“produces an even spread pattern across the field - essential for providing nutrients and soil conditioning”.
James Cossins farms 2,500 acres on the chalk hills around the Tarrant Valley in mid- Dorset. James is the 5th generation of J Cossins & Sons who have been on the farm since 1887. The business is a true family affair with James’ wife, son and daughter involved in this large, mixed farming enterprise. The family business is involved throughout the food chain with an on-site Farm Shop and are also landlords of the local dining pub. A real “farm to fork” business.
A herd of 320 dairy cows are supplemented with 120 followers and a beef herd of 180 animals. Around 1,800 acres of combinable crops (the majority being winter sown), a small proportion being fed to the livestock the remainder being sold. The whole ethos of the farm is underpinned by a philosophy of “self-sufficiency”, ring fencing the farming activities as an effective means of bio-security.
James recently bought a new Teagle Titan 9 muckspreader. It replaced a Titan 12 purchased in 2002 and works in tandem with another Titan 9 purchased in 2013. “We farm in a designated NVZ area”, says James, “which determines when we can spread, with 600 animals on the farm, we have plenty of muck. We use our own straw for loose-housing and our own manure on the land, a policy which aids our resistance to black-grass”.
Winter housing is routinely cleaned out and the muck heaped / stored in adjacent fields prior to spreading. Muck is applied to maize and arable ground and can often include a high proportion of slurry. “The Titan copes well with the wide variety of muck producing an excellent, even spread pattern across the field that is essential for applying essential nutrients and soil conditioning”.
“We need to move quickly, but also efficiently, the farmyard manure (FYM) applies vital nutrients and provides conditioning to our soil. “Flexibility to react is important to our “closed farm” philosophy, so we need to be able to go when conditions are right, but efficiency and productivity is critical to our business”.
“The Titan 9’s offer us good capacity on our 120-150HP tractors, enabling us to operate safely on the hillsides and down the country lanes around the farm. They are also compact for good manoeuvrability around the farm buildings and into gateways”.
James goes on to say;” nobody likes maintenance, but if it’s easy to access and convenient it gets done. Teagle has made a number of developments on their muckspreaders since the 2013 machine with easier access to critical greasing points, drive-line protection and bed chain adjustment and other routine maintenance”.
“Teagle and our local dealer, C & O Tractors have looked after us over a long period of time. We have a number of their machines on our farm, they consistently perform and we stick with them. We support British products when we can and embrace an ethos of “love local, trust local” throughout all our business activities. This principle has stood us in good stead over many years and we believe it will continue to do so”.