MASSEY FERGUSON

Combining performance and reliability

RALPH & ALISTAIR NEEDHAM

Hill House Farm, South Cockerington, near LOUTH

Ralph and son Alistair have doubled their acreage over the last 7 or 8 years up to the current 1400 acres. Around a quarter of the 1100 in cultivation is down to rape, the rest combinable crops. They also have a herd of 220 Charolais cattle reared for breeding only, which they market worldwide.

They originally had Claas combines until Peacock & Binnington changed to Massey Ferguson. They were taken by P&B to the Massey combine factory at Randers in Denmark and weree so convinced by the build quality that they bought an MF 34. Another 34 followed and then they changed every couple of years, gradually moving up in size to cope with the increasing acreage.

They have just traded in their MF 7272,  which  they had for 3 seasons,  for an MF 7274  - their 6th MF combine in succession. Alistair explained their reasons for sticking with Massey, "The most important factor at such a crucial time of year when you can’t afford downtime" Alistair explained their reasons for sticking with Massey,  "The most important factor at such a crucial time of year when you can’t afford downtime, has got to be reliability.  In the last 3 years it has only required diesel and grease,  not a spanner has been laid on it.  We know P&B’s back up is always there but we haven’t needed it. Performance is also vital. The Massey gives us more than enough output,  as much as we can handle, with 2 of us to empty on the move and to feed the 2 ton augers at the yard.  We tried a Claas,  but it wasn’t as productive as claimed or better than our old combine.

With 60 being the average age of farmers and my father, the main combine driver, at 70, the easy and comfortable working environment is also essential. And the huge output means we can wait that bit longer before starting which makes the working day more reasonable. But it also has the main advantage of cutting down the need for drying. Because we can cut later in the day, there is less moisture and we haven’t had to dry the barley at all in the last seven seasons".

"Our farming philosophy is always to keep on top of things," explained Ralph. "We like to be in a position to work when conditions are just right, and to work as long as necessary to get things done in the optimum time. Therefore our tackle has to be reliable to be able to cope with all that.

Back in 1938/9, one of the best Wolds farmers employed 11 men to thresh from the stack, producing 21 tons of wheat a day. Now we can achieve 34 tons per hour with minimum manpower. Since our first MF 34 we have nearly doubled the output to cope with double the acreage but all within the same optimum 3-4 week window."

Alistair continued, "Our choice of the MF7274 was mainly because of its additional ability to direct cut rape. With its 22’ Powerflow Table, extra auger and more hp, it gives 10-15% more output and speeds up the harvest compared with swathing. Its output should also free up a couple of days in the barley which should give us more time to prepare for the rape to go in.

The extra fine straw chopper on the new machine will also help to quicken the breakdown in the soil and speed up cultivation. We don’t minimum till at the moment, preferring ploughing in our heavy clay and it is advantageous to be finished drilling by early October or it is too late around here.

Yield mapping is also an advantage. It was one of the reasons we originally bought a Massey combine as they were the only ones to have it. We were contracted for 6 or 7 years, to manage a farm owned by Anglia Water and we had to apply their sludge as fertiliser. The Yield Mapping gave us an accurate picture of the effects.We now own this extra land and intend to continue monitoring the yields right across the farm," added Alistair.

"The Massey combines have certainly proved to be good value for money. And it can’t be stressed too much how essential it is to have the kind of support we get from P&B," concluded Ralph.

"The most important factor has got to be reliability"