Farm machinery for all seasons

There is always a job to do on a farm – and most farm jobs need ‘big kit’ farm machinery

A tractor is the work horse on any farm, and you cannot do much without one. Our tractors get swapped and changed on a regular basis, but they are nearly always green ones! Machinery means maintenance. Henry is doing partial re-spray here, for tractor he is selling. Even though our farming system operates on minimal inputs, we still need to spray crops occasionally too.

Spring work on the farm

Ploughing can be done in spring or autumn, depending on whether you are on a spring cropping or autumn cropping system. We grow wheat and barley, with a rotation crop - on arable ground a few miles away from dove farm. The soil needs to be cultivated after ploughing, to get it ready for planting. Once the seeds have been drilled, the ground is then rolled, to bed the seeds in firmly.

Summer work on the farm

All farms with livestock, need fodder for their animals in the winter – so it is essential to mow a good crop of grass. At dove farm, we make silage (grass wrapped in plastic, to seal and preserve it ) and hay. The ‘rowing up’ machine is at work here, gathering the grass into rows, ready to be baled. You need a few days of hot, dry weather to make good hay. You can also see the big square baler, making hay bales.

Autumn work on the farm

One of the biggest events of the year, in arable farming, is getting the harvest in, and the biggest machine on the farm is the combine harvester. The difficult part is getting a few days of sunshine, at the time when the crops are ripe and ready to harvest. The by-product of growing cereals, is straw; which is the left over stalks. It is always stressful, getting the straw baled and carted, while the weather holds. Apart from barley straw, straw is for bedding, and it is silage or hay, made from grass, that is used to feed animals through the winter.

Winter work on the farm

Another essential machine is the loadall, pictured here, fitted with a grab. The grab is to pick up bales of silage, to feed cattle in winter. The bales are put into the straw/silage chopper, and cut silage is blown out of the chute, as the tractor drives in front of the feed barriers. Hedgecutting is a good winter job – best done when the ground is frozen , so the tractor doesn’t make a mess of the fields. We cut hedges once every three years, as part of our commitment to hedgerow conservation at dove farm, through the HLS programme.