Until 2011, Ken Moss milked 350 cows at the family farm near Slimbridge, Gloucestershire. When he decided to stop milking, the business was at an impasse. “My son, Dan, wasn’t interested in the cattle. We considered maize crimping, but he saw an opportunity to sell hay and haylage into the equine market,” Ken explains.
It was a decision that has worked well, as the business continues to grow year on year. Dan delivers as far as Southampton and Newmarket, and has delivered feed for some of the biggest names in the showjumping and horse racing world, including Princess Anne.
Two-year Italian ryegrass leys are sown across about 325ha of tenanted ground. The crop gets a good dose of farmyard manure, which comes from the 60 head of Longhorn sucklers, as well as variable-rate phosphorus and potassium. Additional muck is brought in by clearing stable yards.
“We use Soyl mapping to monitor soil health and what is available to the crop,” Dan explains.
When it comes time to harvest, Claas triple mowers are used, without a conditioner as the crop is too thick – in a good year. The first pass with a tedder is done with either a Lely Lotus or a Fendt Lotus. “The hook tine design does a great job of lifting the whole crop and spreading it across the working width, especially in thicker cuts. We then run through with a Kuhn straight tine tedder if it needs another pass.”
The harvest setup comprises a Claas rake and either a New Holland BB9050 if they are making 80x70cm large square bales, or two Massey Ferguson 1840 conventional balers followed by in-line Bale Baron accumulators.
“We’ll contract out round baling so that we can offer these as well,” Dan says.
Ensuring quality
Everything that is cut and baled is brought in on the same day and kept under cover to ensure quality. The Bale Barons have made these significantly easier, as the company spent the first three years handling the conventional bales with a flat-eight grab.
This is no small task. This year, the company made over 48,000 conventional bales of hay. They also made another 850 large square bales, nearly 17,000 conventional wheat straw bales (taken from 81ha of their own land and then through various purchasing agreements with local farms) and nearly 9,000 barley straw bales.
It means they need reliable handling equipment and, according to Ken and Dan, there was only one brand they wanted.
“We have used Merlos since 1994, when we purchased a N-reg P27.7 EVN machine,” says Ken. “It was narrow, so it could work easily in our cattle sheds, whereas the other brands at the time looked too big for what we needed.”
Since shifting into hay and haylage production, the demands on the machines have changed. Whereas previously one telehandler would have done 2,000 hours a year, the business has two Merlos, but each does significantly fewer hours. The Turbofarmer 38.10, with a 3.8t maximum capacity and a 10m lift height, is shod with hardstanding tyres and primarily handles loading in the yard – its higher lift enables larger stacks of bales to be made to maximise space.
The TF42.7 has a 4.2t lift capacity and lifts to 7m. On agricultural boots, it handles trailer loading in the field to get bales off the ground as quickly as possible.
Impressive development
The business has had 24 Merlos since 1994. Dan laughs and says they’ve used the Merlos for everything and have been impressed with the development of the brand over the past 30 years.
“Part of it is that we’re used to them,” he says. “We want to get feed off the ground quickly, and having a machine that you know inside and out means you can work quicker.”
But he also points to the quality of the Merlos. The cab suspension is a highlight, especially in the field, as staff members (up to seven during peak season) will spend long hours in the seat. Visibility is also important, with Dan highlighting the higher cab to enable operators to see over the boom.
“We’ve seen pretty much everything that Merlo has added, or adjusted, and there is very little we would change,” Dan says. “We’ve had niggles in the past – that’s to be expected – but the service we get now from Turney Group is excellent, and the quality of the product is as well.”