Fresh Fields

September in Osada – A time of change as the shadows lengthen and we start thinking of tales told before an open fire…

It’s that period between the early crops and the late ones. There’s just a little bit of harvesting and some preparation for future crops to be done. I did drop a hint in my last Fresh Fields post about farming in a new area – It wasn’t the only hint! Change has been happening slowly in Osada but this month has seen a surge of activity on the equipment front.

The month started quiet enough with some harvesting for a neighbour – Soya Beans…

…It wasn’t a big job and was quickly done. There was cultivating to be done too, both for a fellow farmer…

…and for myself in field 40. Then I decided to bite the bullet and accept that it was time for a change. The Zetor 6245 has been a bit of an issue recently – gear changes not as smooth, low acceleration when working, that sort of thing… Given the cost of the tractor and the improvements it brought compared to the older equipment it replaced, I’m not going to complain. But, I have felt for a while that it needed to be replaced. So, middle of the first week of September I took a load of honey to Pol’s…

…and then continued the journey to the dealership where I sold the Zetor. In its place I have a Massey-Ferguson 690T with 90hp available compared with the Zetor’s 59hp.

The first job for the new tractor – doing some fertilizing for a neighbour…

…If this other neighbour will let me leave the farm😅 Then I entrusted it with weeding my Canola crop…

…in the fading light. that would normally have been a job for the John Deere 4240 as it requires 50hp and I wasn’t comfortable letting the Zetor handle it.

More harvesting to kick-off the 2nd week of September…

…And then another purchase – a replacement Plough. The IMT has a number of issues with correctly following the terrain and I have been intending to replace it for a while. But I have taken a big gamble here in buying a reversible 5-bladed plough. It is rated for a 120hp tractor and the 4240 is a 125hp machine but there are some fields around here with very steep grades. This was a ‘gut-feeling’ purchase – I just knew there would soon be some fields needing ploughing! Sure enough, here’s the first tranche of jobs. I took field 4 because that field has one of the steepest gradients of all so it will be a good test. Of course, Rain Stopped Play – It’s just not Cricket😒…

…But once everything had dried out I was able to test the 4240 with the new plough. Yes, it can pull it but it’s very hard work. There was one last item of expense – fed up with dirty equipment, I finally bought a washer😎…

The 3rd week of September was steady- I took another hard ploughing job…

…By this time I had reached the conclusion that, to paraphrase Chief Brody, we’re going to need a bigger tractor! That’s in the future and fortunately ploughing jobs are rare… Who knows when we’ll see another…

I continued the preparation of field 40 by sowing Oilseed Radish to pre-fertilize ready for my planned Corn crop that I will plant in the spring…

…The new Massey-Ferguson 690T proving very good at the lighter tasks and relieving some of the burden that was beginning to fall more regularly on the John Deere’s shoulders.

The last week of September and what can I say – the offer of another ploughing job…

…Hell – that field has its own personal horizon! I’m not taking that job – time for a week’s holiday🤣👍

That’s September on Osada done – I wonder what October will bring besides even longer shadows😅

Starting a new farm elsewhere may have left some of you wondering what would happen with Osada and the Fresh Fields series. The intention is to alternate between each farm, one post at a time. I did try this once before and it didn’t work out but I think this time it will be ok because I’m really invested in Osada and I have a real life connection to the Saxthorpe area. The in-game period covered by the posts will vary according to time of year – no point in doing 1 month posts in the middle of winter – but the intention is that I will keep the farms in sync. That does mean that the posts will vary in length – the initial posts from Bure Valley will probably be longer as I will almost certainly have more to write about. Until next time 👍