Farmer Focus: Plagued with muckspreader breakdowns
Keith Challen © Tim Scrivener May’s rainfall was 76mm. Needless to say, we got stuck spraying wheat flag leaves and again in winter beans trying to control chocolate spot.
I stupidly commented last year that it couldn’t get any worse – and of course it has.
Roll on harvest so we can start afresh and do the same thing all over again. What did they say the definition of madness is? Doing the same thing and expecting different results?
See also: How a Lincs farm dries grain cheaply without fossil fuels
About the author
You know you’re getting old when you hear yourself coming out with statements like “they don’t make things like they used to”.
Well, I genuinely don’t think they do make things very well anymore.
As an example, we have a two-year-old manure spreader of French origin with a composting kit on it, and when it’s working it’s a great machine.
However, it’s quite often not working, because we are plagued with breakdowns.
One of the drive gearboxes has failed – which apparently is normal wear and tear for a machine with less than 200 hours on it and couldn’t possibly be covered by warranty.
A new one is in excess of £4,000, plus fitting, of course. I shall buy British next time.
It’s mid-harvest for the elderflowers and I predicted it all wrong.
First I expected a late picking season, but it started two weeks early.
I then predicted there would be lots of small flowers. Wrong again: some are huge this year.
At least the damp weather has slowed their growth down, giving pickers a chance to get them before they’re too mature.
We are eternally grateful for the general public turning out to pick flowers at this time of year.
We don’t employ any pickers directly. They simply turn up at one of our orchards, pick flowers and bring them down to the factory where we buy the flowers from them.
It’s that simple, and great for the local economy.
