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HOME > GALLERIES > PICTURES AND INFORMATION ON BENEDICT FARM NORTHIAM EAST SUSSEX

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Pictures and Information on Benedict Farm Northiam East Sussex

On this page we have pictures of some of the equipment that we use to carry out operations on the Farm itself. Like most Farmers we are always interested in seeing what other use and the methods they use as like all occupations, its a learning curve.

The John deere 8200 is pulling a six meter wide Simba spring tine cultivator, with a simba six meter ring roll attached by a lister conversion. This is to break the soil lumps (clods) up in to smaller pieces then it is ready to be planted.

Combining oil seed rape which will be sold then crushed and then made in to cooking oil

The combine in the picture with wheels is a Class Lexion 520, The other one which is on tracks to keep ground pressure low is a Class Lexion 570 terra trac.The 2014 harvest just flew by the two combines made very short work of all our corn fields.Because these two combines are so fast we only combined when the weather was sunny which in turn meant that the grain was about 15% moisture.When we sell any grain it has to be no more than 15% moisture so this saves us having to dry the grain which is very expensive with gas and electric on our drying floor in the grain shed.

New additions for 2014.Massey Ferguson 8240 Xtra, 197 bhpShe has made a short trip from the dartford area to her new home in east sussex.Also on the back is the bailey 14 ton grain trailer which we also had to purchase last year, It is the newest piece of equipment we have at only one year old.It is on wide flotation tyres to keep it low ground pressure.

We have for the first time in 24 years managed to get one of our steiger tractor's stuck, As you can see the field is laying a bit wet still. The John deere 8200 came to the rescue and pulled it out, Hopefully before to many people noticed, As it was right by the road.

This is how we apply any fertilizer that the crop may require over the year. The tractor in the picture is a Class Ares 836, It is 4wd with about 215hp, It can lift about 9tonnes on the lifting arms at the back of the tractor.The spreader is an Amazon Zam twin disc spinner, This spreader can spread up to 36 meters wide.We have it set on 24 meters because this is the same width as our crop sprayer, That means we only need one set of wheel marks in the crop,Less damage to the crops. In this picture we are applying 150kgs/ha of 34.5% nitrogen (nitram)

Land rover defender 110 diesel with a stocks fanjet pro 65 fixed to the back,this is how we control the slugs, usually only needed when growing oil seed rape.We have fitted some 31-15.50-15 flotation tyres.The aim of the wide tyres are to keep it very low ground pressure which stop's it sinking in making ruts and hopefully getting stuck.In normal conditions you can not see where it has been, because of this we have to use gps to guide the driver to the correct next went in the field.The stocks spreader on the back, can spread slug pellets upto 24 metres wide.There has been alot of new rules brought in regarding slug pelleting, you now have to have training, then you can take your test (pa4s), once you have passed this you can spread pellets.

Here we show in more detail the modification to the Simba Disks with the capability to be able to tow the spring tine cultivator behind. This allows a single pass cultivation immediately after the combine has finished. The spring tine cultivator can, if you look closely, be seen with the extra modification of lifting wheels that allow this to be raised for headland turning and for transport. Yes for those of you that handle tractors yourself can appreciate that this is quite a handful to turn, lifting the disks and then the cultivator, you must also remember to turn the tractor!

Immediately after harvest the FW30 is attached to a set of modified Simba disks, these having the addition of two sub soiler legs in the middle used to loosen the ground for better drainage. Being towed behind these is a set of spring tine cultivators, although depending on the crop to be planted these are some times swapped with a 4 tonne roller. Although it has only 270 HP, the grip its weight and the dual tyres give it is quite something. We tried a John Deere 300HP 4WD equivalent and whilst there was plenty of power we could not get the grip down on the inclines of our farm land. Just prior to sowing the FW30 is paired up with a simba spring tine cultivator and pulled behind this a set of ring rolls to fine cultivate the ground.

With the FW30 starting to get on in years the worry of it breaking down has been ever increasing. Without it we have nothing to cope with the SImba's and cultivation tools. Plus there are often times we could use two tractors of this size but have to wait on until first cultivation (immediate post harvest) is finished until the FW30 can have implements swapped. This beast has nearly 400HP, but more importantly has some 1400 Newtons of Torque which is quite some pulling power, the FW30 has a meagre 900 in comparison! We are very pleased to have found the Steiger Panther shown here. Not many know this but the Ford FW30 is actually a Steiger, for more information check out the Steiger Web Site.

Although she is a bit aged now, this Muir Hill 121 was modified to house a DAF 8.25L 180HP Engine plant as we needed a machine with a little more grunt than the standard would produce. Along with this are the oversized tyres that pretty much transfer all the power to its ability to pull almost anything. We use this during sowing to pull the modified seed drill. Whilst most people have nicknames, this old girl is lovingly referred to as 'Daphne' on our Farm!

The Ford 8100 is used with the large floatation tyres to ensure minimal ground compression, whether for fertilising or during cultivation. For cultivation it is used for harrowing after the FW30 has been over the ground once and the seed has been planted.

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