Right from the start my target was Quaility, Reliability & Sustainability.
Seeking the best materials & meadows to produce top quality forage.
All of the hay fields are harrowed twice & then flat rolled, I also fertilise them where allowed (some pastures are in schemes that do not allow fertilisers), with a blended fertiliser (20:10:10), this not only adds nitrogen, but also adds P&K (Potassium & Phosphorus) returning trace elements to the pasture that are removed with the harvesting of the crop.
The tractor on the mowing rig has GPS guidance fitted, so there is minimal overlap, thus improving effiecency, with a saving on both time & fuel.

For the 2016 season two Lely Lotus tedders were purchased, a LL770P & a LL1020P, both are trailed machines with tedding widths of 7.7m & 10.2m respectively. these give an excellent even spread of the crop over the whole width of the swath & able to cover 20 acres an hour.
The tedding operation, will also benefit from GPS, as all swaths will be even & will enable tedding to be carried out with very little overlap.

The Krone 710/26 rake is able to provide three different raking tasks & can be adjusted from the cab, rowing the crop into rows most suited to the baling operation, with the abillity to produce two even swaths onto clear ground (so that all of crop is moved) in one pass, & a raking width of 7metres, giving a 3.5metre width per swath & producing ideal rows for the Massey Ferguson 1840 inline balers.

The baler has a moisture meter fitted inside the bale chambers, giving a constant moisture reading on the control unit inside the tractor cab, this allows baling to start as early as possible with the crop moisture level below 15% & then to stop baling when crop moisture rises near to preset target.
 
The tractor on the Baling Rig is a New Holland T7.210AC, although we do not need the power of a 210hp tractor the size enables the tractor to be in contol of the rigs.
The tractor is fitted with a CVT gearbox, allowing the baler to run at optimum work rates & giving a consistant crop feed into it. This in turn gives more uniform bales in both weight & size.

With the bales in packs this enables fields to be cleared & bales stacked very quickly, the use of a loader tractor able to pick up three packs (63 bales) at a time & load on trailers then to be transpoted back to the storage barns.