MikeTM150

I built my own splitter so can't comment on brands, but cycle time is the key, i use the oil flow from our big tractors so use a 75mm ram which provides about 15t of pressure and cycles the full 500mm travel in about 4second including the return trip. What this doesn't split which isn't much i put the saw through then split it. The few bits you won't split and have to saw is tiny in comparison to the time wasted waiting for a big unstoppable splitter to cycle up and down.

Scrap prices have gone up so thefts have gone up, obviously this is scrap metal of very high value considering whats inside of them. I know the NFU paid out my hauliers lorry and ranger when they took both one night, you think the one for a ranger is expensive try buying one off a lorry!!!! We welded some 12mm stainless steel weld mesh around them, and then welded that to the truck, wasn't ideal but seemed essential! Wasn't easy either bloody theiving blighters.

Trust me you'll never have enough of these, we've got some huge sheds but i still could find reason for more and more of them to fill with stuff!!! Somedays i feel like one big huge 10ha aircraft hanger style thing over the whole farm yard so we could work in the dry all day long and there wouldn't be all the mud about to.............. Which ever way you go, it'll be harder work than pressing the button and using oil to heat the house, but you have to balance it out, woodchip is the next easiest but won't be very cheap and i guess the price if you have to buy it will only go upwards. I reckoned it wouldn't exactly be cheap to produce 250kg of logs/day all winter excluding your labour! The old man used to have a big Farm 2000 boiler that run on straw as well as wood, but that was in the days when we burnt straw and didn't sell it for £60/ton......... So i think long and short is nothing will be easy other than oil, but it depends how you define 'cheap'!!!!

cracking

Well I'll put my pennys worth in, i've just looked at putting an 80kw eco angus log boiler in to heat a large 6bedroom farmhouse with a lot of drafts and to heat the hot water in our milking parlour. The calculation i came up with i reckoned i'd be humping nearly 250kg of logs into it everyday! So i looked at chip boilers and having an automated filling system, more expensive in outlay obviously and i'd have to buy a decent sized chipper to make me own chips. BUt its the way i'm going to go, cutting up and splitting wood and feeding a big log boiler was going to be very time consuming! Sorry i can't be more helpful, but as previous posters have said, you may become a slave to logs if your not careful!

As said before crack on, it'll take more than that to kill a willow off!

This is a great thread, my wife is expecting our first at the end of June (nice busy time of year for us farmers but there we go!) and she's got a list of names for both as were not finding out but I'm keen for something bit different from the normal Sam and Rosie type names....... so this is making good reading along with that website! Keep up the good work!!! Bring on the dirty nappies and screaming, can't wait to get to the fun parts and smiles and giggles now. Didn't ever think i'd have kids or want them but bring it on now!:thumbup:

I've gotta say that must take some doing cuz surely anything that size wouldn't fit into anywhere thats that dangerous?? Not that i know diddly squat about nuclear power stations!!! That'll take some winching out in my experience, she'll wanna good spring clean to get the crabs out the cab!!!

hadn't noticed how close that was!!! I'd have let go of the saw personally, they can be replaced ur arm can't!!

Don't think the chap thought this through before agreeing to do it on camera!! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggdnI3dRo]FAILS WORLD - Chainsaw accident - YouTube[/ame]

Were still using a Honda mower that's a good 20yrs old (i know it won't be built the same quality now!) don't think its ever had an oil change and at best gets a blade sharpen once or twice a year, great mower would recommend but I'm sure there's something cheaper out there!

If i led on a beautiful beach drinking beer like that, i can guarantee that the only wet thing to get put in my face would be the black labs sloppy chops waking me up from dreaming that above!!!! :lol::lol:

Well as i understand it this may not be so simple these days, Customs and Revenue i believe amended the act to allow for us farmers now travelling further with our machines between land parcels. We just rely on not getting caught and ultimately you can just make a declaration at the end of the month to them declaring the amount of red you have used outside the scope and just pay the extra road tax on top....... but have never done it!

2am the tractors start and shortly after the vaccum pumps start 7days a week...... i get out of bed about half 6. Thats the joy of employing a herdsman with insomnia!!!

Just wondered if anybody had any experience of the hybrid elm's available resistant to Dutch elm disease? All elm tree's around get wipe'd out with it and if these hybrids are worth planting?

go in to ur local agriculture spares place (not ur large main dealership type but your cheap any part fits kinda place!) and say have u got something to match this. Or failing that you can get convoluted replacement radiator hose and u'd probably find u'd get a size to squeeze over the one end and tighten down the other with a jubilee clip or two.

incredible is all i can say. In every way!!! Thanks for posting:001_smile:

burn it, it'll produce some heat, won't be the best i'm sure!

they do, u just gotta swap a few minor bits :lol:

your are going down the right route in my opinion, if you can prove that you need residence on site to care for your animals then that will aid your case but not make it a definate. There's a farmer close to here who has tried to get planning for a house on some land next to a new shed he erected away from his main farmyard for him to live in and his parents to stay in main farm yard. But the planners keep refusing it, he's calved his cows and then grazed them in fields next to it to try and increase his cause but the planners aren't budging still. So yes it will help but not make it definitive, how secluded is the property? No option of just moving in, hoping the planners don't get wind of it and after 5years you will have full rights to change its use to residential? Good luck!

thanks for posting that, its made me feel very normal again on a monday morning!!!

:lol:

either u don't know what truly dry hands can do in terms of pain and bleeding or ur gonna have some ugly hands when ur older!!! Some good suggestions and i might have to try udder cream as i could buy that and claim the VAT back..............

aahhhhh lisa............

i'm sure many of you like me spend many hours outside in the dry cutting wind and this mixed with wet hands is a reciepe for dry chapped hands.......i've tried every cream under the sun and some from further a field but i've found the ultimate for curing it now......wife's preganant and brought some 'Derma Mum' cream for helping to stop stretch marks. She kept saying how nice it was and how long it stayed on her bump...... so the other morning sat having my first cuppa of day thinking whats about i can put on my hands......bingo there's a big pot of 'Derma Mum' on the side i'll try that. Bingo indeed, brilliant stuff, for the first time i can safely say its the best thing i've used. Kept my hands soft and supple all day, lovely job no more faffing with some fancy cream its the bee's knee's!!!!:thumbup: