasion. The twin axle reduces ground pressure and helps prevent the tyre sinking in soft ground, and the drawbar loading remains more consistent.

Breeding moves to New ZealandTom keeps 2,500 ewes, which are mainly Exmoor Horn x Cheviot x Blue Leicester but is moving away from this cross to using New Zealand Romney, Highlander and NZ Suffolk rams. His view is that UK breeders over feed and over breed, which restricts rams to 50 ewes, while the New Zealanders can serve 100. “Breeders feed too much cake, and the UK rams are too heavy to get round sufficient numbers of ewes.

It’s hoped that the NZ breeding will add resistance to worms and foot rot and other expensive problems which are often tackled on a flock basis.

SHEEP SNACKER MODIFICATION SAVES TIME AND MILEAGEFar left: Tom shows how his neat transport box fits on the back of the snacker, with a convenient loading door.Left: box has useful compartments over the snacker wheels.

Far left: the rear compartment is partly underneath the hopper. Left: digi readout on the handlebars provides precise rationing

MADE IT MYSELF


An American home welding enthusiast has come up with a great idea for his trailer lights. His trailer, like many others, had the lights attached to the tailboard. After breaking the trailer lights three times by reversing too far back when parking it in

the shed and hitting them against the back wall, he decided to spend time on a re-design that takes into account the fact that the flimsy plastic cracks on the slightest impact.

Moving the lights off the trailer ramp or tailboard and into box steel brackets on the side gets the lens protected with a solid steel surround and the lights out of the danger zone. It aso has some useful safety features as well. The mounting means the lights are visible when the trailer board is lowered - a major danger period when you’re loading on the roadside after dark.

Each light has a pair of bulbs, providing protection when a bulb blows and doubling the light produced. The the twin bulb set-up is far from over-kill, as slow moving trailers need lights that are better than the legal minimum. (In the last issue we showed how Johnny Alvis had added Land Rover lights to the top front and back of his cattle box - all to improve safety and make the rig more visible on the road.)

The two bulb sets which he found for just $10 each. They are designed to be mounted horizontally, but fitting them vertically like this is ideal. The lights have a flush fit so there’s protection from impact, and he’s welded a back plate to the box section to keep road dirt off the connections.

Lighting units cost anything from £8 to £80, and lighting units from a scrappy will cost less. The fine for not having working lights goes from £80 to near infinity, should a fatality happen as a result. Here’s how to keep the cost down to the light and not unfortunate consequences.

TRAILER LIGHTS GET PROTECTION

Left: these light clusters are made for American RV campers, and work well mounted on their edge like this

Right: it’s along the lines of ‘If You Can’t See My Mirrors...’ and brings drivers into the real world, where indicators, even on trailers, mean what they say. Notice Andrews flashing beacon on the tailboard, and how much better than having one that’s invisible on the tractor alone. A4 size sign is on magnetic base for east transfer

Drivers who ignore the right turn winker on the trailer and overtake while the tractor starts turning are too numerous to count. It’s a daily dice with everything from motorbikes to mums to businessmen

and everyone else blind to the signals on the trailer.Somerset farmer and engineer Andrew Palmer got so fed

up he made up a sign for his trailer... and motorists seemed to become more patient. So he decided to have enough made for some other farmers, and to put the lettering on a magnetic plate like a fridge magnet. It can then be transfered from one trailer to another, from trailer to implement, or even tractor. It needs a flat, or soft curved steel plate for secure fixing.

Tractor accidents on the roadDepartment for Transport figures show that there have been around 600 Road Traffic Accidents each year for the last three years involving agricultural tractors. In 2010, 21 were fatal. Research into tractor related RTA’s indicates that about two-thirds are caused by other motorists and not the tractor

drivers. The overtaking of slow moving tractors, whilst not believing or noticing that they were indicating a right turn into a field or farm entrance, is a common cause of accidents.

The new, highly visible, black on green, plastic signs are magnetic and can be applied to flat or slightly curved surfaces and transferred easily between vehicles. They measure 285mm x 215mm (approx. A4 size) and have a glossy, wipe clean surface.

Priced at £5 including VAT, post and packing, signs can be obtained directly from Machinery Developments, online at www.twinsetspanners.com, Telephone: 07860 939473 or email: [email protected]

EYE-CATCHING SIGN PULLS UP ROGUE MOTORISTS

MADE IT MYSELF


Top: Fiat with front linkage - making the machine far more adaptable. Above, left to right: solid engineering using a single plate which has side plates making a very strong structure; the top bracket, which nicely fits the contour of the bonnet.

The concept of having mounted implements on the front of the tractor were almost unknown when we started publishing in 1992, and the commercial linkages were both expensive and made for just a few tractors. Today they are in regular use and competitively priced.

Despite this, a new commercial front linkage set still makes a hole in the pocket, particularly if there is no need for anything too sophisticated. In this kind of situation the home build can still save a reasonable sum.

Some years ago Suffolk farmer Richard Cook wanted one to carry a front press on his Massey 590. Armed with the ingredients of good workshop skills and experience, a useful hydraulic ram and some thick steel, he sketched out this neat machine.

The frame is built from 12mm and 10mm plate, with the two arms bent by a local engineering company in a heavy

press, and link arm hooks produced with a plasma cutter. The single acting ram has two positions for the piston - a simple way to make an adjustment from one job to another.

When he needed to move it from the Massey to the Fiat 88-94 he found it necessary to rebuild parts of the back plate, but the arms, ram and top link moved over without difficulty. There’s little to fault the engineering design he’s used. That 12mm plate bolted to the front of the tractor is supported by thick plates going down the sides, creating a massively strong frame with which to carry the weight. Brackets on the bottom are equally strong. The rigid arms have a strong cross bar and bracing which is there to take up side forces, and the jaws themselves make it easy to hook up to the implement.

The alternative set of pin holes for the ram piston is a neat way to adjust how high the implement is carried.

WORKSHOP BUILT FRONT LINKAGE CARRIES PRESS

MADE IT MYSELF


Top: rear view of the ancient press which now has a regular role in culti-vating this Suffolk farm. Above, left to right: the steering mechanism is based on a pair of old tractor link arms, with their ball joints used at both ends; John Wilder cast these bearing mountings a few years ago;front view of the press - a feasible project for the workshop enthusiast

This W Wilder & Sons press works a charm on the loamy Suffolk soil. Fitting it to the front linkage involved building a new frame on top of the basic rectangle that made up the original. Richard Cook made the frame with a linkage that goes to the front of the frame, with arms that can move from one side to another.

He made the linkage using tractor link arms complete with their ball joints. He cut the implement ends off the arms and welded them to solid 15 x 50mm bars. The other end of the bar has the rest of the original arm welded to the side. A rod across the front is picked up by the front linkage. The rod has stops on the inside of the balls to stop it sliding sideways.

The linkage is supported at the front with angle iron brackets welded to the top of the main frame, and at the back the mobile arms slide in a slot made using 50mm box. The arms have short lengths of 50mm box section welded to the inside, making it easier for them to slide.

Richard says the steering makes the machine work better in the field. There’s no need to lift it when cornering, so leaving some parts un-pressed. The press can swivel to a small extent because of the width of the guide slot. This flexibility reduces the side strain on the press sections and their mounting on the centre shaft.

The front press works well in many lighter soils, and with effective chain cleaners doesn’t block.

FRONT PRESS SELF STEERS ROUND CORNERS

MADE IT MYSELF


Top row: 26ft long with commercial triple axle, this is a truly dual purpose trailer; the drawbar dimensions reflect the size of the trailer. Second row: the main trailer deck stops just a few inches behind the rear axle. Third row: the drawbar locks into the front panel ... and extends back to the first main chassis cross member. Left: trailer rides on standard 385/55R22.5 commercial tyres;commercial air brakes have on-board reservoir.

This triple axle trailer was designed and built by farmer / contractor / straw merchant Paul Nixon. Not only did it cost him a fraction of a new trailer, it has a dual capability which he needs for his business.

Paul needs a trailer to deliver straw bales to farms that are difficult to access with his road truck and drag. A high capacity bale trailer is very useful to move straw bales off a field.

The Nixon contracting business, like others, involves moving machinery from one farm to another, often some distance. Taking slow moving loaders and other machines on the road uses excessive time and diesel. Loading them onto a trailer behind a JCB Fastrac cuts travelling, costs, and has other advantages like keeping mud off the road.

Most low loading trailers have drawbacks. Those with lift axles at the back put excessive weight on the tractor, and swing into a corner making field access sometimes very difficult. Those with a steering axle at the back such as the Merritt Login solve this problem, but they become difficult to handle at speed on the road.

At the other extreme, the commercial artic makes a poor RoRo trailer as the bed is high so ramps are excessive long.

