What’s in Your Shed? visits FW 2021 Contractor of the Yr

John Fraser of Dingwall-based Mill ‘n’ Combine, and 2021 Farmers Weekly Contractor of the Yr, reveals his equipment hits and misses. 

The forage harvesting outfit providers and repairs their very own, plus their clients’ package.

We discover out what tractors and grass package take satisfaction of place in John’s shed.

See additionally: MAN 4×4 truck will get transformed to high-speed fert spreader

How did you get began?

My father, Robert, purchased his first mill in 1984 after leaving Mill Feed Companies, and he began constructing a second machine simply a few years later.

It morphed into Mill ‘n’ Combine across the time I got here into the enterprise in 1998 and, when a giant native farm contractor determined to pack up, we branched into forage harvesting and took on a few of its clients.

Our first forager, a Jaguar 860, arrived in 2000 from Southern Harvesters.

We all the time serviced all of the package ourselves, however the engineering aspect of the enterprise didn’t kick off till we constructed our present premises in Dingwall in 2013.

It has meant we are able to maintain the crew busy year-round repairing each our package and that of our clients.

How model loyal are you?

I’m pretty loyal to the manufacturers I like, however we’re all the time trying on the choices.

We ran Renault tractors within the early days of grass harvesting – initially an Ares 640 RZ – so the Claas equivalents naturally adopted.

The primary was a 2007 Axion 830 with a John Deere engine, which wasn’t nice, however its substitute, our present 840, has been good.

We additionally had a Unimog from about 2000 to 2007, which we used to tug the mill. We cowl a variety of miles, so the 55mph prime velocity was good, but it surely was too light-weight on the backend.

We additionally needed to take it off the silage carting job because it didn’t have the grip required on steep land, so it ended up on the rake.

The forager has all the time been a Claas Jaguar – first an 860, then an 870, 950 and the present 970. As an all-round machine I believe it’s nonetheless the very best, significantly given its reliability.

I’ve solely as soon as failed to complete a day’s work with it and by no means had greater than 12 hours of downtime. I attempt to maintain them pretty new, normally altering each 5 years.

I additionally like JCB loading shovels – I simply don’t like the worth.

A house-built weighing system has greater than doubled throughput on the feed mills © Angus Findlay

Favorite supplier?

Sellars at Forres have all the time been good to us.

Favorite piece of package?

The 2019 Jag 970 forager. It’ll simply knock out 80ha of grass in a day and, in 2020, it chomped via a monster crop of 11t/ha.

We get some good grass crops up right here anyway, however that yr was very hot and moist – usually we’d have gotten 40ha into the pit, however we solely had area for half that and the farmer needed to bale the remaining. It actually made the forager grunt.

Nevertheless, our possession of the 970 didn’t begin properly. On its first job after supply, I received via 4ha earlier than it blew up.

Whether or not it was a foul blade, or it wasn’t tightened correctly, I don’t know, but it surely made a hell of a multitude and the noise and vibration was so massive that I believed the cab was going to return off.

Claas despatched one other machine down inside 4 hours, so we received again up and operating.

The supply lorry took ours away to Sellars, the place it was stripped down, rebuilt and returned to the sphere inside 24 hours.

The injury totted as much as £20,000 – the blower unit was broken, the wear and tear panels had been all mangled and the dry matter and near-infrared sensors had been smashed.

Plus, it wanted a full set of blades and drum carriers.

It hasn’t missed a beat since.

Least favorite piece of package?

A Fortschritt wholecrop header, which each Claas and New Holland offered of their colors.

It was the primary mainstream wholecrop header for self-propelled foragers, so I purchased a Claas branded one – and it’s the explanation I’m bald as we speak.

It was made for a swather, actually, however somebody had the brilliant thought to adapt it to run on the entrance of a forager. The issue was that it actually couldn’t deal with the ability.

All the things broke, and if I might do three hours with out stopping then I used to be doing properly – the crop wouldn’t feed in, the bearings collapsed, and shafts sheared.

I’m fairly positive each bearing ran at melting level.

You don’t see a lot of them now, and for good motive – it was horrendous. They had been a few of my worst days working farm equipment.

Fortunately, we didn’t have a lot work for it and I ultimately changed it with a Champion header, which has been a bit higher.

Newest buy?

My 2-litre Ford Ranger Wildtrak, which I received in 2021. I wasn’t planning on altering my outdated 3.2-litre model, however the glow plugs began taking part in up at 70,000 miles, inflicting it to chop out sometimes.

That wasn’t the top of the world however, as I began fixing it, I unearthed a complete heap of issues, not least the inlet manifold nearly totally clogged with carbon.

I had a four-month anticipate a brand new one, so needed to put up with the knocking and poor beginning via the winter, however in hindsight the timing was fortunate – if it occurred now the wait can be extra like a yr.

The brand new one has been fairly good, however the gasoline financial system is unremarkable. I get about 27mpg for basic commuting and towing work, which isn’t any higher than the three.2-litre engine within the outdated one.

Oldest machine nonetheless at work?

The Champion wholecrop header, which was inbuilt 1995 and I’ve had since 2000. It does about 400ha/yr.

