Taking back control of forage quality, one Somerset farm has gradually increased horsepower and expanded its equipment to make the most of its best assets – its dairy and beef herds.
Rob House knows that to make the most of forage quality, there’s no better way to do it than to be in the driving seat. And for this Somerset-based farm manager, that seat has become a Kubota M7-173 Premium.
Responsible for daily operations at F Dening & Son’s Redlands Farm and Westfield Farm in East Coker near Yeovil, Somerset, Rob’s aim is to take full advantage of narrow weather windows, to produce the best forage possible.
“It’s important for us to make the best silage, hay and haylage, to meet the needs of all our livestock,” he said. “And the only way to do that is to get the job done ourselves. There is one exception though, and that’s the forager – it’s cost-effective to use the services of a reliable contractor, who can get the grass in quickly.”
“But for everything else, we’re firmly back in the driving seat,” he said. Across the 400 acres farmed, F Dening & Son’s has a 180-cow herd at Redlands Farm, with around 145 going through the parlour at any one time. While a herd of 100 beef cattle with followers are kept at nearby Westfield Farm.
“We have very different forage requirements to suit the two herds,” he said. “And alongside precision chopped grass, we also produce around 2,500 square bales of hay and haylage, and straw, with the latter bought in the swath from local cereal growers.”
The farm’s first experience of Kubota tractors came with an M135GX, supplied by Highwood Agriculture, which has been recently replaced by an M6-141 Utility, equipped with a loader.
“We have had a variety of tractors over the years, but with the need to replace kit, we started looking at better value for money, backed up with a decent warranty,” he said. “And Highwood’s support combined with Kubota’s five-year warranty package certainly got my interest.”
Rob says that while the farm has a telehandler, splitting time between two nearby farms can stretch resources, and is why the farm opted for a loader on its M6 Utility tractor.
“With a tractor and loader, we’ve taken the pressure off having to move the telehandler from one farm to the other,” he said. “The M6 is solid all-round performer and great for moving bales too. What we’ve found is the tractor’s generous power also makes it a firm favourite on the clamp with a loader-mounted fork.”
“It does have rear wheel weights, but adding a weight block on the rear linkage provides extra stability on the clamp,” said Rob.
An M4-063 joined the business as an up-market scraper tractor complete with air-conditioned cab, with the flagship M7-173 being the latest arrival for the farm. Its specification includes front linkage and PTO, which has enabled Rob to boost mowing capacity with a 6m front/rear mo-co combination.
“I remember trying the M7 and thinking it wasn’t going to pull my big baler very well, as we’ve got some sharp, steep banks,” he said. “It couldn’t have been any further from the truth. The M7 has a gutsy engine, and combined with the powershift transmission, it’s a pretty impressive bit of kit.”
With a pair of mowers, plus a Kubota TE6576 Proline 7.6m tedder and a Kubota RA2072 twin rotor rake with an adjustable working width from 6.2-7.6m, the business is able to manage its silage and hay making processes, to make the most of dry matter content and harvesting equipment.
“We have the capacity to mow, ted and rake our forage crops to suit either our big square baler or the contractor’s forager,” said Rob. “And being able to drop a lot of grass very quickly means we can generate a very even wilt.”