Andy Scott, Tractorman

I have not long finished harvesting this year, I began with ploughing back in February. This photo shows me ploughing a field of wheat stubble ready to plant 100 acres of organic Fava beans. This was the first year out with our new Kverneland plough which is an on-land/in-furrow plough. This is a more soil friendly plough and in good conditions we plough on the surface.

A day or so before I could sow the beans into the ground, or when conditions suited we needed to disc the soil. This just firms up the ground for seeding, levels it out and gives the grain drill a better bite at the soil.

 

At the beginning of March I sowed the beans using the Vaderstad grain drill, this sows 4 meter width of any kind of seeds, it’s a versatile machine and can even sow grass seeds but in this image I am sowing the organic Fava beans that we grow for Hodmedod’s.

 

Finally in September we harvested the beans. Cammy drove the combine and I carted the beans in the tractor and trailer. It took about three days to harvest them all in between the rain. I then carted them down to a neighbouring farm to be dried on a floor dryer which blows hot air through them. Finally, they will be loaded onto the lorry and carted away to their final destination.

 

As well as the tractor work I have been doing maintenance work across the estate, a couple of weeks ago I also helped out covering a bridge to make a safe passage over the Dreel burn down by Long Stenton and this week I’ll be dismantling grain augers at the old grain dryer at Balcormo.