2 x Caterpillar 55 - 270 hp, 400 hp 4 years old (second-hand 2000); 2 x 12 5 hp wheeled tractors; 100 hp runabout tractor; 80 hp runabout tractor; 24m Amazone pneumatic fertiliser spreader; 24 m Sands 2000l Self Propelled Sprayer with Airtec nozzles; Claas Lexion 480 combine with a Horsch trailer. For cultivation a 10- and 5-furrow plough, 8m Vaderstad Press, 8m Vaderstad cultivator with Crosskill rolls’; 6m Simba Solo, 6m Vaderstad Rapid drill with front tines, 12m rolls.

Until recently the farm has almost exclusively ploughed, having reduced ploughing time and cost to a minimum with high output machinery. Part of the decision for further change was due to the expansion in the area farmed, often taking in land with a blackgrass weed problem. Ploughing is seen as a very complete operation, but the farm size is now such that alternatives to the plough on part of the hectarage needs to be and is being considered. The farm is changing the 6m Vaderstad Rapide drill, bought second-hand and now 7 years old, for an 8m System Disc version. The farm anticipates it will bring advantages of added mixing with more straw on the surface and open up enhanced opportunities for a much-reduced scratch and drill cultivation, especially to establish the oilseed rape.

Realising the increased cost and resulting times of continuing to plough set against the plans for expansion when land becomes available at a sensible price, the farm decided they needed to have a quicker and alternative establishment method. The wheat yields are regularly above 10 tonnes per ha with the resulting high volumes of straw. The concerns of discing and smearing in wet conditions were allayed with the incorporation of subsoil tines in the Simba Solo. Less hectares were established with the Solo in the wet autumn of 2000 than had been expected.

The farm press needs upgrading with a levelling bar for best effect in tandem with the Solo, as a separate operation or working on ploughed land. A small amount of base N is likely to be added to the P and K fertiliser applied by a contractor in the autumn to overcome the lock up of nitrogen which has been found.