We operate our own balers and bale chaser to give us complete control over the harvesting, baling and chasing.
This gives us complete control over the harvesting, baling and chasing and allows us to prioritise clearing land where cultivation is required for the vital early establishment of oilseed rape. The bale chaser enables us to clear the bales rapidly and to keep traffic on the fields to a minimum.
It also gives us control of the cleanliness of the machinery as we move from farm to farm, which is becoming increasingly important as machinery can act as a vector for seed such as blackgrass. We also believe that baling straw helps in our constant battle to control blackgrass, as it removes material that has the potential to return blackgrass seed to the soil.
Our baled straw is a biomass product, used by the straw fuelled power station at Ely where it is converted to electricity and helps the UK to meet its renewable energy target. The baler weighs and moisture tests each bale enabling us to produce bales that are consistent and within our customer's specification. Bales must then be stored carefully to maintain that specification and we sheet our stacks to protect them from the elements.