Paul built this trailer last winter using both new steel and new axles. The deck is 26ft long and the ramp extension another 8ft, making a total deck length of 34ft. It rides nicely behind the Fastrac because it’s built with good balance, the right proportion of weight being on the tractor and axles that are mounted on triple leaf springs. The six road tyres have low

TRIPLE AXLE TRAILER HAS ROLL-ON ROLL-OFF CAPABILITY

MADE IT MYSELF


Top row - attaching the axles: the deck is laid upside down on the floor so the axles can be accurately positioned;working upside down is essential for weld quality; spring hangers are complex. Second row - ramp is lifted with hydraulic ram: centre mounted lift ram raises the rear deck;deck is locked in position with four struts that have individual pins and celvis. Above & left - light cluster is in hinged box for protection: the light boxes on cross struts that make up the ramp section of the deck; the finished job shows that Paul has doubled up the clusters for additional safety.

rolling resistance for easy towing and the ground pressure and soil compaction are both reduced by having the extra axle to the normal twin.

Building the trailer from first principles rather than doing a conversion allowed Paul the luxury to get the measurements and details exact, right from the start.

The trailer deckThe chassis frame carries laterals made from channel, positioned to allow the tyres to ride up to the underside of the deck

Triple axles have useful benefitsReaders might remember the soil compaction article in the

last issue of Farm Ideas, and how tandem axles have been found less damaging to soil than dual wheels. Having one wheel following in the previous track disturbs less soil and packs it less than a single axle. Add a third set of wheels to the trailer and there’s an even greater load spread.

The wheels are fitted with regular 385/55R22.5 commercial tyres, designed for low rolling resistance and reduced fuel consumption which have significance even with farm loads.

Light cluster is in hinged box for protectionThe rear lights are close to the back of the extension, and are fitted into boxes that can swing forwards when the ramp is lowered. the edge of the box extends further than the lens of the light.


The damage of Farm Business Tenancies“The standard FBT is like renting a piece of concrete - it takes little account of the fact that the commodity being let out is a living, fragile medium which can be easily damaged.” This controversial opinion was given us by a switched on, up to date progressive farmer - someone who you might expect to wax lyrical about the benefits of the new tenancy laws.

FBTs were the tenancy breakthrough that broke the back of life-time and generational renting and created opportunity for vibrant newcomers into the industry.

So what’s the problem? Our farmer believes the new farm tenancies created by the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 has caused rapid long term damage to soil which will take decades to undo. Short term occupation means minimal long term thinking, or action. Anyone farming land for as little as 24 months is unlikely to make too many structural improvements, and may well be unconcerned about the depletion of fertility or damage through compaction. For the owner, the high returns of many FBTs encourage blindness towards long term damage to soil.

Quality land is fiercely competed for by specialist growers. They need sufficient acres to cover the high cost of modern equipment. ‘Virgin’ land that has been pasture or lightly worked arable land is subjected to major work such as de-stoneing and cultivation with heavy machinery, all which compacts the land and breaks down the natural composition of the soil.

With a short term FBT, the grower is free to leave the land after a few seasons and move on, while the owner, who may well have received a rental which is a multiple of that agreed under the old Holdings Act 1986, has the opportunity to rent again for another hefty sum.

The system is in complete contrast to the farming principles which most have grown up with. Crop rotations, which provide long term stability and indeed improvement in fertility, are abandoned in favour of test tube checking

for nutrients. Deficiencies are corrected and the soil will be rested when disease and production start to deteriorate. Soil structure is damaged by heavy machinery, and the demands of the market buyers means that field traffic is regularly essential when the ground is wet. If the wheels were smaller, and the tyres narrower, the kit would be permanently bogged down in many fields. Land which

adapts itself to long term cropping like this is rarely found. These are the downsides of the Farm Business Tenancy

that need consideration by land owners, and maybe those who involved in farming policy.

Are you tied in to a ‘roll-over’ phone / internet contract?Farmers and others tied in to a seemingly unbreakable contract for phones and internet can breathe a sigh of relief, as these contracts are now illegal. The extra amount these contracts cost - typically £30 - £40 a month, may be annoying rather than life threatening, but they are a constant additional drain on the farm budget, and one which has generally be incurred, and sustained, by business practices which are close to the bone of ethics and legality.

We can speak from personal experience - a sales pitch by Unicom which offered lower costs but ended up with monthly bills of over £70 and a three year commitment which could only be revoked in writing, three months before the end date. Miss it - there is no reminder from Unicom of either the anniversary or the conditions - and you’re with them for another year. We have now changed provider who provides the line rental, broadband with unlimited use, free 24/7 calls for £35.

The Ofcom statementOfcom confirmed in September 2011 that rollover contracts will be banned from December 2011. The contracts, also known as Automatically Renewable Contracts (ARCs), roll forward to a new minimum contract period – with penalties for leaving – unless the customer actively opts out of the renewal.

Ofcom has set out a timetable for the removal of rollover contracts from the telecoms market which takes account of systems changes that will need to be made by

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communications providers.The sale of new automatically renewable contracts to

residential and small business customers will be prohibited from 31 December 2011. Ofcom will also require communications providers to move all residential and small business customers currently on rollover contracts to alternative deals, and to completely remove rollover contracts from the market by 31 December 2012.

Any customer who has a rollover contract and has concerns or wants to understand how the removal will apply to them should contact their provider.

Providers who continue to offer this type of contract to new customers beyond 31 December 2011, or those who continue to have customers on ARCs beyond 31 December 2012 could face enforcement action including a financial penalty of up to ten per cent of turnover.

You can access the details from this page http://ask.ofcom.org.uk/help/services-and-billing/rolloversoll and we suggest that farmers in this situation print off the page and include it in the letter to their provider.

Using the farm as a teaching and learning resourceHow about a different way of using the local farming environment! Yvonne Bell is a first school teacher in Crewkerne, Somerset and has set up an ‘Outdoor Curriculum Science Day’ with her partner who is a local farmer. The aim is to promote the outdoor environment as a learning area while fulfilling the science curriculum, and the idea has been successful tried with pupils from the school at which she works. Yvonne thinks there is the opportunity for other schools to do something similar, particularly if some of their staff are connected with farming.

They devised the day to include many of the science curriculum requirements in a totally practical and ‘real’ way. Making learning ‘real’ is by far the best way to help children maintain information and want to investigate further themselves, creating active learners who will want go on and continue to find out more.

Children who have visited the farm from Crewkerne so far have had a fantastic learning experience using the outdoors environment to its fullest and have gained a

lot of practical knowledge within the science objectives. Practical investigations such as exploring pulleys (from a tree branch) or investigating friction and ramps by using tree trunks as pivots, or looking at river flow and insect life during our river dipping are always of interest. There’s so much to do related to Science which can be explored outdoors in addition to the usual ‘nature trails’.

Yvonne and her team have focussed on different ‘forces’, but the potential is endless! How about an ‘air resistance’ day experimenting with parachutes outside or a ‘materials’ day sorting and categorising different natural materials and comparing them to man-made.

It doesn’t even have to stop at Science related days, how about a Poetry day or Drama day, acting out ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff’ under the bridge or actually building a ‘House of Sticks’ for the middle little pig! What about orienteering and working out which way is North/ South etc. And doing some Geographical investigation.

The Outdoor Curriculum Science days have become a popular feature of the Crewkerne school, and, when asked at the end of one session “who had learnt something they hadn’t known already”, she was surprised to see all the adults hands go up as well as the children – fantastic!

Here’s an example of the sorts of activities and questioning set up to explore in groups of 5/6 children with an adult. They always encourage the group to work together as a team.

Levers and Pulleys!!!Use the planks and rollers and explore!What happens to the log you are rolling down the slope if you make your ramp steeper?Can you be like an Egyptian and move the tree trunk and heavy stones using rollers?Look at the heavy weight in the tree.Pull the thicker rope. Can you lift up the weight?Now use the thinner rope using the pulleys. Can you lift the weight now?WHY?Look at what you are doing and work together to investigate the levers and pulleys.

Followup: Yvonne Bell, Manor Farm, Merriott, Somerset TA16 5NPe: [email protected] or [email protected]: 07926 972 161

Left to right: the power of the pulley - a working demo; how they moved huge boulders such as those in Stonehenge; finding life in the stream

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French farmers pay to use own seedUnrestricted use of royalty-free seeds has been the norm in France, and farm saved seed accounted for more than half the total acreage. A new law backed by Agriculture minister Bruno Le Maire is designed to make farm saved seed no longer royalty-free.

The new legislation requires a fee to be paid to certificate holders “to sustain funding of research and efforts to improve genetic resources” and the only exception are farmers with a total harvest of less than 92 tonnes. Since 2001, soft wheat is the only crop which has been levied in France, at a rate of E0.50 per tonne. The new law extends levies to include 21 species.

Farmers are pitted against seed companies in this argument, with the industry wanting to claim property rights over the crops grown and the resulting seed, while the Peasant Confederation and other organisations see the farmer as having an intolerable bureaucracy imposed upon them. Guy Kastler, head of Semances Paysannes, says replanting seeds leads to local variations of varieties that give plants characteristics that make them better suited to local soil and climate conditions, with the reduced need for chemicals. He claims seed companies adapt plants to suit fertilisers and pesticides which are the same everywhere.

