Allan Sheldrake
Agricultural Contracting
& Forage Sales
Providing an Efficient, Reliable & Quality Service
Products & Services
My business has evolved by following customer requirements, with each purchase of equipment I have looked at the figures (including purchase / finance costs, running costs & of course income), the breakdown of these figures gives me accurate costings and allows my pricing to be both competitive for both the customer, but also myself.
Hay Contracting
Grass is cut with a Krone 6metre front & rear mower combination, without conditioners.
This season a pair of Lely Stablio tedders (a trailed 7.7metre & a trailed 10.2metre), giving a uniform tedding operation, with an exceptional spreading action over the entire swath.
Raking this season is to be undertaken with a new Krone 710/26. This will enable one rake to stay in front of the two Baling Rigs. In normal & heavy crops it is able to produce a pair of unifrom rows in one pass ideal for the MF1840 inline balers, in lighter crops the rake can be set from inside the cab, to produce a single row to the right hand side, this also allows for very light crops or for large capacity balers, a second pass made in the opposite direction, giving a raked area of 14metres.
The baling operation is undertaken with a MF1840 baler, attached to a Bale Baron 4230 bale packer. This set up produces conventional bales packed into 21's. The packs produced are easily handled, making clearing & stacking very quick, when rehandling from storage they are quick to load/move. Once the four main strings are cut, you have conventional bales which can be stacked by hand.
Grassland Maintenance
An important part of quality grazing / forage, is keeping the roots areated. Springtine Harrows are ideal for this as they really pluck the surface & remove any matting. this also stimulates growth.
We like to follow the Harrows with a good heavy roll, this pushes any stones disturbed by the harrows back into the soil, so when the crop is mown the mower has a smooth run, without stones to blunt the blades or to be thrown out causing damage or injury.
I like to fertilise the grass with a blended fertiliser (20:10:10), not only does this feed the soil, it also replaces P&K that is taken with every crop harvesting.
For topping a Suire PJ2800 flail mower is used, this will cut & chop the tallest grass, but will also leave a great finish.
On grass that is cut regular, it is possible to leave a lawn finish.
Cutting height is from 10mm to 150mm.
Flail Collecting
For paddocks that have been neglected or have been grazed & need a tidy up, Flail / Collecting is the idea piece of machinery, as it cuts the folage & blows it into the large hopper at the rear.
By collecting the cut folage it is possible to return animals straight back into the fields.
Cutting height is 15mm to 100mm,
The hopper has a high tip operation, allowing materials to be heaped up.
Area covered per hour, depends on length, density & moisture of material & each job is priced on an hourly rate, with a estimate on time taken.
Hedge & Verge Cutting
Haylage Contracting
The Haylage operation is very similar to the Hay operation, upto the baling, where the crop is baled with a New Holland BB920 (Euro baler) giving a cross section of 80cmx40cm & 1.2 metres long, at a higher moisture content & then wrapped with 6 layers of film wrap. This expells the oxygen & allows the forage to forment, producing a dust free, high sugar / energy feed.
Regular hedge cutting not only makes the hedge look nice, but also enables the hedge to thicken up & act as a wind break, shelter & stock barrier / fence. Annual trimming keeps the hedges tight & also means thinner material to cut, leaving a neat finish. With the hedges trimmed & cutting grass upto & under hedge row you also maximise the use of the land.