I purchased it from Denmark and it value about £10,000, which was a very good deal on the time.

How lengthy do you retain your machines?

The forager is modified each 5 years, however I’ve no set time for the remainder of the equipment. I’m all the time reviewing issues, although the price of replacements means we’re going to be holding onto package for longer.

Each tractors and the loading shovel are eight years outdated now. That mentioned, I don’t wish to go away it too lengthy and lose all of the second-hand worth.

Subsequent in your want checklist?

A Fastrac 8330 to interchange the 8310. It’s finished 9,000 nearly fault-free hours and covers nearly 15,000 miles a yr on the highway.

Once I change it, I’ll additionally take a look at switching to road-friendly Nokian or Michelin Roadbib tyres, as they’re not out there for the edges on the 8310.

I’ll be maintaining a tally of the JCB auctions – the final one got here from there as an ex-demo and it was a steal.

© John Frazer

Largest equipment mistake/most embarrassing incident?

Shopping for the Fortschritt/Claas header, which was embarrassing due to its power lack of reliability.

Most costly restore invoice?

We needed to rebuild the gearbox on the Claas Axion final Christmas, because the B-range synchromesh collapsed whereas it was on the highway carting dung. Happily, we managed to limp it house in D-range.

Apparently, it’s common to have synchromesh issues with that gearbox, which is a Massey Ferguson Dyna-6, on tractors over 230hp, so it most likely didn’t assist that ours had been remapped from 250hp to 275hp.

It actually pulled properly – just a bit bit too properly for the gearbox.

Ultimately, the components invoice ran to £12,000. We did all of the labour ourselves, which totalled about 80 hours.

Most overpriced spare half?

Something to do with AdBlue methods. The Axion wanted a brand new NOx sensor each three months – till we discovered an answer.

Greatest invention?

Again in 2003, I designed and constructed a bespoke weighing system for the feed mills that upped their output from 6t/hour to nearer 16t.

They beforehand had a single-pot weighing association, which concerned sucking in 25kg, then stopping it to dump the grain into the augers after which on into the mill.

My twin-pot system took a variety of designing, however we constructed all of the {hardware} within the workshop after which roped in an area programmer to write down all of the software program that has made it totally pc managed.

A blower on the machine sucks the fabric into the primary pot, which is formed to provide a cyclone have an effect on that separates the barley from the air.

Because it’s heavier, the barley drops down and, because the pot sits on a weigh cell, it consistently weighs the fabric. When it hits 50kg, it robotically switches suction to feed the second an identical pot.

As soon as the suction has switched to the second pot, the primary is left to accept a couple of seconds to do away with the residual strain that ensures an correct studying. Amplifiers on the load cells compensate for the vibration.

Huge sliding valves on the backside of the pot then drop the barley (or different materials) into the augers that feed the bruiser.

All of the valves are electro-hydraulic and managed via the touchscreen PLC programme.

It wasn’t low-cost – every system value about £20,000 to construct – however has paid for itself in greater throughput and time financial savings.

A couple of-third of that was within the pc programming and related {hardware}, however there are such a lot of valves that it could be unattainable to regulate manually.

What couldn’t you reside with out within the workshop?

All the things. The workshop is vital to our survival, particularly on the milling aspect of the enterprise, and we couldn’t afford to run the package with out being about to service and repair it ourselves.

Favorite job and least favorite job?

Favorite: Chopping grass on a summer season day.

Least favorite: Paperwork.

What’s your on a regular basis transport?

Ford Ranger Wildtrak – as talked about in “Newest buy?”.

Greatest tractor you’ve had?

It’s a toss-up between the Renault Ares 640 RZ and Fastrac 8310, however the latter simply edges it for reliability, consolation and usefulness.

We’ve had no main breakdowns in eight years, which is why I intend to interchange it with an 8330.

I wouldn’t thoughts seeing a 4000-series Fastrac with an additional 30hp.

We had one on demo operating the mill, which was alright for some time but it surely wouldn’t deal with a busy couple of months over harvest – it’s not fairly heavy sufficient and would simply get bossed about.

Worst tractor you’ve had?

The 2008 Claas Axion 830 and, extra particularly, its John Deere engine.

The tractor wasn’t too unhealthy, however the head gasket wanted changing each different harvest. It first went at 1,500 hours, so was underneath guarantee, however we went via one other three after that.

The EGR cooler was changed thrice too, it was terrible on gasoline and the final time I stripped it down I discovered the liner within the sixth cylinder was scored and the piston rings had been damaged.

I held onto it for too lengthy, however ultimately changed it with the 840. The FPT engine in that is much better – it has far more energy and makes use of the very best a part of 40 litres much less gasoline on a protracted day cultivating.

Largest equipment discount?

The Fastrac 8310, which we picked up at considered one of JCB’s ex-demo AMS auctions on 500 hours.

We went there ready to spend £120,000 on it however ended up getting it for slightly below £100,000, which I reckon was £30,000 lower than I’d have spent if I’d purchased it from a supplier.

It wasn’t with out its dangers, because it was offered as seen and with no guarantee, but it surely ended up being an important purchase.

JCB 8310 and forager © John Fraser