The new situation in France remains better than the ‘living patent’ system in the USA, where the intellectual property right is held by companies which enjoy a monopoly over the sales of seed. Patents place an absolute ban on farm-saved seed, with or without the payment of fees, and protect the breeder from their genetics being borrowed or used by competitors in the creation of other new varieties. At present French breeders have the opportunity to use and work with the widest gene pool, but while their government has not agreed on patents on living things, patenting of plant genes is becoming more common.

New phone for farm boys

Move over iPhone and all those other phones who can’t take it rough. At last someone has realised that people work outdoors often need smart phone functions, but packaged to withstand a tough life, and where there’s slurry, grease and hands that are far from clean.

Motorola Defy+ JCB - bridging the gap between tech savy smartphones and rugged mobiles.

shock absorption skin designed specifically for the DEFY

As well as being preloaded with a special edition JCB app. Taking ‘work proof’ functionality one step further, the Motorola DEFY+ JCB Edition handset also offers construction site users and outdoor enthusiasts who routinely work with core technical and measuring materials a range of built-in options. It comes pre-loaded with bespoke JCB applications including: a spirit level, theodolite, decibel meter and recorder, torch, unit converter, calculator and DIY store locator. This saves the user time and effort of lugging around a boot load of individual work components, and also serves to speed up their productivity and output at the touch of a button.

Tips for extending the life of rubber tracksRubber tracks on Cat Challengers, Case QuadTraks, Lexion combines and others will get a longer life if they are used intelligently and the tractor looked after properly. Tracks might look indestructible, but it’s as easy to abuse them as it is to prematurely wear tyres. Tracks are expensive to replace. How the machine is operated can affect undercarriage component wear. By using intelligent operating procedures, you can extend the life of your track and undercarriage.

Limit high-speed travelHigh-speed work accelerates wear on all undercarriage and track components. Track wear is directly proportional to speed as well as distance travelled. Reducing the distance travelled when travelling to and from work by planning routes is beneficial. Remember that, for rubber tracks, speed equals stress equals wear.

Avoid going backwardsReversing accelerates wear on the reverse-drive side of the track links and sprocket teeth. The only time track links rotate against sprocket teeth is when the track is in reverse gear. When reversing about 75% of tracks links are under contact, load, and motion, from the bottom of the front idler to the first link engaged by the sprocket tooth. In comparison, forward travel puts about 25% of the track links under contact, load, and motion.

Reduce slippage and spinningTrack slippage and spinning accelerates track pad wear and limits productive work. Heavy contact between the track

Right: the standard presentation of a ‘smart’ phone; the Tool Box from JCB is relevant to farming, and all manner of apps can be added.

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links and sprocket teeth, between track links an rollers, and idler tread surfaces increases wear.

Plan your turnsConstantly turning to one side will reduce the life of a track. The sprocket teeth, track links idler, roller flanges, and tread surface on the side under load will wear faster. Plan your job to even out turns if possible.

Clean undercarriages frequentlyPrevent soil and debris packing in the undercarriage components by cleaning out the track as frequently as possible. Packing prevents the proper engagement between the mating components such as sprocket teeth and track links. This can cause increased loads on undercarriage components and higher wear rates.

Work out field contours Plan the work so the field contours are as shallow as possible. Rubber tracked machines are fundamentally designed for flat prairie land, not sharp slopes. Working uphill shifts the weight of the machine to the rear, which adds more load to the rear rollers and increases wear on sprocket teeth and track links. Likewise, there is a light load on the undercarriage when reversing down the hill. Working downhill moves weight to the front of the machine on the front roller, idler tread surface, and track links.

When you reverse up the hill, the link rotates against the reverse-drive side of the sprocket tooth. Also, there is a heavy load and motion between the link and the sprocket teeth, which accelerates wear. A heavy load is placed on all links from the bottom of the front idler to the first link contacted by the sprocket teeth. Extra load is also placed between the sprocket teeth and the track links and the idler tread surface. The life of the links, sprockets, rollers and idlers is reduced.

Working on a slope or side of a hill shifts the weight to the downhill side of the machine and causes additional wear on the roller flanges, sides of the track links, and that side of tread. Balance wear between each side of the undercarriage by changing the work direction on the slope.

Working on a crown puts all the load and weight on the inner ends of the track links. The load is transferred to the inside track links, inside roller, and idler tread surfaces, and

sprocket contact areas. Continual work on a crown will accelerate wear on the inside track contact surfaces. Compare that wear to the wear on the outside track components.

Working in a depression puts the load and machine weight on the outer ends of the track links. The load is transferred to the outside-track links, outside roller and idler tread surfaces, and sprocket contact areas. Continual depression work will accelerate wear on the outside contact surfaces. Compare that wear to the wear on the inside track components.

Alignment checks:Track frame and front idler misalignment will accelerate wear on all components. You can check for alignment by observing wear patterns on the bottom rollers, carrier rollers, and front idlers. You also can stand at the front and rear of the machine and do a visual inspection. See your machine manuals for specific adjustment procedures.

Pay-as-you-use water deal for farmersA Kent based borehole drilling company takes the risk out of the job with a new special scheme for farmers. The company carries all the risk of failing to get water in sufficient quantities by doing the drilling and installation free, and having a contract with the farmer for the supply of water. Not only does the farmer benefit from having no risk, the scheme evens out the farm cash flow as he pays for the borehole water in the same way as the mains supply. The only difference is the price. The contract charge of 60p per thousand litres is 30 to 60 per cent cheaper than the price of mains water, and for farms using 20,000 litres a day the annual saving is £3,000. Furthermore, the price remains fixed, while the price of mains water continually increases, and looks likely to do so even more in the future.

It means that while the economics look favourable at present costs, they are likely to look better again in a few years time. Most water utilities have told Ofwat that mains water charges are likely to rise 20% above inflation over the period 2010 - 2015, with companies in the South East being leaders. Add in supply restrictions due to drought, and the advantages of a borehole seem compelling.

Above: you can extend the working life of these rubber tracks by intelligent driving; driving at speed, especially on the road, increases stresses and wear; keeping things clean helps as well

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From far left: thedrilling rig runs on rubber tracks, and are costlymachines to buy andrun; boreholes are sunk hundreds of ft to tap into underground water courses; working the drillneeds a steady hand and a experienced operator

Below left: Agribuggy 2500 is a lightweight performer with a soft foot print. Below right: bowsers carry liquid in bulk to the field edge, so the light weight sprayer has no distance to fill up.

The company covers the total costs of drilling and installation,plus maintenance, and there’s no fee if there’s no water.

Private boreholes cost in the region of £12 - 14,000, the main cost being the drilling work itself which averages £7-8k, according to Vossbrook. Filtration for sediment and a UV filter can account for another £800, the borehole pump £600, and then there’s labour and a mass of smaller parts.

Drilling and installation take around 3 weeks of work, and when completed the mains supply is capped and the borehole plumbed into the existing water system on the farm. The machinery above ground can be installed in a space no greater than 1.5 x 1.0m

A Sussex fruit farmer says “We should have done this years ago – the private water supply Vossbrook installed for irrigating our fruit trees saves us over £10,000 a year and it’s great to know we control our own supply.”

D.P., Fruit Farmer, Sussex.Explains Vossbrook’s Senior Partner, William Bomer:

“Farms and other agricultural businesses are most at risk from drought but, in the current economic climate many are understandably concerned about the initial expenditure. This way, they can enjoy the peace of mind that comes from having a private water supply and reduce their overheads at the same time.”

Followup: Vossbrook LLP, Canterbury Innovation Centre, University Road, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7FG T: 01227 811 833 E: [email protected] www.vossbrook.co.uk

Agribuggy replaces BatemanA lighter foot print, uncomplicated mechanical transmission and Land Rover power plant has resulted in Matthew Stone moving from the Bateman to this Frazier 2500, which weighs in at 3,700kg empty and 6,400kg fully laden. The machine runs on 550/60-22.5 tyres as standard and there’s a range of row crop wheels up to 44inch. The spray boom is aluminium, and available in a number of widths.

The Bateman RB26 weighs in at 6610kg, and is powered by a 175 John Deere with full hydrostatic four wheel drive. It has a steel boom and runs on 12.4/R32 or 14.9/R28 wheels.

Matthew’s farm has level ground, and the Land Rover 300 series TDi with 132HP has power enough for all the work done with liquid fertilising and spraying over 1,000 acres. Were power to be a problem the option would be to part-fill the tank. Matthew uses bowsers for refilling, which saves considerable time and reduces soil compaction as the smaller tank is less of an issue when it can be quickly filled from the headland or gateway.

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Farming once again seems to be escaping the worst of the economic storm. Too manyestablished companies have bitten the dust,particularly in the High St. Yet an analysisof retail sales shows the drop overall isactually quite marginal. The reason for theproblems is in fact financial.

