Bure Valley Farm

There’s been a bit of a gap for which I apologise but now we can report on happenings in the month of October.

Currently I have the 5 fields and the grass paddock in Little London. Last month I was concentrating on preparing the smaller fields, now it’s time to get sowing while prepping the final field. First I needed to get a no-till seeder and as in the previous game-play, I chose to buy the John Deere 1590 which gives a 4.5 metre sowing width…

…Of course, before sowing we have to lime the fields to ensure the correct pH levels for the soil types found when we sampled, so off we go with the Bredal…

…The majority of this work is well within the capabilities of the 150 HP Fendt although, if I fill the Spreader to the top, it does struggle a bit. Liming done, it’s time to sow. Here we go with Barley in field 44…

By the end of the 1st week of October, I had sown Barley in fields 41 and 44 and completed the preparation of fields 42 and 43. I have yet to touch field 1.

After the Sowing, I kicked off the second week with another purchase – it’s all expense at present – buying a roller so that I could compact the soil and increase the yield while preventing soil erosion. Once more the 6 metre Güttler Matador 610S was chosen for the task…

This is the point, after completing the sowing cycle on two of my fields, that my gameplay diverged from the original save. Last time I didn’t touch the grass paddock until the second autumn, but this time I’ve decided to get into the silage market straight away. I bought a Claas front mower – leaving me open to buying the rear cutters that partner it in the future (of which more at the end of the post). I spent the rest of week 2 of October ‘mowing the lawn’…

…Then baling the clippings…

…before taking them off to the farm for storage…

…I’ll sell them when the price is high – possibly in January.

the 3rd week and I’m back to sowing – This time it’s Canola in field 43…

…and another rolling to follow…

…The stones in the foreground are part of the reason to roll – they’ll be pushed back into the soil as part of the compaction process.

Now I need to make some money, so I decided to take a silage job on another farm using leased equipment. Field 4 needs to be mowed and baled. It’s quite a large field so I’m not going to be able to do the whole of the work in the remainder of the 3rd week. There was also some rain forecast for the 4th week so I know it might be a struggle to get it all done. I began with the specialised Krone mower…

…The days are getting really short now and we often can’t start before 8am and night happens around 18:00. So mowing was all I could do in what was left of the 3rd week.

Back into field 4 to start the last week of October. I need to pull all the clippings together into rows ready for baling. For this task I’ve been loaned a Kuhn Merger…

…and a Fendt 714 Vario (a modern equivalent of our 515C). Doing these jobs for other farmers gives the chance to sample equipment before buying our own. I was interested in the merger option and will consider that for the future. Next was the baling and I got to try out a Goweil machine…

…Quite a nice bit of kit but I already have a baler, so it’s not something I need. Finally we have to collect up the bales but by this time it was getting dark…

…I needed to be very methodical in order not to miss any, though the job became easier once the moon rose. Fortunately, the selling point was just across the road which made things a lot easier. Silage jobs are time consuming and don’t pay as well as some other tasks for the amount of work involved – in this case £12k. But there is a huge crop bonus to be had when delivering the bales as the quantity that the field produces is much more than the estimate. In addition to the contract payment, I was paid £30k for the delivered bales! That’s helped with the finances😎 I was even able to add 2 bales to my own 10 and store them in my yard…

…And that concludes October on Bure Valley Farm.

Our current situation is crops sown in fields 41,43 and 44. Field 1 needs to be ploughed and prepared. I have decided to plant Soya in fields 1 and 42 when spring comes – though that may change. November should see our winter crops throwing up shoots and I will need to buy crop sensors for the tractors to allow me to carry out precision applications of fertilizer. I will probably do some harvest work for other farms if jobs are available to bring in some more finances. And I need to consider my options regards expanding the farm. It’s possible that I could buy one of the grass fields to expand my silage making – it might prove to be a fast track to improved income as I would have two crops a year and I already own a lot of the necessary equipment. But then again, there’s always field 14 to re-purchase… See you at the end of November 😎👍