FeeltheForce
AN BRAND
Grass Harrow
HE-VA 3M Disc Roller & Combi-Lift
SWARD lifter
HE-VA Mega-Dan
AIR16 SEEDER
Colin McGregor of Coldstream Mains, took
over the daily running of the family farm at the
age of 21 and during the past twenty years has
seen the business grow from 300 hectares to
3000 hectares. The farm is divided up into a
series of contracts and is managed by Colin
and his wife Jill, who employ nine full time staff.
Colin has added two Opico Air 16 machines
to the farm this past year with the purpose
of establishing oil seed rape with a one pass
system. Even the bad season saw more being
established than might have been otherwise.
Colin said," I liked the build quality of the
Opico and it did a good job under very trying
circumstances."
3.M DISC ROLLER AND COMBI LIFT
Crosshall is a family owned farm with 1,000
acres of land, 760 acres of which are arable.
They purchased a 3.m disc roller and combi
lift unit from Rickerby's at Cornhill last year
and have been pleased with what it has
accompolished. The main achievement was to
do everything in one pass, the legs on the front
break up the soil, with the discs providing the
till and the roller on the back weather proofing
the bed.
The legs can be detached from the main
unit and used to sub soil, and the discs and
roller can also be detached to use on top of
ploughing.
Greenknowe Farm consists of 380 acres all
of which are arable. Neil White farms there
with his wife who also has a successful
business of her own, Scotlandshop.net which
provides fabrics, tartans cashmere and much
more worldwide, such is the demand that
the website is being translated into foreign
languages. They have two children Poppy four
years and Harry two and three quarters.
"After foot and mouth I decided to go
completely arable, as I was struggling to find
help for lambing time. I sow spring oats, barley
and beans, I had to work the ground in front
and needed something to help as I had a fluffy
seed bed which needed to be consolidated.
Ian Gray at Rickerby;s Cornhill recommended a
Heva V profile 3m front press. Ian brought one
for demonstration on my own ground, which
was a great advantage," said Neil. "One of my
problems is that the land varies from heavy clay
to sand and being able to vary the settings and
adapt to situations on the move is a good help.
Ian suggested that we have leveling boards on
the front.
"Varying the leveling plates is a big plus, for
the ground that requires it and it is easy to
change the guage in the cab. It is just as easy
to raise the leveling boards and use the rings
to break up too. There is no dead weight, as
I don't run with dual wheels or wide tyres.It
saves on labour and fuel as the operation is
now one pass. The system is robust but not
heavy. Some of my neighbours have been very
interested in its application. I get the added
benefit when I do some contracting work too.
OPICO 7.2M ROLLERS
John Kemp has run a plant hire business
and small building works for 35 years he
also farms 350 acres of arable land and
has horses and dogs.
"John says that he had been looking for
a set of heavy rollers and the Opico 7.2m
seemed to be the heaviest available and
he liked the folding action which makes
access and travelling easy.
3M PRESS
Robert Forsyth and his brother Eric farm
at New Smailholm Nr Kelso. They farm
fattening cattle, sheep, ewe lambs bred
through as gimmers. They have 430 acres
and grow spring malt, and barley, plus
Swedes for supermarkets.
We had a 1.5 ring press but we found
that the rings were not heavy enough,
Neil Douglas from Rickerby's suggested
a demo of an Opico front press and
within 24 hours we had an on farm
demonstration we wanted a 3m press to
go with a power harrow drill combi. The
shatterboards instead of tines, do a good
job breaking up clods, on heavy ground it
cuts and compacts as it goes, it is much
better than tines as they dig up stones.
The other benefit of the shatterboards is
that they can be lifted to allow the rollers
to go over the seed bed.
6.3M ROLLERS
The 600 acres at Rumbleton, Greenlaw,
farmed by Mr Barrie are divided into 200
for cereal production and 400 for grass,
the farm has 200 suckler cows plus
progeny between 500-600 at anytime.
"We are fortunate to have light land here,"
Mr Barrie tells me."so we plough and then
go over with rollers and shatterboards.
We sow grain with a smaller tractor and
seeder, which saves on the all important
labour and fuel costs. With the 6.3m
rollers complete with shatterboards we
can save time
and cover 50 acres in a day. The
equipment does the job and is dual
purpose in it's application which
gives time for looking after the cattle,
"concludes Mr Barrie.
SWARD LIFTER
John Hogg of Whitehead Hill Farm,
purchased a Heva Sward Lifter from
Rickerby's .
"Like many other farms we get a lot
of poaching on the land by the cattle
especially so with the wet Summers of
recent years," he said. "The Heva
Sward Lifter does a great job on all the
pasture land by releasing the water from
the land, a very worth while buy."
HYDRAULIC SWARD LIFTER
Graham and Michael Rutherford farm on
a family farm at View Law, Long Horsley,
they have 1,000 ewes, 2,500 pigs which
they contract rear, 900 breeding ewes and
a small poultry business.
"We purchased a hydraulic sward lifter
as the land here was originally all arable
but now returned to grass. The Heva
hydraulic sward lifters main purpose is to
relieve the compaction in the new grass
and aid drainage and aeration. It is an
ideal machine as it returns the land to its
former state without disrupting grazing,"
said Graham.
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