Today’s difficulties produce valid lessons for all in business, not simply bankers andshop keepers, and it includes the farmingsector. It is of course debt which hascaused the problems of well established retailers such as Peacocks, with 550 storesand 9,600 workers, La Senza with 2,600 employees, Past Times with 100 stores, Blacks Leisure with 300 shops and 4,000. All these have failed in 2012, and these companies join the long list of failures in2011.

Reason for business failuresProblems such as poor marketing leads to cash flow difficulties, which in turn creates a lack of finance which constrainsproduction. The elements of any business are entwined in a complex structure, not dissimilar to the way the agronomic elements of farming co-exist.

Many of today’s business failures are theconsequence of poor financial planning by management and owners. Strip away all the excuses, explanations and false rationalisingand the failure comes down to poor decisionmaking which is generally a consequence of poor leadership. In other words, company directors have taken decisions which theyhave probably not fully understood. What appears to be a sound financial position has failed the “what if” test, because thequestion was never asked, or the answer probed sufficiently hard. The sad fact is thatbusinesses don’t fail, but its leaders do.

Start up companies are particularly vulnerable to failure, and one in three inthe UK go under in their first three years.But those which survive can go on to bigthings.

The scope of planningThere remain two schools of thought over the concept of business planning - to door not to do. The not-to-do camp believethat the future is impossible to predictsufficiently accurately for planning to beany use. So spending time, and precious funds on research to create a paper structureof the business is a waste of time. The non-planner believes anything could happen so the answer is doing rather than planning.These people point at the catastrophe of

the banks and their lending, all of which was conducted with detailed planning and the most sophisticated tools for businessanalysis.

Plannerson the other hand point to the need for goals, objectives and strategies.Without these, they claim, businesses flounder, change direction and become unmanageable. Changing direction through buying and selling assets and developing enterprises needs some kind of framework orrationale behind the decisions.

The need to understand what you’re doingLook at the hugely complex collateralised debt obligations (CDO) which were created and sold by banks, and, though debt, were considered assets on balance sheets. Few fully understood what they were, and how they might go wrong, and so reasoned thatif Goldman Sachs and the Bank of America were happy to trade, they needed to join the party.

Private equity is another financial instrument which has caused companies to fail, simply because they are so indebtedthat a small trading set back in tradingthrows them off the rails. Expansion underthe system caused solid good companies tobecome basket cases.

Can it happen to farmers?The simple answer is “yes”. Farmers can lift their debts through mortgages and involvement in other business. Raising funds on the dependable value of land has been done by farmers for generations.Becoming a Lloyds of London insurance ‘name’ has the chance of making good money, but can effectively be gambling the farm. Using the solid collateral of land tofund more spurious activites has long beena pastime, and one encouraged by brokers and middle men who can derive income from deals.

Warren Buffett says he won’t invest in something which he doesn’t fully understand, and it’s a business maxim which makes sense, yet one that is often ignored.Company managers can see gold at the end of a rainbow they don’t understand.

The unravelling economy will throw up an increasing number of opportunities, andfarmers will find themselves being shown offers which seem to good to ignore. The offers may well fit into their existing cashflows and budgets, but they need to look hard at the realities of their existing farmbusinesses. Where is the income coming from? Exploring the “what if” region, how

secure is income to changes in EU policiesregarding farm subsidies? Is the businesssufficiently robust to weather a fall in salesincome and a rise in interest rates? For thisis what has hit the High St. Customershave continued to shop, but they spend fractionally less. Yet the money needed toservice the company debt goes up.

Building a financial planOne of the purposes of Practical Farm Ideasis to provide farmers with tools they can useto make their businesses more profitable.Profitability in many areas of farming is achieved through cost control, as thecommodity markets being supplied result in prices totally out of the farmer’s hands.Farmers are far from being alone. The corner shop or garage can only follow thesupermarket, and trim costs so the marketprice delivers profit. The builder prices jobson the basis of costs, but also what the localmarket will bear. The same is true acrossthe economy.

The financial plan needs to be firmlybased on goals and strategies, and theseneed to have controls in place. Eachdecision needs to somehow refer back to thefundamental blueprint of the farm business- so a tractor gets replaced, or just as easilyretained, for business reasons.

Farm developmentWith product prices nudging up and theSFP looking healthy for this year, it’stempting to do some major investment. Sothe plan is developed for a new grain store,or dairy set-up, which will bring the farminto the 21st century. Funding will comefrom some of the farm assets, either througha mortgage on the property or the sale of a house. Equipment suppliers are naturallyenthusiastic, and the plans soon developinto a major expenditure. As the numbersincrease, financial calculations go into seat-of-the-pants mode. The what-if’s show thatthere are some fundamental big risks, yetthe project has begun and the commitmentmade. The development is now dependingon wheat being £150 and yields averaging7 tonnes. It’s getting to sleepless nightsscenario.

With luck the business will pull through, the market will stay buoyant, a lottery ticket will come good, an unknown asset comes to fruition. But there may still be regret that the whole ambitious endeavour was started in the first place. If only there had been some goals, and strategies, and limitations laid down in the first place.

Economic gloom is everywhere, and causing business to go back to first principles of cautious investment and development. It applies to farms as well as retailers. Farmswith goals and strategies are better placed to take the right decisions.

FINANCIAL FOCUS

THE NEED FOR GOALS AND STRATEGIES

LAMMA 2012


2012 LAMMA - even bigger and more comprehensiveNow Britain’s biggest farming event, LAMMA’s success is based on giving farmers what they want: loads of machinery, inexpensive food, a relaxed dress code and free entry, all at a time when farm work is at a lull. Started by a group of Lincs engineers (Lincolnshire Agri Machinery Manufacturers Association) to provide a showcase for their products, today these Lincs engineers mix it with others from across Europe and find themselves with a huge national audience. All 750 exhibitors (150 up on 2011) are vetted to make sure they arethe 2012 event was a major success.

Farmers had a variety of reasons for making the LAMMA trip. Derek Johnson from N Yorks was looking to replace his ageing Merlo, and was checking out the latest handler specs. Others had less specific aims but were happy to get swept away by the dazzling new paint.

We resisted the paint and focussed on soil as it connects with the Soil Compaction feature in our previous issue. We visited and interviewed people from companies providing products to improve soil conditioners - the stands which many visitors will walk past, maybe because their visual attractions are limited to a few plastic bags of grey stuff, and printed information consisting of tables of figures. The soil condition stands are never particularly interesting.

Techniques at LAMMA for raising soil fertilityInvesting in soil, improving it’s condition and fertility, is a first priority in farming, yet one easily forgotten in the dazzle of equipment. Lifting productivity in each field is a goal for all

farmers. Achieving this means focussing on the poorer parts of the field, and the new technology to help achieve this is now very affordable. Companies providing analysis of the fields vie with each other for business. Getting the profits up will provide the funds for new equipment in subsequent years! So, contractors apart, the first and main priority must be the soil used for crops and grazing. Skimping on soil condition with a yard full of expensive equipment is no long term farm plan.

Soil analysis gets more logicalThe slightly dull facade of soil companies hides the fact that something very interesting is going on. The age old system of sampling, where cores are collected and then mixed to cre-ate an average, is becoming very out of date. With Global Positioning (GPS) farmers can now target the needs of specific areas of their fields, with each being considered almost a sepa-rate entity. The maps provide data which adjusts machinery while it’s working - not only fertiliser spreaders, but lime and other machines, so the material goes onto the parts of the field where it is most needed. The aim is to get a level production across the whole field, so crops don’t go down in some places while in others there is reduced yield. The economics of lifting the poor areas and profiting from the fertility of the best has been shown to work.Looking at soil types - finding out what you’ve gotSoil electrical conductivity varies with the clay content. Two companies, Soil Quest (Masstock) and FarmImage were at LAMMA and both showed how they scanned a field with a machine called a Veris which continuously measures con-ductivity to create a map. The machine uses steel discs, two having an electrical charge and four being receivers, to meas-ure the conductivity at two depths 0-30 and 30-60 cm. The results are continuously recorded as the machine covers the ground, with the position being plotted. The resulting map provides a basis for further analysis and is the backbone of the

Below: the Veris machine measures the electrical conductivity of soil; Soil Quest, the new name for Masstock, uses an identical machine. Much depends on the interpretation of results.

Far left: big machinery has a continuing appeal. Left: on a dry show day the tented stands are never as alluring - but they can impart valuable knowledge that can benefit people with pockets of any depth

LAMMA 2012


following work. Land with poor conductivity is often heavier and crops find it harder to tiller out.

The second stage is to take soil samples from each of the different zones shown on the soil condition map and this is then used to create a management plan for the field. Once the quantity of input, be it regular fertiliser, lime, organic material or muck and slurry is decided, the machine is set up to work. The data is used to control the spreader, so the areas which need the most get it, while other areas that have better results are given less.

Users do more than use the information to alter their fert spreaders.The soil data makes sense on a number of levels. One farmer changed the location of the muck heap in a field from a fertile edge close to the gateway to an area in the centre where the data showed there was poor fertility. Another spread muck with a map in his hand while driving, going a gear higher in the fertile places.

