combines

[farmer_ben]

my cousins got 450 acres to cut and there starting tomorrow.. we got 280 acres of our own and 100 to do for someone else but it was planted about a month after most drilled theres.. we only grow it for the small bale straw and was gonna put wheat in till we had order for 11000 small bales straight off field.. so we changed from wheat to barley.. think that did the yielda favour, all that rain we had end may brought it on a treat wheras others that drilled early didnt benefit.. all we're prayin for is some good weathere so we can get straw baled dry and bright... if its dull they wont takeit..

 

I presume thats a horse yard putting in an order like that nick? must be a big place? would love a few orders like that! no one does little straw bales round here at all apart from a friend of mine but he struggles with the 35ft straw rows with his little baler!

#

[nick channer]

I presume thats a horse yard putting in an order like that nick? must be a big place? would love a few orders like that! no one does little straw bales round here at all apart from a friend of mine but he struggles with the 35ft straw rows with his little baler!

#

 

yeah its through phil judge the hay and straw dealer... going to a donkey sanctury.. in exmouth i think... we did 20000 wheat and barley last harvest and sold the lot quite easily... but £1.50 a bale straight off the field is way forward...

[farmer_ben]

yeah its through phil judge the hay and straw dealer... going to a donkey sanctury.. in exmouth i think... we did 20000 wheat and barley last harvest and sold the lot quite easily... but £1.50 a bale straight off the field is way forward...

 

so they come and clear the fields of the bales and pay you £1.50 a bale? what sort of amount of bales you getting from average barley and wheat crop?

 

been thinking more about it today, but unless i could sell at £3.00 a bale i dont really see a way of making enough from the job. i have to pay for someone to bale it which is 50p a bale straight away

 

finished the winter barley today, the last bit we saved for seed and hadnt been sprayed....was a right bastard to combine!

[nick channer]

so they come and clear the fields of the bales and pay you £1.50 a bale? what sort of amount of bales you getting from average barley and wheat crop?

 

been thinking more about it today, but unless i could sell at £3.00 a bale i dont really see a way of making enough from the job. i have to pay for someone to bale it which is 50p a bale straight away

 

finished the winter barley today, the last bit we saved for seed and hadnt been sprayed....was a right bastard to combine!

 

yeah.. i'll bale em and they'l clear them with lorry and drag as fast as i bale them.. they get around 1300 at time on lorry... with the bales being in packs of 21 from the bale baron we can load lorry in less than 30 mins without touchin a bale by hand.. last year we baled some spring barley straw and got 120 to acre and the wheat straw that had been set aside the previous year and plastered with terra sludge before drilling did 4 ton to acre and 150 bales straw to acre.. when corn was 70-80 a ton the straw would net more than the corn.. last harvest we sold big bale oat straw delivered in off field at £25 bale for mini hasston and that also earnt more than the oats after rentin the land.. i'm hopin the winter barley is gonna do well over 100 bales to acre poss 130... we got customers for 10000 through the winter at £2.50 bale delivered in and dealers will pay £2 out the barn.. its not unheard of gettin £3 for bale wheat or barley straw delivered in... last year was our 1st year with doing any small bale straw so we kept price low to get customers.. now they've had these bales in packs and see how easy they are to handle they'l pay more this year..

[farmer_ben]

yeah.. i'll bale em and they'l clear them with lorry and drag as fast as i bale them.. they get around 1300 at time on lorry... with the bales being in packs of 21 from the bale baron we can load lorry in less than 30 mins without touchin a bale by hand.. last year we baled some spring barley straw and got 120 to acre and the wheat straw that had been set aside the previous year and plastered with terra sludge before drilling did 4 ton to acre and 150 bales straw to acre.. when corn was 70-80 a ton the straw would net more than the corn.. last harvest we sold big bale oat straw delivered in off field at £25 bale for mini hasston and that also earnt more than the oats after rentin the land.. i'm hopin the winter barley is gonna do well over 100 bales to acre poss 130... we got customers for 10000 through the winter at £2.50 bale delivered in and dealers will pay £2 out the barn.. its not unheard of gettin £3 for bale wheat or barley straw delivered in... last year was our 1st year with doing any small bale straw so we kept price low to get customers.. now they've had these bales in packs and see how easy they are to handle they'l pay more this year..

 

nick that is really interesting stuff, might have to swing by yours and have a look at your kit if i'm ever in the area. what made you get into small bale stuff?

 

how do they load 21? big grab i suppose, but how does the end user handle them?

 

i took on my first FBT last year and its totally changed the way i think about farming and my business. i have 68 acres of wheat this year, i have said all along i want to chop the straw and incorprate back in as the soil is very poor, but with input costs being higher than i budgetted for i am now seriosuly thinking of baling it up and selling straw in swaft

[nick channer]

the small bales are placed 7 bales long and 3 high with 4 hesston strings tied round them... we just use a bale spike and place one on top of other and pick 2 up at a time.. that way we're pickins 42 bales up at a time.. instead of the usual 8... the bale baron wasn't cheap.. over £50.000 but the straw sales will soon pay for it meanin we get the hay done for nothing each year.. down here theres very little straw chopped.. we have 600 acres of our own arable and thats all baled and i buy another 4-500 acres off my cousin in swath behind combine..

[nepia]

.. when corn was 70-80 a ton

 

 

To derail slightly I take my hat off to anyone even surviving financially in farming. I worked in the industry in the late 70s/early 80s and I remember that in '79 malting barley was fetching £105 a ton: how the heck do you get by when the price is the same or less 30 years on?!

 

Jon

[18 stoner]

.. when corn was 70-80 a ton

 

 

To derail slightly I take my hat off to anyone even surviving financially in farming. I worked in the industry in the late 70s/early 80s and I remember that in '79 malting barley was fetching £105 a ton: how the heck do you get by when the price is the same or less 30 years on?!

 

Jon

 

Less overheads per acre:001_huh:

[nepia]

 

Less overheads per acre:001_huh:

 

 

 

I'm sure that's the case but could you survive if wood prices were the same now as in 1979?! I don't know - maybe they are. When I look at other sectors of the economy putting their prices up 10% and more because of 'rising costs' I marvel at how farmers manage to get by at all.

[nick channer]

 

Less overheads per acre:001_huh:

 

when i left school at 16.. 22 yrs ago wheat was £100 ton.. red diesel was 10p litre and average tractor was less than 20 grand.. rates for contractin in comparrison to todays prices were prob more then than now.. ploughing was £14 acre and theres some round here now doing it for 20... 20 yrs later... think the mid 70's to mid 80's is where the farmers made there money.. some kept hold of it.. or bought more land with it [like my dad and grandad did].. but some didn't.. now theres no way on this earth a farmer can justify payin up to 10 grand an acre for arable land unless they got other incone other than farming..