The lack of rainfall in recent months has treated Josh and Helen Collins to one of the most straightforward summers since they set up their contracting business seven years ago.

And while the dryness has hampered yields in parts of the country, Cornwall has received just enough moisture for crops to perform.

See also: Contractor Comment: Big yields follow great start to harvest

Wheat has averaged about 9t/ha (good for the area), as has the best of the winter barley. Although Marris Otter has bucked the trend, with much of it hovering around 6t/ha.

Spring barley – the only other combinable crop they’ve cut this season – put in a respectable performance for the year, returning between 5.5 and 6t/ha.

“We’ve had more of an eastern counties summer than a typical Cornish one,” says Josh.

“Crops have done well on the whole and almost nothing we’ve harvested this time has had to be put through a dryer – it makes a nice change from the constant firefighting we usually have to do.”

That said, there have been enough showers around to put pressure on baling operations. On one occasion, they had to call in help from their friends at Keats Contracting to get 2,600 big squares baled in a single day before the heavens opened.

Business facts

JJ and HE Collins Agricultural Contractors

Josh and Helen Collins © James Andrews

Since setting up JJ and HE Collins Agricultural Contractors seven years ago, Josh and Helen Collins have built a business that offers an extensive range of agricultural services.

The proliferation of livestock farms in mid-Cornwall means much of their work centres around silage, baling, muck and slurry. But they also undertake arable and spud work, as well as running a separate groundworks business.

Main services: Grass, maize and wholecrop silage (3,000ha), ploughing and cultivation work (4,000ha), drilling (160ha), combining (400ha), round/square baling (20,000 bales), umbilical and tanker slurry spreading, muckspreading, hedgecutting (3,200ha)

Other: Groundworks business and portable slurry bag hire

Staff: Josh, Helen and son Henry plus seven full-time, one part-time and extra seasonal help

Hired combines

As usual, the pair’s 400ha of combining was carried out using a brace of ageing Claas Lexions hired from Warwickshire firm JMT Engineering.

Despite their respective hour counts of 5,842 and 4,207, the 24-year-old 450 and 21-year-old 510, went largely without a hitch.

© James Andrews

“The only problems have been a broken knife bar that required us to slot the spare in and new fuel filters for both, as we got bugs in the diesel,” says Josh.

This reliability is down to the fact that JMT’s engineers go through each with a fine tooth comb.

“They know all the bits that can go wrong and make sure any potential problems are sorted before we start cutting,” he says. “And, if anything serious did happen, I know they’d be straight down to fix it.”

Breakdowns

As for their own machinery, there have been a few more breakdowns to shell out for than a typical year.

“Most of these we’d consider run-of-the-mill stuff these days, but it did sting a bit when the hydrostatic pump packed up on the forager,” says Josh.

Local dealer Hamblys was quick to get this fixed and provided a loan machine while it was out of action, but the bill ran to £11,000.

Another machine benched due to injury was a 10,000-hour Arion 630, which required an overhaul of the range box in its Hexashift transmission (the same as Massey Ferguson’s Dyna-6).

It suffered the usual problem of the synchro going in range C, which required the tractor to be split so that it could be rebuilt.

Total cost was £6,500, which is “fair game” for a tractor that’s done that much work, says Josh.

“It’s the price of modern farming – we used to wince at bills of £1,000, but these days it’s a pleasant surprise if it comes in under £10k.”

Packs in the forward/reverse shuttle are another repair that’s become virtually routine on these tractors, he adds. “They last for roughly 6,500 hours and the cost to recondition them is about £4,000.”

Merger turnaround

One machine that’s had a surprise stay of execution is the Kuhn Merge Maxx belt merger.

Such was its unreliability that Josh and Helen had planned to semi-retire it, handing frontline rowing-up duties to a second-hand Claas liner four-rotor rake.

But local dealer Beares turned its fortunes around by fitting upgraded tine bars, as used on the latest model.

© James Andrews

“They’ve completely transformed it,” says Josh. “It hardly ever blocks now, which puts far less stress on the running gear – we’ve barely broken a tine whereas we could stick 20 a day on it before.”

As for the new arrivals, a 19,000-hour Fendt 716, which was bought earlier in the year for £17,500, has been settling in well.

Initially recruited as a backup, it’s already tallied 600 hours on a range of work from tedding and raking to pulling trailers and a spud harvester. A worn-out lift pump and gearbox sensor have been the only ailments to report.

Another of this season’s newbies is an Axion 830, delivered in Josh and Helen’s signature spec: CMatic CVT transmission, gunmetal grey bodywork, front linkage and pto, with 650/85 R38 tyres at the rear and 600/70 R30s at the front.

“They’re the perfect tractor for the work we do – plenty of power [235hp] and enough weight, without being too big and clumsy,” says Josh.

Most recently, this tractor has been hooked to a trailer for the spud lifting campaign, which has been considerably busier than usual.

The extra hours put in here have been a welcome addition and have helped offset work lost with a local veg grower that decided to take more operations in-house.

Red interloper

Despite the proliferation of Claas kit at Treveor farm, a rival brand has managed to infiltrate the ranks.

The 3,000-hour Massey Ferguson 8730S wheedled its way in after being hired to help with spud planting earlier in the year.

An offer of £110,000 for the 295hp prime mover to become a permanent resident was just too good to turn down.

“It’s a really nice tractor – strong engine, Fendt Vario transmission – so we decided to give it a go,” says Josh.

“My only complaint is that the pedals are too close together which makes it difficult to find a comfortable seating position – that said, the main driver, Joe, loves it.”

© James Andrews

Moving with the times

Another minor inconvenience is that it isn’t hooked up to the recently launched Claas Connect platform, unlike their other frontline tractors.

This means Josh and Helen can’t quickly view its location and information about the work it’s doing, or spot if it needs any mechanical attention.

“We’re just getting to grips with the software, but it’s already proving useful for all sorts of things,” says Helen.

“As I can see how much of a job is left to do, I can give the next customer a good idea of when we’re going to arrive.

“And because it shows how much fuel is in the tank, I can prioritise which I go to first with the bowser.”

Another perk is that it highlights if machines have any error codes; information that is shared with their dealer Hamblys to help get problems fixed quickly.

Various farm management tools are incorporated too which, in time, could help with record keeping for their in-hand farming operation.

Since taking on a 32ha county council farm business tenancy in June, this has swelled to 72ha, plus 40ha of share farming.

Most ground is destined for arable and maize growing, but it will also provide an opportunity for their son Henry to increase cattle numbers beyond their current herd of 69.

“We’d love to take on more, but there’s a lot of competition down here and you need to fork out a lot of money to get it – we’ll just take the opportunities as and when we can,” says Helen.