Auto adjusting the shutter setting on the lime spreader will also increase the results of spreading.

It’s not just soil inputs - seed rates are adjusted on the drill to take into account the fertility of each sector in the field. As FarmImage says “Establishing the correct number of plants or tillers is critical to canopy formation and grain yield”. They say there are many factors that are consistent variables such as grain weight, drilling date and variety. There are also changes in seed bed quality that demand changes of seed rates to achieve even establishment. Even crops have the potential to produce the highest returns, as each part of the expensive resource - land - is being treated optimally.

The key factor is analysis of dataDespite the maps and the mountains of statistics, there’s a need for human knowledge and experience in providing a recipe for improvement. Soil Quest anlayse the maps ‘with the farmer’s and agronomist’s knowledge to decide seed rate’, and recognise this is important both for seed and fertiliser, and also for weed control.

Products to improve soil fertilityCompound and straight chemicals are the traditional tools for raising fertility, but other products have come into play as chemicals have become increasingly expensive. The days when most conventional farmers considered them to be largely hocus pocus are drawing to a close. Companies such as Keith Mount Liming from Bury St Edmunds has products like Limex, a sugar beet waste product which adds lime and improves soil condition with phosphate, magnesium and sul-phur in the product. Another product is Fibrophos, a manure from cereal fed chickens which has been around for 20 years. With phosphate, potash, sulphur, magnesium, sodium and calcium in a complex natural material which has trace ele-ments and more included, users have found it beneficial to crops and grassland alike.

Cropkare, from Willett & Son of Bristol, is made in Holland from chicken manure which is incinerated to produce electricity and the resulting ash available for the land. The by-product is nationally available and contains P and K, Mg, S and a full range of trace elements. Very cost effective, the product improves soil composition and is long acting. The feasibility of using other ash products from bio-energy power stations which are fuelled with wood and other fuels holds the possibility of further supplies of nutrient-rich waste products being available from UK sources, reducing transport costs.

Basic Slag remains available with the product name of Ag Slag, and retains its reputation as a liming agent and source of nutrients. This table compares the product with other liming materials. Ground limestone varies significantly by region, some being more effective than others. Ground limestone comes in a variety of guises, ‘screened’ being coarser. Limestone quality is measured by its neutralising value - which is its effect compared with calcuim oxide. So if 100kg of the material in question works as well as 52 kg of CaO, the value is 52. Lime suppliers are required by law to provide these figures, and in addition to declare the %age of the material that goes through a 150 micron sieve - figures the farmer can use to compare the quality and value of competing suppliers.

See table below

Product source

Neutralising capacity as CaOFineness factorTotal calcium at 4t/ha (kg/ha)Available calcium at 4t/ha (kg/ha)

Calcium Availability of a Range of Liming AgentsSource: Soil Fertility Services Ltd July 2007

Never let your landknow you’re poor

Ag Slag

44501400600

Limex-70

3467800450

Gypsum

384800360

GL Norfolk

47241200149

GL Kent

51211200143

GL Lancs

51501200120

GL Newcastle

4252110015

GL N Wales

5248130012

Dorset

472210008

Hereford

544913600.5

Right: spreading sludge. Far right: American built KW composter turning a windrow of food and sludge waste

LAMMA 2012


The table shows the available calcium in ground limestone is hugely variable. The effectiveness and speed of reac-tion of a liming material can be quantifies in the lab using a ‘reactivity test’. The test involves the decomposition of the liming material in hydrochloric acid, and the results compared with the pure calcium carbonate. Figures varying considerably between samples, quarries and crushers. Lime requirements are not based entirely on the pH of the soil, as clay soils will benefit even if their pH is neutral. The dense soil particles in clay are good at retaining calcium and mag-nesium ions and they displace hydrogen, and the structure restricts the movement of bacteria and micro organisms. Lime changes the characteristics of clay so it flocculates, increasing drainage, air capacity and the easier movement of major ingredients for plant life development. At the other extreme sandy soils have a reduced capacity for holding lim-ing materials, and so need a little and often liming to main-tain fertility.

Sewage Sludge has an increasing role in farming as the costs of other fertilisers increase. It’s use became regulated after an agreement in 1998 between Water and Sewage Operators and the British Retail Consortium and this was legalised in 2001. The end date for the use of untreated sewage sludge on farm land used for non-food crops was 31 Dec 2005, and conventionally treated sludge has only one use, on combinable and animal feed crops and not on grazing land. Application to grassland require deep injection, not spreading. Conventional treatment includes anaerobic digestion, and biological, chemical and heat treatments as well, with the requirement that at least 99% of pathogens are destroyed. Arguments against sewage sludge

are rife in the USA, where opponents claim damaging chemicals are spread on the land, yet the technique is far from new, with raw, untreated ‘night waste’ being spread widely before the development of a sewerage system. New chemicals unknown to our ancestors do get into the drains, but dangerous chemicals are handled carefully by industry and consumers.

The need for further treatment and a product with fewer health risks have resulted in Enhanced Treated Sludges which are processed so they can be used like regular fertiliser on a wide variety of crops, including salads, fruit and vegetables.Pathogens in the sludge have been virtually eliminated, and the product is free from salmonella.

Sludge is high in phosphate, and can replace that imported as rock phosphate and processed into triple super phosphate, which now has an on-farm price of close to £400/t. This values the phosphate constituent of biosolids cake at £11/t. Severn Trent Water serves 8 million households and businesses and generates 650,000 tonnes of treated biosolids every year, and in 2009/10 supplied this to 370 customers. The company says that spreading 8 - 10 tonnes/acre or 20 - 25 t/ha provides the soil with its phosphate needs for about four years. The alternative is spreading digested liquid, and 8,000 galls an ac (90 cubic m / ha) which lasts three years. Apart from phosphate, the bio-cake adds N to the rate of 20 - 30 kg/ha in year one, and another 20 kg in year two. Other usefu ingredients are sulphur, and trace elements including boron and manganese.

The organic matter in sludge bio-cake is important to improve soil condition, structure and resistance to

Right: legs are not over thick and have replaceable wearing plates in the front. Far right: the wide wing is the action tool here, giving the land a real heave from underneath

Above, from left: Terratech uses distinctive silver, and there’s some good engineering underneath. MD Chris Byass is on the right; forward wheel subsoiler is ideal for Challenger; rear press sets working depth - note the pin is in the deepest setting

LAMMA 2012


compaction, moisture retention, together with its positive effects on bacteria, earthworms and other living organisms.

See table above

There are some important limitations on the use of sludge prod-ucts. Grazing land that has been surface spread can only take place during the next growing season, and it needs a 3 week period after digested liquid or limed cake has been injected. Vegetable crops need 12 months, and 30 months for ready to eat crops. Livestock farmers need to be aware that sludge contains molybdenum which can cause soils that naturally contain high levels of the element to cause problems in grazing livestock. Cattle, and to a lesser extent sheep, can suffer copper deficiency.

Bio-Mulch is a soil conditioning agent in liquid form which is diluted 40 - 50 litres Bio-Mulch to 200 litres water. It has a high population of bacteria that break down straw and other trash and converting it to humus. The product has a molasses base with potassium, phosphate and trace elements. Bio-Mulch includes biological activators, in much the same way as biological washing powders and silage additives, both products which have gained widespread acceptance. Users spray it onto chopped straw in no-till and min-till management, and find it starts breaking down the surface trash quickly, whatever the weather. In wet harvest it prevents the straw becoming a stinking mess of wet matter, and when there’s no rain the material starts the breakdown in the dry. The result is an improvement in humus and soil condition.

Followup: LIMING Keith Mount Liming www.mountliming.co.uk T: 01284 811729, E [email protected] /Kropcare Shorts Agri Services, Jade Farm, Winkfield Lane, Winkfield, Windsor T: 01344 891982 E: [email protected] www.shorts-group.co.uk / Ag-Slag and Bio-Mulch Soil Fertility Servoces, Harvest House, New Rd, Crimplesham, Norfolk T: 01366 384899 E: [email protected] / Fibrophos John Hatcher, Walton House, High st, Felixstowe, Suffolk T: 01394 274321 E: [email protected] www.fibrophos.co.uk / Sewage Sludge Dr Brian chambers, ADAS Gleadthorpe Research Centre T: 01623 844331 Mark Aitken SAC Auchincruive T: 01292 525330 www.adas.co.uk/matrix / Severn Trent Water T: 0800 9177253 E: [email protected] / MAPPING: FarmImage T: 01233 740247 www.farmimage.co.uk / SoilQuest www.masstock.co.uk T: 01620 842170 / Phield Tek Risby Business Park, Bury St Edmunds, T: 01284 811729 E: [email protected]

LAMMA competitionsThere are a number of competitions associated with LAMMA, and it was interesting to see the fledgling Tractor Guard, which was the cover story of Farm Ideas last summer issue (20-2) winning the prestigious Farm Machinery and Equipment Award in association with Farmers Guardian. The window protectors which can be fitted or removed in literally

seconds is an innovation that saves broken glass, downtime and insurance claims, and has a wide application.

