Chris's Blog - November 2010

Posted on Monday, November 1 2010 by Chris Jacques

END OF SEASON OR START OF NEXT ?

YOUR CHOICE - WE’RE STARTING THE NEXT.

We’re heading into November now and workload is reducing along with the daylight hours. We’ve had a busy few months with a decent and rewarding corn harvest, autumn cultivations, a much needed late flush of grass and some bumper crops of maize being harvested albeit a little later than usual as the crops were slow to mature.

We’ve been busy with events such as our AMS and Vaderstad working day, which was well attended and enabled us to show off the latest in John Deeres Guidance Equipment Solutions along with a Topdown Cultivator and Spirit Drill from Vaderstad. The Topdown was used in a field of potato stubble behind an 8345R and together they did an awesome job of chopping up the remaining residue and providing a good tilth for the Spirit Drill to work in. The Spirit worked behind the Topdown and was hauled along by a 7530 using Universal Auto-Trac. Compared to a Rapid, the Sprint, is a lighter land drill and does a lovely job of discing down the previously cultivated/ploughed land, consolidating with the carrying wheels, sowing with 380mm double disc V-Coulter and then re-consolidating with the seed units consolidation wheel. Each seed unit is individually sprung which allows uniform coulter pressure across the entire working width and the resulting emergence is impressive to say the least, even when sown by a bunch of amateur contractors like ourselves! (Or as it was recently put to me – it’s great where you’ve sown it ! Sorry Julian & thanks again)

As part of our commitment to you, our customer, and Vaderstad we continually run our own Vaderstad demonstration equipment and have access to Vaderstad’s own so give us a call to see the results for yourself.

Vaderstad build quality and durability is second to none and with all the support we receive from Nick Tinker and his crew from Vaderstad UK, coupled with our support to you we truly have a range of products and a support network to be proud of, so don’t hesitate to contact any of us to find out what ourselves and Vaderstad could bring to your operation.

Combine demo’s have come to an end now and judging by the number of orders we have for 2011 John Deere Combines the T550i has definitely impressed to say the least. I certainly fell for her and have to admit will be sorry to see her go, the new sales have the added bonus of giving us a line up of quality pre-owned combines to offer, all known to ourselves and maintained by our own service team, it’s not always we have this luxury and they won’t be around for long so now is the time to get in touch and bag a quality used bargain.

Combine demo driver of the year has to go to a young fella by the name of Max and I really think his dad (sorry Santa) should be bagging him one for Xmas!

As the season comes to a close, we need to start working towards the next and there’s no better way than preparing your harvester whether combine or forage for next season. Putting your machine to bed ready for next season WILL pay dividends in terms of increased productivity, reduced downtime and having the satisfaction of knowing she’s sat in the barn ready to go. So why not treat her to a real wash and scrub up and then let your local service dept give her the once over. The lads have the knowledge and experience to seek out and identify areas in need of attention before problems arise, suggest any suitable upgrades or optional improvements that may benefit you and your particular application they’ll also be aware of any software upgrades or hardware mods to better your machine – you know it makes sense so call for details of our winter service arrangements or keep an eye on the newsletter where details will be published in due course.

As far as the forager job goes there’s a few things been happening here, one of them being that Mathew Evans will now work alongside myself as our SPFH Sales Specialist. I will continue to provide demonstrations, along with operational and technical support, and Mat will provide sales expertise tailored to your operation/ business needs.

This will only serve to strengthen and demonstrate our commitment to the forage harvester job and provide you with expert knowledge on tap, and perhaps a laugh or two – those that have met myself and Mat will realise that together we look like Little & Large (Thought i’d get that in before anyone else did !)

As part of our forager promotions we are holding a forager open day on Thursday December 2^nd at our Nantwich depot and all are welcome, details are to be confirmed but again keep an eye on the newsletter for details. We will have John Deere Foragers and headers on display along with detailed machine walk arounds, displays of our Harvest Lab technology, parts and service displays, representation from JD UK SPFH specialists along with forage quality advice from Jayne Dandy of Biotal & much, much more.

Forager success story of the year has to go to Andy Williamson (Mut to many) and his pocket rocket JD 7250 Forager, Andy is a large scale dairy farmer of the future cropping grass and maize purely as forage for milk production. Having his own machine has given him the luxury of cropping as and when he wishes and enabled him to maximise on forage quality and improve on the all important milk from forage factor.

The machines award winning 9.1L Deere engine has proved extremely frugal and even though the machine is equipped with the smaller tank option this cannot be emptied in a days work, even with the 6 row maize header hanging off the front of it. Deere’s consistent chop quality and the ability to easily and infinitely adjust chop length on the move to suit dry matter and crop variations have been seen as a major boost to forage quality and clampability.

Well done Andy and all credit to operator John on the way the machine is set up and run, we’re pleased to have been able to work with you to provide an effective solution for your business.

(More Forager success stories to come courtesy of Dales Contractors Macclesfield – Watch this space)

AMS - some of the things I have to do to provide you with knowledge and support here you wouldn’t believe!

I’ve recently spent a whole day at JD UK headquarters in Langar, Notts being examined and interrogated on my AMS knowledge on subjects from Documentation, Universal Auto-Trac set up and operation, Satellite & Reciever diagnostics, Application Transfers and Pricing/Hardware knowledge.

And the outcome ? – They certified me!

There’s some exciting developments on the way next month in the way of Receiver and Greenstar Display technology – I’ll keep you posted as I learn more, so watch this space.

One last thing, SATISFACTION FIRST QUESTIONARES!!!!!!!

Most of you will be aware that approx 6months or 1 season after taking delivery of a new John Deere product you will receive a satisfaction questionnaire, if you’re like me there’s endless things you can do with this type of thing,

1 Chuck it in the fire !

2 Use it to light the fire !

3 Swat flies with it !

4 Give it to the dog !

5 Use it as a notepad !

The list goes on and I’d love to hear any other uses you have for these things (Sorry make that previous uses).

PLEASE  PLEASE  PLEASE

Can you start to fill in these things and return them, you don’t know how important it is to us and the service we provide to you – if you need a more detailed explanation regarding the importance of these things just give us a bell, and many thanks to those already taking the time to fill them in.

That wasn’t as brief as the last time was it, guess what the weathers up to today ?

C.J.