Hay Cutting for Winter Animal Feed




Hay meadow, with mowen grass drying in the air and sun.

I spoke to a farmer recently who was cutting hay meadows for winter feed for his animals.  He explained the process to me and was kind enough to let me take some pictures of the machinery he used. 

The mower used spinning discs to cut the hay.



The grass was cut using a tractor drawn mower.  It was pulled by a Case International tractor.





Case tractor and mower.

Ford tractor and hay rake.  You can see in the distance how the hay rake has turned the hay over and placed it into long rows for drying in the air and sun.



Case 1494 and hay rake.




Ford 6610 and hay rake.



A Pottinger hay rake.



Large hay meadow, with drying hay.

David B turning the hay.  Who very kindly let me photograph the process and ask lots of questions.  He explained that his hay making was a little late this year because the grain harvest was two or three weeks early and took priority.

When I was talking to him, he was a little concerned that it was clouding over and rain was on the way.  He wanted to bale the hay in the next few days but he could not do this if the hay was wet.

However when I returned in a few days, the job was done.  Bails of hay, as far as the eye could see.



And here are the tractor and baler that did the work.  A New Holland 7840 tractor and a Vicon VR1601 baler.




New Holland and Vicon.  Job done.  The only thing left to do is to move the bales to storage for winter feed.





Dong Feng Mini Tractor DF 254



I spoke to a man who was using this Dong Feng mini tractor to rake his large allotment.  He told me that it is 25 hp and that he can reach 22 mph on the road.



He also has a reversible plough to use with this machine.





These mini tractors are made in China and shipped in by a local Norfolk garage.  They are considered a good deal at £3600 each. 



Sugar Beet Harvest 2014





Sugar beet is a staple crop of English farming.  In Norfolk two things begin every year in September.  The pheasant shooting season and the sugar beet harvest.  Young pheasants fresh from the rearing pens, gravitate in a dangerous manner to the country roads, to be joined by the sugar beet lorries that collect the harvested beet and convey it to the British Sugar factories at Wissington and Cantley.  The sight of sugar beet lorries, herald the new school term and the change in the seasons to autumn, with misty mornings and shortening daylight hours.

I took this picture just outside Attleborough, about half a mile from the junction for the A11.  The lorry is waiting by the beet elevator and the teleporter is heading to the pile sugar beet to load the elevator.

 I will add more pictures as the season progresses.  At the moment it is dry on the land, with day light hours still into the evening.  The process gets wet, muddy, dark and cold, as we head through to Christmas. 

This Vervaet 617 sugarbeet harvester was working Neil's land in Breckland.




This John Deere tactor was ferrying the beet off the land.







The harvester has a conveyor belt to load the sugarbeet into the trailers.





Neil was driving his tractor John Deere tractor and here he is lining up with the harvester to collect the beet.



Neil's John Deere 6830

John Deere tractor Spraying



This tractor was spraying outside Attleborough, Norfolk.  He will be spraying an industrail version of Roundup weed killer, before ploughing takes place.

While I was watching a repair vehicle arrived and the tractor stopped working, folding in the spray arms.

Big Sky Days





Norfolk is known as big sky country because the flatness of the landscape creates no interruption to the horizon.  The sky becomes bigger because of this.  I recently took these pictures, after harvest that emphasise the point.

The paleness of the stubble and cut grass, seem to emphasise the sky in this picture.





The clouds seem to be coming towards the camera in this picture.

One last picture of swirling cloud coming across the landscape, creating another beautiful Norfolk sky.



Claas Senator 80 - Combine Harvester



This is a small field of cut barley, near Hingham Norfolk.  I watched the barley growing and wondered how they were going to cut it.  It is such a small piece of land and most modern combines would be too large to manoeuvre comfortably on it.





Then I noticed that the field had been cut and that this little combine had done the job.







Upon closer inspection and after doing some research, I found out it was a Claas Senator 80. 






It is a small combine with a 12ft header.






I wondered if this was little Claas was someone's restoration project.

 

There was another major mechanical problem.  A back wheel and axle failure that was very noticeable.

I hope that the need to plough will mean that it is moved to a shed, where restoration will continue.  Though I appreciate that getting it off the field will be difficult in it's current condition.

To my mind though, this machine is still a little prince.

John Deere tractor and Plough

John Deere tractor and plough.