Martin Lishman gained the best New Product Award for their wireless Barn Owl Crop Monitoring and Auto Fan Control system. The inexpensive system will improve grain quality in store and reduce the anxiety of cereal farmers who store their crop on farm as the information from each sensor is recorded directly onto a website so results can be contained at any time, in any place. This package costs an average £1,500. A second stage connects the sensor information with the fan switch gear, so appropriate fans are turned on when necessary. This additional £1,500 means that the store is under full automatic control.

There’s a demo at www.barnowlwireless.com The system links in with the pedestal system of crop drying and control which the company has been involved with for 40 years and claims it provides the highest grain quality and fastest cooling times.

Followup: Matrin Lishman T: 01778 426600 E: [email protected] www.martinlishman.com

LAMMA machineryThere was some impressive cultivation equipment from the new company Terratech of Cottingham, East Yorks. Formed last year by farmer and engineer Chris Byass to produce qual-ity arable machinery at an affordable price, Chris sees the competition as being more in the lines of Cousins and some continental marques rather than the companies such as Sumo (also in Yorks) which are focussing more on Min-Till.

Farmers with Caterpillar Challengers will be interested in the towed 5 leg 3.5m wide subsoiler made as a special one-off for a man with heavy land in Holderness. He wanted a trailed machine that was handy on the headlands, and suggested having the wheels in front of the V frame, and the idea works extremely well. The machine turns better and follows the tractor through gateways, lifts easily, and is easy to handle. Chris fitted the tines with wide wings, and put a packer roller on the back to control depth and work the field surface. This machine is working at 20ins behind 300HP.

The Combi-Harrow is a one - two pass machine that has a FlexiCoil roller in the front, wheeling eradicators made from rigid tines that adjust in depth, S tines or hydraulic JackPot tines go in front of a pair of levelling boards to consolidate and crush clods and then a crumbler roller on the back for consolidation and moisture retention.

Attention to detail is shown by the rubber rollers fitted to his steering front press, which are sure to turn more easily, and for longer than the more regular all-metal arrangement. Terratech is moving in competitive territory but the quality of their design and work deserves checking out by those in the market.

Followup: Terratech Ld, Cowlam, Little Weighton, Cottingham, E Yorks HU20 3XW T: 07703 307189 E: [email protected] www.terra-tech.co.uk

Sludge ingredientsper tonne STW biosolids cakePer cu metre liquid biosolids

Source: Severn Trent Water

Total N (kg)10.52.6

Available N (kg)1.50.5 - 1.0

Value N / ha£22£6

Phosphate (kg P2O5)132

Value P / ha£250£38

LAMMA 2012


Two machines for livestock farmers attracted attention - a feeder and a straw chopper.Their ‘three-jobs-in-one’ cattle feeding machine which is a loader bucket which fills itself from the silage clamp and straights store, mixes the feed, and then puts it out into a trough. The machine does the job of the silage grab and the mixer wagon, reducing the money tied up in feed-ing machinery, and means the driver stays in the cab. The bucket mixes 2.8 cu metres at a time, or roughly a tonne of feed, but does it very quickly. The silage is filled in less than a minute and the load mixed in two minutes. Mixing and feeding 3 tonnes of feed takes less than 30 minutes. Being loader mounted the machine gets into buildings and around corners which the diet feeder finds difficult. There are 200 Silage Mixer buckets working in France, in herds that range from 100 - 300 cows.

The grab type front is an abrasive roller driven at both ends by hydraulic motors. The rams push it down through the silage which is strips off - no lumps, and a neat silage face. The silage goes into the bucket, either after straights have been shovelled up with the front blade, of filled with an auger afterwards. The feed is mixed with an open auger and the discharged to either side. See details on http://www.emily.fr/

melodis-godet-d-sileur-m-langeur-distributeur,154The Emily feeder is a concept that might appeal to farmers

with inaccessible cattle yards and those who want to get on with the job quickly, even at the published £16,000 price.

The straw spreader takes any shape of bale, moves it forward to the shredder with a reciprocating bottom that has no chains or gears, has a hydraulic spiral rotor that feeds the chopped straw into a turbine which drives it up the chute. The machine can blow up to 15 metres, the chute swivelling through 260 degrees. Control is through a box in the cab, and the hydraulic requirements are a single spool valve - a feature of Emily equipment.

The machine has a neat stone tray which stops stones being fired up the chute and at cattle.

The company use Hardox, more than 2.5 times the strength of mild steel, for all the steelwork. The result is a weight of 1.3 tonnes for the empty feeder, making it work well on a 3 tonne handler. The straw spreader at 1230 kg is slightly lighter.

Followup: Etienne Pignon, Export Manager, Emily, ZA Les Landes, 29800 Tréflévénez, France E: [email protected]: 0033 298 218614 www.emily.fr

Top: self loading, mixing and feeding out in a single machine; handler brackets are the standard couplings. Above: beds up left and right; loads with the ramp that has retaining tines for square bales

FARMWALK WITH NIGEL WITCOMBE


FARMWALK


Top: mobile cattle han-dling is achieved with this £500 system with a pen that takes 20 x 2 yr bullocks or 30 yearlings. Above left: it takes about five minutes to set the pen up, best done near the field boundary so cattle can be walked down the hedge. Above right: the frame rests on the ground and the drawbar is not a prob-lem for cattle getting out of the crush

There’s always time and effort involved in rounding up and moving cattle from field to yard, and the hard work of putting them through the crush has yet to start. With so many farms having regular TB testing, the benefits of reducing the effort of the job are good for the farmer.

Nigel Whitcombe made this mobile handling system for no more than £500, using scrap parts for the trailer, spending much of the money on 8 heavy duty gates that are used for the pen. Since finishing the project he says it has totally transformed the way he handles cattle. Summer TB testing is done in the grazing field. Stock with mucky eyes, lameness, a swollen quarter are treated in the field.

Making the job easier means it’s more pleasant and easier to fit in to the day’s routine, so

problems are worked on earlier.Design uses a Frasier muck spreader chassisNigel has made some major changes to the spreader chassis that fundamentally changes the structure. From being a frame designed to carry a heavy load on top it is a steel arch through which cattle can move, and the penning gates can be carried on either side. The axle loading is far less than when it was carrying a load of muck, which has allowed him to remove the centre of the axle and re-engineer it so the wheels are mounted on a pair of stub axles. The Frasier chassis is at the back of the machine, and he has welded an extension made from 6 x 2in channel steel on which he’s mounted a standard cattle crush. The result is there is nothing going from one side to the other, allowing cattle to go through

MOBILE CATTLE HANDLER HAS PEN FOR 30 YEARLINGS



Above left: the pen gates have two 14ft lengths that pull out from either side and remain secured to the raceway. Above: the Frazier chassis is joined to the home built extension with a step in the middle. Left & far left: pull the cable with the blue alkathene handle and the sleeve is lifted and releases the door. Below: the crush is attached by four bolts to the home built frame

the raceway without having any obstacles.

bar that has inserts locating into the box section chassis, which provides stiffness for the rear of the machine, and also has a ball hitch attached

channel and box section gussets welded in to improve strength

arches made from box section, with double 6in gussets across the corners. The arches create a frame sufficiently strong for the purpose

cross members, and this provides stiffness to the front of the machine

of the cross members

lugs welded to the chassis

pen to make the pen rigid and cattle proof

up to five each sideOne man handler“It pays for itself every year,” says Nigel, who finds it easy enough to do cattle on his own without additional help, other than from his good working dog. Getting through the cattle smoothly is helped by being able to remotely open and close the exit gate of the crush from anywhere along the side. He’s fitted cables to do this. One pulls up a small sleeve which lifts the latch on the gate so it opens, and the other pulls the top of the gate so it closes and the latch clunks into place. It means he can hold one in the crush to act as a lure for the next to go down the raceway, and then open the exit and slam it closed after it’s gone.

Tow hitch cuts road travelGoing through the cattle on a regular inspection and you find one which needs to be brought home. With no holding pen on the crush exit you’re doomed to driving the tractor back home to collect the cattle box and then transfering the animal from the crush to the trailer.

The ball hitch on the back means the cattle trailer can be towed along behind, and reversed and loaded in the field if needed. Towing it back to the farm loaded is not



recommended, as the hitch may not be strong enough - but you have saved one journey, and also have kept the flow of work going in the field, getting all the cattle through without leaving them mooching in the pen unsupervised.

Head scratchersLow ground clearance, and resulting bulldozing when the machine is towed down ruts, is something Nigel has to live with. It’s difficult to see how this can be improved when towing with the tractor pick-up hitch, as the frame under the crush has to be close to the ground.

There is still a problem with the non-return gates to the side of the raceway to stop cattle reversing back. He’s fitted some short spring loaded gates which they should push through on the way down, but he finds cattle get spooked by them and won’t move down easily. Make the opening between the gates any wider and small cattle are going to either squeeze through or get stuck.

