Looks like I'm gonna be busy!!

stratts

Well-Known Member
My main place for stalking has been so overgrown with grass and weeds, etc, around the margins and set aside it's been really tough to stalk, but not any more!!

I had a feeble attempt at strimming a ride on Friday but it was too dense, and if I got any sort of runner it would be nigh on impossible to find without a dog!!



The farmer had a mooch around at the weekend and wasn't happy with the state of the farm so got a minion out with the 'bat wing' cutter and has gone mental!! 1000 acres in total and everywhere has been cut bar the crops!

This was the final cut of a 200ish acre area around the lakes and while I stood watching, 4 munties came out of cover to see what was going on!! You can guage the toughness of the stalking previously by the height of the weeds compared to the big old tractor!!



No excuses now and it should also give us chance to trim up Charlie too so we're gonna get stuck in tnite after work. It may be a late one!!

Cheers

Stratts
 
There goes a breeding season of ground nesting birds. Well done to all involved.

and when you do cut set aside start from the middle and work out. That way most of the wildlife creeps out of the field. Do not do it the way the person in the photo has done and drive everything to the centre to be gobbled up by the topper on the final few passes.

Great for shooting foxes as they feed on all the dead pheasant, partridge and what ever other young birds were in there.
 
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There goes a breeding season of ground nesting birds. Well done to all involved.

and when you do cut set aside start from the middle and work out. That way most of the wildlife creeps out of the field. Do not do it the way the person in the photo has done and drive everything to the centre to be gobbled up by the topper on the final few passes.

Great for shooting foxes as they feed on all the dead pheasant, partridge and what ever other young birds were in there.

Fair point and well presented mate, although I should add that there are many, many areas that have not been touched and the farmer does the same each year at this time. There is still an abundance of Partridge, Pheasant, etc, although there is no game shooting on the farms.

I still can't say that the nesting was considered when he decided to cut though and it came as a surprise when I called in to see the cutting being done. From a stalking point I'm obviously delighted but shows with a different viewpoint how much you have to think about managing the land, as I hadn't thought about the birds myself!! :oops: But then I'm not a gamekeeper,

Cheers

Stratts
 
My anger is with the farmer not you. Remember he is getting paid a shed load of EU money (your money) to manage this land. He should therefore know better.

If you get the chance to tactfully advise him for the future the main points are:

cut as late as possible (before any date he has to do it by for his SFP) 15 August comes to mind.

cut as little as possible, I recall you used to be able to leave 25% standing.

always cut from the inside out, never the other way round.

If you can do it in stages, half today and then go off somewhere else, the other half a couple of days later, all the better.

oh and the smaller the topper and the slower you go the better as it allows the birds time to move (he may no be as keen on this one).
 
My anger is with the farmer not you. Remember he is getting paid a shed load of EU money (your money) to manage this land. He should therefore know better.

If you get the chance to tactfully advise him for the future the main points are:

cut as late as possible (before any date he has to do it by for his SFP) 15 August comes to mind.

cut as little as possible, I recall you used to be able to leave 25% standing.

always cut from the inside out, never the other way round.

If you can do it in stages, half today and then go off somewhere else, the other half a couple of days later, all the better.

oh and the smaller the topper and the slower you go the better as it allows the birds time to move (he may no be as keen on this one).

Oh yes the slower you go the better because farmers have nothing else to do all day , and then at the end of the day I bet he dines on caviar that he has brought with the 'shed loads of money' he has been paid by the eu.
 
Oh yes the slower you go the better because farmers have nothing else to do all day , and then at the end of the day I bet he dines on caviar that he has brought with the 'shed loads of money' he has been paid by the eu.

Yes, if you want to spend money then burn diesel for the fun of it; run tractors at higher rpms than required; and, do work which is unnessasary. I watch my neighbour doing this and then he complains that he is not making much money!!!

It is not hard to cut your variables if you give it a little thought.

So what is good for wildlife is also good for my bottom line and my shooting.
 
There goes a breeding season of ground nesting birds. Well done to all involved.

and when you do cut set aside start from the middle and work out. That way most of the wildlife creeps out of the field. Do not do it the way the person in the photo has done and drive everything to the centre to be gobbled up by the topper on the final few passes.

Great for shooting foxes as they feed on all the dead pheasant, partridge and what ever other young birds were in there.
Couldn't agree more +1 .. Everything dead for mr fox
 
We are doing some needed grass cutting but the area to be cut is always walked at start of day then again after lunch before any machinery is used, there are lots of new born calves about now.
 
Welll that didn't go as planned out til midnight and all we saw were badgers!!! Fecking close up badgers at that with the night vision, which was still cool though!!! Those things are nails!! :scared:

They haven't gone as mad with the cutting as I 1st thought so there are still lots of areas of cover so maybe do think a bit more about it than we gave them credit for! ;)
 
Yes, if you want to spend money then burn diesel for the fun of it; run tractors at higher rpms than required; and, do work which is unnessasary. I watch my neighbour doing this and then he complains that he is not making much money!!!

It is not hard to cut your variables if you give it a little thought.

So what is good for wildlife is also good for my bottom line and my shooting.

A topper like that and infact all PTO machinery has to be run at a set RPM so there is no choice in the revs.I'd imagine for peak fuel efficiency I expect that he needs to go as fast as the machine will take it.
 
A topper like that and infact all PTO machinery has to be run at a set RPM so there is no choice in the revs.I'd imagine for peak fuel efficiency I expect that he needs to go as fast as the machine will take it.

No it doesn't. You can run it below but should not run above. I run a significant proportion of my pto machinery below 540 or 1000 rpm as it is easier on the machine, tractor and my pocket. Toppers and flail machines, hedge trimmer and toppers, make a better job if you do not go full tilt.

My point was that there is no need to run at full tilt, backing off a bit saves the machine, deisel and some wildlife.

There was a guy contract bailing over Lincolnshire way went by the name of Swift Nick. When asked how he turned out so many bales in a day he said that he didn't gun the machine, just kept a good steady speed up all day. He said that whilst others would go into a field at full tilt and going quite a bit faster than him but this would usually end up with something getting broken, drive chain of whatever, with the result that they could never match his output.

Tortoise and the hare.
 
we run ours at the recommended rpm and i highly doubt that we get any more breakdowns than you , they are the recommended speed at which the machinery is designed to work at.
 
Perhaps some toppers and flail machinery can be run lower but balers no way. You start running them far of pto revs and they won.t pack knot or knife cut correctly.
 
we run ours at the recommended rpm and i highly doubt that we get any more breakdowns than you , they are the recommended speed at which the machinery is designed to work at.

...and you are probably not overloading it with excessive forward speed.

Anyway, I will accept your undoubted exerpertise in this area. I must have been doing something wrong all these years.
 
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