Fresh Fields

Spring into Summer in Osada – A time of Haymaking and early harvests along with further changes to the equipment.

Last time I told of an issue with weeds – the new weeder not being able to remove them all. I found the same issue at the start of May when my Corn crop showed through in field 40. It seems that to be able to remove the weeds with a tine weeder, I will need to run it over the field before the weeds and crop have shown above the surface! As you can imagine, that means working without a visual reference and will be quite difficult to do successfully. However, I will try that approach next Autumn / Spring and see how I get along. The good news is that, as Corn is planted in nice neat rows, I had no concerns about removing the weeds with the Row Crop Weeder…

The other outstanding issue from our last visit is the sprayer. you may recall that I discovered that it damages crops over a certain age. The reason I only just discovered this is that in the past I have pre-fertilized with oilseed radish and then applied fertilizer immediately after the crop first sprouted. I now have a Wheat crop that hasn’t been pre-fertilized which means I can’t apply the second dose of fertilizer because I will damage the crop. The way forward is to replace the sprayer with one that is carried by the tractor. That will cost money that I currently haven’t got enough of! Time to do some contracts for neighbours – Thank the Lord it’s Haymaking season and almost everyone wants to make Hay rather than Silage!😎👍

At a time when I need to make some money to replace a piece of equipment, it may seem odd that I should decide to spend cash on a new Tedder! It was definitely a case of ‘Speculate to Accumulate’ as replacing the old basic tedder would significantly speed up the Haymaking process. It allowed me to take on the largest of the grass fields and complete the work easily within a week…

…You can gauge the size of the field from the shots above and it produced 111 bales of Hay…

By the end of the 3rd week of May I was able to sell the old sprayer and buy a nice new Kubota one with an 18m spread – that will also speed up fertilizing a bit! The one downside – it’s too heavy for the Massey-Ferguson 690T, so the JD 4240 will have to take on fertilizing tasks in future starting with applying the second dose to our field of Wheat…

I finished off May with another Haymaking job. I also fed the Chickens, using up the last of our store of Wheat. I may have to buy some feed for them to cover until my next Wheat crop gets harvested – unless I can get some grain elsewhere.

June means Winter Barley is ready to harvest and much of the month was spent helping out in neighbours fields. Some of these fields have challenges to be addressed. Normally, I would expect to harvest in a clockwise direction – keeping the augur outside of the crop for ease of unloading into a trailer. Here’s two cases where counter-clockwise is the better option…

…Above, the steep hump on the left of the shot makes for a difficult climb when working clockwise and below, the deep ditch makes turning at the end of the cut very hard when working in the normal direction…

Several harvesting tasks and another Haymaking job mean that I’ve ended the month with nearly €40k in the bank despite all the expenditure over the two months. I’ve also been able to save over 2000ltrs of Barley from a large harvest to feed the Chickens until my Wheat crop is ready, so that’s a result! There are a number of things brewing in the background though – lets have a concluding chat about those.

Much of my talk over the preceding in-game years has been of expansion – the next field I’m planning to purchase. I had my sights set on Field 41. The Haymaking spree in May has called that option into question since for less outlay I could buy grass fields 47 and 48 which would give me a guaranteed return of two harvests every year and the possibility of moving into silage production, bringing additional returns.

But there are issues on the equipment front that need addressing too. The Harvester is clearly getting older and although it works well, will need replacing eventually. That will not be a cheap purchase as I would need to replace both headers at the same time. The cheapest options for that would work out around €200k and they’re not necessarily the ones I would choose. The John Deere 4240 is struggling with certain tasks – it always has but I think it is now less strong than it was when new.

Looking at the future, I’d like to replace the current Unia cultivator with one that has a wider working width. Once you do that the amount of horsepower you need to carry out cultivation goes up. With larger fields than the ones I started with, I really would like a wider seeder – again, that would mean more horsepower. After looking at the options for a more efficient farm in the future, I’ve concluded that I need a tractor with around 230HP. The irony that this is similar to the requirement I already identified on Bure Valley Farm is not lost on me! The similarity in requirement comes from the diverse nature of the two farms – one essentially flat and one rather hilly. The smaller equipment becomes just as heavy when you’re hefting it over a steep grade. Finally, if I do decide to buy grass fields and move into Silage, I will probably have to replace the baler with one that can wrap and that, in turn, means I will probably have to replace the bale trailer – One thing invariably leads to another and that again probably dictates a larger tractor.

So, for now, I think further expansion of the Osada farm is on hold. Instead I’m going to build up the bank account and review my Harvester and Tractor options. Don’t be surprised if Osada becomes a three tractor farm once more as it was in the beginning all those in-game years ago!

The next farming post will be from Bure Valley Farm – I wonder what Spring into Summer will be like in Norfolk😎