Having the cattle exit over the drawbar looks like a problem, but in practice they hop out without a worry. The drawbar can sink in soft ground, making it harder to connect with the pick-up on the tractor, but the problem of cattle refusing to exit over it, or damaging themselves on it, is non-existent. A useful tip for constructors, as engineering a

removable drawbar is a headache.

A project for cattle farmers“Mobile handling systems are available for £5-6,000 which is a fair price for the work and steel involved,” says Nigel, who goes on to say that the cost can be difficult to justify for the smaller farmer making little more than a total £5k profit on the whole of his beef enterprise.

“Building the same thing from scrap metal which would otherwise be recycled via steel plants in China and elsewhere is complete sense in my view. And using a standard cattle crush works fine for most general procedures, but as larger herds are replacing these with specialist ones, especially for foot trimming, these general purpose crushes get less interest in farm sales.”

Neighbouring farmers who know about Nigel’s mobile handler are impressed at the way it works so well, and the time it saves. It’s a project which could be shared by a group of farmers, assuming that issues of bio-security are resolved.

Top left: the raceway has a clear passage of ground leading to the crush which is a step up into the crush with a checkerplate floor. The non-return gates need some redesigning. Top right: the outside step makes it easy to lean over into the raceway. Above left: using standard crush makes construction straightforward. Above right: pull the yellow marked cable and the exit door is closed, with the help of this spring.



Left: the dog container goes between the driver and rear window. Netlon keeps paws off the glass, and prevents the dog from falling out.Above: the baker’s tray is bolted to a wood batten frame that fits across the cab.

DOG BED FITS IN TRACTOR CABCarrying the dog in the tractor cab is safer for dog and driver, and cleaner for the cab, when there’s a special place for the dog to go, and when Nigel’s spaniel he’s not on the ATV he

rides in the tractor cab behind the driver’s seat. The baker’s tray with the Netlon® cover is bolted to a wood frame which goes across from one mudguard to another. The frame is stable enough on its own, without needing any securing, which means it is removed without tools.

Right:here’s the ‘Dog Comfort Position’ for a happy spaniel

Most farm dogs are like their owners, preferring to ride than to walk, which is why so many are seen wobbling on the back of quad bikes as they speed across the country. Once a dog gets a taste of the bike it quite often becomes addicted.

Safety, for both dog and driver is an issue, particularly when on the public road. The dog is not secure and there’s the chance it can be a distraction. If it falls off there’s the chance of injury, and consequent vet bills. If the bike is involved in an accident, having a dog on board will be cited as the cause,

and the farmer deemed to be at fault. So this simple dog carrier has some real benefits which

might be overlooked at first glance. The tough Netlon ® cover is cable tied to a plastic baker’s tray, and this in turn is tied to the rear guard and frame of the the carrier. Keith says there’s little need to ever take the tray off the back, as it is useful to carry tools because they don’t fall off it.

It’s such a simple idea which anyone can make in minutes, and is more than ‘fit for purpose’.

ATV DOG CARRIER



Above & below left:trailed sprayer has 4m boom, 60l tank and has new pump and motor. Above: the boom and pump assembly hooks on the main frame carrying the tank. Below: using the ATV trailer reduces costs, keeps its wheels turning

Sprayers which are mounted on the rear carrier of the ATV add considerable weight to the machine, raising the centre of gravity and reducing handling. They also have very limited tank capacity and boom width. If you are wanting a larger machine the answer is to go trailed. But trailed ATV sprayers are quite expensive, so are useful items to make up in the farm workshop.

Nigel says that building his own sprayer was easier than he originally thought. Rather than starting from scratch, he used an existing lightweight trailer (built to carry the ATV), and made his sprayer demountable.

The machine is in two parts, the first being a strong frame made from 2in box section with uprights on front and back that rests on either side of the trailer, and the second is the sprayer boom and pump mechanism that hooks onto the back of the first. Bath are light enough to be handled by one person.

The heart of the machine is a 12v powered Shurflow pump which both sucks and blows, and the spray tank is a 60 litre plastic barrel. The suck action means he can fill the tank from a trough, using a fill pipe which is never close to chemical. The pump circulates and mixes, and delivers to a

three section spray boom with a total of 9 nozzles. The two side booms hinge up for transport and are mounted on a hinge with chains and springs which means they can break back and automatically return to centre.

The boom height is 24ins, good for all the work he has on the farm. It has two heights which are adjusted by using one or other of the hooks on the rear frame.

The major problem concerned power - the pump motor takes as much as the alternator on the ATV can provide, and the result is the quad battery gets cooking hot. The answer is to add a fully charged tractor battery to the load on the trailer, and have the pump wired to this, and the electric system on the quad wired to charge it. Used like this, the tractor battery discharges quite slowly and the machine can work a full day - by which time there’s not too much juice left so it needs a trickle charge overnight.

Nigel’s low cost sprayer is made of all spare parts other than the pump and motor, so the investment is meagre. Riding on an existing trailer not only saved money, but means the running gear has wheels which turn regularly. The kit has a low ground pressure and is stable on road and field. He finds it ideal in his market garden as well as using it to control weeds in grass.

TRAILED ATV SPRAYER HAS 4 METRE BOOM



Right: pick up hitch will make neat long splitter

Bought for a princely £8 in a farm sale, this pick-up hitch from a forager harvester looks a good candidate for conversion to a log splitter, whether powered from the tractor via a spool valve or with an electric motor, pump as reservoir.

The second option sounds the expensive one, but it has merit.

The ram is small enough for either power supply, and the only engineering is to extend the frame so a reasonable length log can be inserted. 95% of logs will split once the blade is 2/3rds the way down, especially when the blade is thick like a split-

ting axe. If the blade is narrow like a felling axe the log takes longer to crack open.

The ram is single acting and the return stroke is through two springs. Will it need another one? The questions will be answered before long as the project won’t take long to com-plete.

WILL THIS MAKE A LOG SPLITTER?

Clockwise from right:the Chinese toilet is the source of much admiration;the stainless basin drains to the cistern below - it’s clean mains water which comes from the pipe; this outlet would normally go directly to fill the cistern, but now does it by way of the basin above

You see these combination toilets and hand washing basins all over China, and when Nigel Whitcombe was putting in an outside toilet in the shed he decided to have one for himself.

Their advantage is in saving water. The design lets you wash your hands in the clean water before it enters the cistern. The plumbing alteration is very simple - the water from the ball valve going up a pipe that’s positioned above a stainless basin fitted in the top of the cistern. The water from the basin flows directly to the tank and when the full level is reached the water turns off, just as normal.

Only in between whiles you have had the chance to wash and rinse you hands. It’s the soapy water which is then flushed into the toilet.

Keith saved the problem of finding separate plumbing for the basin, and could use this small stainless one from a caravan, which he fitted over a hole drilled in the top of the cistern cover. The hose comes from the ball valve, and the outlet could be a fancy piece of chromed pipe if any were around. Not only is less plumbing needed, but space is also saved along with the water.

CHINESE TOILET HAS BUILT IN HAND WASH



Right: the plastic suitcase makes a useful plumbing parts store

SUITCASE MAKES EXCELLENT PARTS BOX

Right: when compared with modern crushes, the one from Gibbs looks remarkably uncomplicated, yet is perfectly adequate for much animal work.Far right: the head is secured against the main upright of the crush, and is ‘reset’ for each animal, so is good for doing a group of mixed sizes.

This crush was made around 40 years ago by Gibbs of Crewkerne, just up the road from Nigel, and it has a head yoke that works extremely well and is very safe. It is simply a bar which the stockman pulls over and secures on one of the teeth.

The advantage are:Safety: if the door flies open they get out of the crush

without neck damage.

Adjustment: handling a mixed group of cattle generally means altering the yoke opening. With this one you do this automatically for each animal.

Nigel altered the crush with a A frame bracket, and has fit-ted a neat tube to hold the restraining bar.

Cattle get their heads through the yoke much faster since Nigel covered the panel nearest the yoke with ply. They have no where to look.

OLD CATTLE CRUSH HAS CLEVER YOKE DESIGN

When Nigel has a plumbing problem he need only pick up his case of bits and a handful of tools. The suitcase carries a mass of parts, and is ideal for sorting out the right ones when on site. With the lid open on the ground he has a second secure and clean area to work with.

Unlike deep tool boxes and storage bins which have things piled on top of each other, the suitcase is flat, yet can be stored upright if need be. A standard case has a considerable capacity, yet are generally throw-away items.

Above, from far left:the Kawasaki quad with carrier for gun and dog; the gun carrier is bolted on the rear frame with a pair of brackets - easy to take off.

Quad manufacturers make their gun cases big and highly visible, and Nigel is happier for his weapon to be carried discretely so people don’t notice. he ended up making an open rack from steel rod,

with the stock of the gun resting against a stop on the bottom. The frame is bolted to the rear carrier with a clevis type bracket on front and back, so the gun is held at a sloping angle.

ATV GUN CARRIER



Above: it’s a ‘take it or leave it’ selling philosophy - no opportunity to rummage through trays of produce to find the best, as it’s all good! Right: vegetables are grown in small beds, and provide enough to satisfy present demand.

