Farming over 2000 acres of arable land on the Wiltshire/ Gloucestershire border is something of a passion for Farm Foreman, Jonathan Ducker and his family who work for the farming and contracting business, South Farm Products Ltd. itself wholly owned by the Backhouse Family. The business operates over a number of holdings in the area providing a range of contract farming services with the centre of operations at South Farm just outside Hatherop.
While the farming business is owned and operated by the Backhouse family, it’s also a family affair for the farm’s employees in as much as Jonathan’s wife, Kathy provides administrative support while their two sons, Robert and Matt also work the land.
“Everything we do here for this business is about quality of service to our customers,” states Jonathan. “You can take short cuts in farming if you wish, but our driver is to achieve the best yields, maintain soil condition and help deliver margins for our customers in a considered and sustainable way.”
Much of the land is down to a mix of winter wheat, spring barley and oil seed rape with winter or spring oats and spring beans also being grown to extend the rotation and assist with both fertility management and weed control. A mix of inversion and minimal tillage techniques are employed throughout the rotation to manage establishment costs while optimising growing conditions
Ploughing
“We plough one third of the farm every year, to make sure we maintain a good soil profile”, commented Jonathan. “We’ve also veered away from selling straw from the field and have just acquired a new John Deere S685i Combine Harvester with a precision chopper - that way we can be certain of returning the finely chopped crop residue to the soil thereby building a good level of organic matter to benefit soil structure and microbes.”
In addition to the new combine, South Farm has also invested in three new John Deere tractors, a 7310R, plus a 7250R and a new 6215R. The objective was to secure reliable and high quality equipment to avoid breakdowns and enable timeliness of operations which are key to protect yield potential. South Farm has tried other makes but the John Deere has always come out on top.
“We do whatever cultivation is appropriate at the time, according to weather conditions”, commented Jonathan. “If a field needs a second pass to achieve the best seedbed, then it gets it. I know we are slightly over horse-powered for the acreage at present, but by doing the job right and on time, which is important for our customers, we very much hope that the results will be recognised thereby securing new instructions for the future. We use a Sumo Trio for initial stubble work and most of the ground is drilled using a six metre Horsch Sprinter drill.”
In the office, Kathryn Ducker mans the GateKeeper system, where with management support from Mark Juniper of Strutt & Parker, all records, reports and invoicing are co-ordinated so that their customers have access to information needed for both performance monitoring and management purposes.
Strategic plan
Making a big investment in capital equipment this year, including a very high output combine harvester and three high horsepower tractors was something of a strategic plan for South Farm. All the products were sourced from Tallis Amos Group, the local John Deere dealer in Bibury. All the machines come with John Deere’s PowerGard extended warranty and maintenance to ensure a known cost through the life of the machines.
“ Tallis Amos is our local dealer and they provide us with an excellent after-sales service. I’ve known Chris Tallis for a long time and he is the kind of man that you can shake hands with and know that they will provide the service and support required. We’ve known many of their staff for a long time too and have benefitted from their first class after-sales support for the equipment they sell. We took out PowerGard so we could have a full guarantee and warranty plan throughout the life of these new machines. If anything goes wrong and let’s face it sometimes things happen unexpectedly, there is no unexpected cost,” added Jonathan. “There are no nasty surprises and we know from day one our costs throughout the planned working life.
Importantly, I’ve always been a person who wants to see the job done right every time, because that keeps our customers satisfied and I expect the same and will get the same from John Deere and Tallis Amos” he concluded.
