9 minute read
MACHINERY
A long-term machinery strategy has brought operational savings and improved cow health at the Worsey family’s farm near Ashbourne, in the Peak District. Dairy Farmer reports.
Fendt a firm favourite
Farming in partnership with his parents, Tom Worsey has helped to increase the milking herd to 300 at Rough Grounds
Farm since the family took on the tenancy in 2005. Their strategy of buying three Fendt tractors and all of their own machinery has been fundamental to growing the herd and improving the farm.
The family has chosen to invest in their own machinery because it avoids downtime and reliance on contractors, but also because it offers flexibility and good use of capital expenditure. Fendt was partly chosen because of the resale value the tractors hold.
Mr Worsey says: “We see farm costs being either contractors, downtime due to old and failing kit or depreciation, and we have chosen depreciation.”
The depreciation is managed by assessing used resale values and choosing machinery which will fit the farming system and hold its value.
He says: “We had a Kuhn 302 mower for five years and only suffered £1,000 in depreciation. To rent a forage wagon worked out at £14 per acre. To buy it and do 1,000 acres was only £10/acre, so we saved £4,000.
“Also it is there whenever we need it, so we have been able to increase our milk from forage, which is cutting down our input costs.”
Mr Worsey’s switch to the Bavarian brand was the beginning of his decision to bring more machinery work in-hand.
Cover
He says: “With GPS and autosteer it is so easy to cover the ground. Even headlands are easy because I do not have to press hundreds of buttons and scroll through menus, I can just flick the joystick, use the foot throttle and then turn the cruise control back on. I sometimes use an old John Deere we have on-farm and I cannot believe how I used to manage every day in a manual.”
The flexibility and reliability of machinery is the key to the Worsey’s farming system. By improving their on-farm provision they have been able to introduce new ways of managing the land and the herd.
Mr Worsey says: “Rather than just letting cows graze, we can mow ahead of the herd. Cows eat more because it is ready for them and they do not have to eat around manure.
“It is also better for the grass because the ungrazed areas can become unpalatable, whereas mowing ahead, the grass grows back more consistently.”
The family farms 162 hectares (400 acres) of grassland and only employ a contractor to harvest 12.1ha (30 acres) of winter wheat.
“When I finished school, we had begun building up the amount and diversity of machinery at the farm.
“I did not really want to milk, but I could see the advantage of managing the land ourselves, so we started investing in the right machinery and equipment to make it possible.”
He began silaging before he left school and soon realised that for the farm to be more self-sufficient additional kit was needed.
He says: “I wanted to increase to five or six cuts in a year and to do this I needed control over the whole process. We invested in slurry tankers, more powerful and reliable tractors, a trailing shoe, a dribble bar and a forage wagon.”
To achieve the targeted five or six cuts, he is mowing every four weeks. Using Kuhn mowers he is able to cover 40-50.5ha (100-125) acres in a day. It is then rowed up for a forage wagon, another investment he sees as crucial to the farming system.
He says: “We use the 724 to pull the forage wagon. For me, it is comparable to the 828, but it uses far less fuel and is much easier to manoeuvre.”
Using a forage wagon has improved the efficiency with which the farm can take advantage of the limited weather windows.
Fast and stable
“The 724 is fast and stable on the road. It corners well and the turning circle is remarkable. The forage box will take three to four acres at a time, so we can be filling the clamp up pretty quickly when the weather is good.
“For me though, it is little things like the rear arms which save the most time. If I want to change from the highest position, which I use for the forage wagon, to the lowest, for the mower, it is just a couple of pins and takes seconds to do.
“And the visibility of the pick-up hitch from the cab makes changing implements much easier and quicker too.”
His greater appreciation is for the farm’s Fendt 516, which is fitted with an MX loader.
He says: “I can do everything on the farm with the 516, but choose to use the 724 to tow the 3,000-gallon
The family has chosen to invest in their own machinery because it avoids downtime and reliance on contractors.
TOM WORSEY
Tom Worsey’s switch to Fendt machines was the beginning of his decision to bring more machinery work in-hand.
tanker and the forage wagon because it is more e cient. For most of our work, the 516 is smaller and more economical than the 724 and feels more agile.
“ e visibility is be er too, especially for stacking bales. While it is at home in the yard, I also use it to pick up straw from a farm in Burton-on-Trent, 20 miles away.
“It pulls an artic trailer with 44 straw bales and I can load four bales at a time. It is faster on the road than the 300 Vario and more fuel-e cient than our 724.” e family has two farm sites, the smaller is owned and six miles from the main tenanted farm. e tight farm buildings and narrow passages between cubicles at the smaller farm is handled well by the 516, so much so that Mr Worsey has another on order.
He says: “ e 516 is small enough to get between 4.5-metre bays and it is not revving all the time like a manual tractor. I have used the 724 on the diet feeder and it is too big.
Visibility
“Everything from the mud guards to the visibility over the bigger bonnet makes it feel less suited for yard work than the 516. at is why we are having another 500 series rather than a 700.”
e new 516 will be used for more eld work and has been speci ed with wider tyres to reduce soil compaction.
“ e aim is to have the same 650 tyres on the back and 600 on the front as the 724, to give it a wider footprint than the loader tractor.
“It will also o er us further exibility, as any of our three tractors can be used for almost everything on-farm.”
Tom Worsey
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