There’s method in the madness of selling farm grown vegetables through a small operation like this. People are less like to cheat when there is just a small quantity of stock on display. The items are all merchantable, as it’s easy to pick out the bad ones. Buyers come to get their veg straight out of the ground - as fresh as is possible, and this is achieved by lifting and cutting a quantity that can be sold directly.

This is the antithesis of the normal farm shop with a wide range of goods, many bought from wholesalers and other local producers, with prices that reflect the provenance. The layout could hardly be more different, depending on a few baker’s trays and an old supermarket basket. Rummaging through the display is impossible as there’s so little to choose from. The small array needs topping up regularly, and there’s a bell to call for help, but there’s no need to have anyone present all the time.

The marketing technique might not suit all customers,

and will surely not satisfy those who need their goods either well displayed or packaged, but provides some relief for those who think that marketing takes too high a place and that the product itself is of key importance. Such customers are more likely to appreciate the work which goes into the produce, and so be less likely to cheat. A subtle camera can monitor what’s going on.

Out in the field the production system is equally low key, involving just an acre or so which is worked with small market garden machinery. The effect of this top quality Somerset ground is seen in the produce, which has needed little artificial encouragement.

Here’s a farm development which is deliberately low key and low cost, with the opportunity to expand and develop when customer demand dictates.

HONESTY BOX WORKS IN THIS MICRO FARM SHOP



This small scale potato line is idea for Nigel, or any farmer growing for a the retail market. He was lucky to pick up the Tong 24in screening machine for just £50 at a collective sale, and the Walthambury bagging machine had a more realistic price but was still very affordable.

He built the set-up so he can do the work by himself, and it takes him about a half hour to grade and bag half a ton of potatoes.

The one ton home built hopper is made to take a full one ton box of potatoes, and this is filled directly from the box which gets tipped in. The hopper is built over an elevator which lifts the potatoes into the grader,

The Tong drops the smalls through the screen while the merchantable ones go on to be inspected by eye and the stones and trash removed by hand. Nigel achieves this by doing one task at a time, first loading, and then screening and sizeing. The potatoes from the screen drop into a holding hopper on the bagging machine, so Nigel can stop one part of the job to focus on another.

With the 1/2 ton bagging hopper full he turns on the Walthambury and fills sacks which he wire ties. The machine has an auto weigher that uses a tray that can be loaded with

different weights, making it simple to go from lbs to kgs, and from 12.5 to 25kgs.

The bagger uses compressed air to operate the scale, and the conventional system is to have it connected to a compressor. He disliked the noise and inconvenience in having the compressor in the potato shed rather than the workshop, and so operates the scale using a gas bottle of compressed air, which provides enough for a full day’s work. It’s a better method.

The advantages for a single handed farmer such as Nigel are considerable. He can shut down and go off to do something else at a moment’s notice, and at the same time can fit in some grading and bagging when time allows. The total cost of the machinery is small, so there’s no need for constant throughput.

ONE MAN POTATO GRADING AND BAGGING LINE

Top left: the grading and bagging line is a simple one-man operation. Top right: standard weights are used to set the auto cut-off, making it easy to change bag weights. Above left: smaller potatoes fall through the screen and are moved to a box. Above, middle & right: compressed air held in a bottle is used to cut off the potato flow when the target weight in the bag is reached. Better and cheaper than having a compressor working all the time


Above left: the manual fork rides on wheelbarrow wheels and has a two position handle. Top & above: the handle latches to the fork frame like catch on a trip loader

Many smaller farmers and horse owners pay a huge premium for straw and hay in small conventional bales simply because they are unable to handle the large modern ones baled up by most farmers and forage dealers. Their problem is that the bales are very difficult to handle and move about, and they need expensive machinery to do it. Although a full scale farmer, Nigel has the problem of needing to put bedding into smaller pens of cattle, and this means moving the round bale around the yard, preferably without starting a tractor or other machine.

Nigel saw this ‘Yard Mate’ in Practical Farm Ideas ages ago, and the purpose for which it was built was to clear muck clearing muck from awkward sheds. he thought it worth making, and has recently discovered that it’s ideal for another regular job - bedding cattle.

He uses round bales and he drops the unopened bale in the largest pen with a tractor and loader, cuts the strings and rolls out as much as is needed. This might take between a third and a half of the whole bale. He then stands the remaining part of the bale on its end and pushes the tines of the Yard

Mate underneath, lifts it using the considerable leverage of the machine, and wheels it into the next pen.

He finds it easier than anything else. The is light and easy to wheel through a narrow gap, and with its big wheelbarrow wheels rolls on the bedding well. It means that straw is rationed to what is needed rather than thrown around because it is hard to handle.

The tool has a hinged handle which locates on the axle. It locks up so you can lift the tines, while in the unlocked position you can push it with the tines on the ground. The original purpose was to clear muck from low sheds, and the tines were shoved into the muck and the handle the raised and locked so the fork full is ripped out of the bed, and then wheeled away.

The simple machine has uses in stables and cow sheds, chicken sheds and calves cots, to name a few obvious places, and is also ripe for development to enable it to safely lift and carry a full round bale. Budding engineers and designers are invited to share their ideas with Farm Ideas to help them develop a product.

‘YARD MATE’ MAKES IT A LOT EASIER TO USE ROUND BALESIt enables anyone of average strength to shift opened round or large square bales



Top: logging stand has over-centre jaw that holds log by one end. Above, left to right: grip locks to the upright; pallet is held by a single corner

Chainsaw accidents are not confined to tree work, but happen in routine logging as well. The steadying foot gets too close to the chain bar, or the hand used to move the logs into position makes contact with the still moving chain. Holding the timber securely by one end allows fast and safe progress down the timber.

This over-centre gripper is easy to make and use. The

gripper is tilted open and the log then lifted and the end put on the rest. A quick shake and the gripper drops down, and the heavier the log the greater the downward force.

Fitting the post to a large sheet of checker plate means the weight can be skewed sideways without the stand tipping over. The benefits of this can be seen with a pallet in the jaw - it’s a good way to knock it up for firewood.

TIMBER GRIP HANDLES PALLETS AS WELL AS LOGS



02

9 770968 013015

ISSN 0968-0136

EDITOR: MIKE DONOVANe: [email protected] t: 01994 240978 or txt: 07778877514

PRACTICAL FARM IDEAS 11 St Mary’s Street, Whitland, Carmarthen SA34 0PY t: 01994 240978 w: www.farmideas.co.uk

Above, from far left:lightweight crane is still capable of handling a 600kg bag and has a max capacity of 1250kg; the securing bolts go through the wooden boards and bolt on the steel framework underneath

A tractor powered hydraulic crane mounted on a farm trailer is a useful tool to have. It’s a transporter and loader all in one, and means there’s no need to have a second machine with a loader on site to lift and move the goods. Ex-transport cranes come in a wide range of sizes, and are increasingly plentiful. When the truck dies, the crane dies with it, even if in good working order. A couple of grand will get a lorry and crane, which is worth it for the crane alone if it’s in good condition.

Here’s a neat idea which makes the trailer even

more flexible in use, as the crane can be lifted off the trailer bed and stored on the ground.

Multi-use trailers that carry bales, fertiliser, seed corn and potatoes and all manner of other things don’t work well with a crane fixed on the deck. Nigel built steel mounting brackets under the deck front and has four 3/4inch bolts to pull the two together. The crane foot is designed for 360 degree stability when the legs are dropped to support the weight. The farm handler is attached to the frame of the crane to lift it off and return the trailer to standard spec.

HIAB TYPE CRANE DEMOUNTS FROM FARM TRAILER

Right: gantry is bar - adjustable dropper simply hooks over it

The electric extension lead is one of the most common causes of health and safety inspector’s complaints, and those which are in poor condition do present a real danger to man and beast. Keeping the wire off the floor is easily done with a simple gantry like this. Some years ago Nigel saw one featured in Practical Farm Ideas and decided to make his own, and since then has had only praise from inspectors, and peace of mind when using power tools.

The 2 x 1in box is mounted vertically so the 2in dimension provides the stiffness, and the flex is simply held with loops to the top rail. The dropper that takes power to 3 ft from ground level is made of 1in box, and has a hook

made from reinforcing rod which goes over arm. There’re no rollers or anything sophisticated - you just slide the hook along. In fact the original arm has been extended by a length of 1in box.

The arm turns on a pair of gate eyes fitted to hooks on the stanchion.

He uses the gantry for more than a 3 pin socket, as it’s strong enough to carry a small inverter welder which is useful when welding large machinery. Better having the welder hanging safely than perched on the top rung of a step ladder.

Nigel likes the inverter, which has a soft touch which strikes an arc more easily than a standard stick machine.

GANTRY PROVIDES WIDE AREA WITH SAFE ELECTRIC POWER

FEBRUARY - MAY 2012 VOLUME 20 / ISSUE 4 … › userfiles › file › 20-4-all.pdf ·...

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