Contractor Will Monkman, who farms 95ha and contract farms another 80ha, reveals the contents of his machinery shed in the latest in our series.

H Monkman & Sons, based in Malton, North Yorkshire offers services including spraying, fertiliser spreading, Avadex application, baling and wrapping grass and straw baling. 

Other enterprises include straw sales and delivery. 

See also: Champion operator rates Chafer and Bateman self-propelleds

How did you get started?

Until 2010, the sole focus was our 50ha tenanted farm. But that began to change when our baling contractor let us down.

Dad bought a Vicon 1601 round baler for the job and, as our neighbours found themselves in the same position, we did theirs, too.

I was conscious that the farm wasn’t big enough to accommodate me full time, so I had two choices: push the contracting or find employment elsewhere.

So, over the next few years, I invested in an engine-driven McHale 991 to take on the silage wrapping and stacking business that my uncle ran on the farm next door, then added a tedder, rake, John Deere 328 mower and Quadrant baler.

One of my bigger breaks was getting into the straw game in 2016, when I was offered 30ha in the swath. I’d never dealt in straw before but took a punt and baled, stacked and sold it.

We’re now producing 8,000 4x3s and buying in another 5,000 to 8,000, one-third of which goes to Malton racehorse yards. We lead another third to farms on the North York Moors and the rest goes on wagons to Cumbria and Scotland.

The spraying side has also taken off – we run a Sands Vision and Bateman RB35 over 14,000ha – and we spread 500ha of Avadex a year with an Agribuggy and 24m Techneat applicator.

Do you want to grow the farm?

We’ve got the kit to take on another tenancy. But with the current state of agriculture, and cereal prices as they are, I’d rather send in a bill for contracting work than try and make crops pay.

We would like to take on more land in the future, provided we stand a chance of making a reasonable profit.

How brand loyal are you?

We are to some extent. I like McHale stuff as it’s well made and does what it says on the tin.

But it really comes down to the working relationship we have with the dealer and knowing that, if there’s an issue, they’ll sort it.

Massey Ferguson has traditionally been our tractor brand of choice but we’re gradually switching to Valtra.

This started with a two-year-old T235 Direct. It had been on hire at Agriweld, had only done 198 hours, and saved us a fortune over buying new.

We’ve since bought a second-hand T214 – a 69-plate on 4,000 hours – which is a handy extra set of wheels for the summer.

Favourite dealer?

We have a great relationship with Russells – the depot is half a mile down the road – and Wilfred Scruton, from which we bought the Valtras and hire a tractor and telehandler over harvest.

Big Bale Services also provides excellent backup. I once bent some needles on the baler at 9pm and had the parts by 7am the next morning.

Favourite piece of kit?

The self-propelled sprayers. They give me the chance to get around the county, see what stage other people’s crops are at, and compare them with my own.

As much as anything, it’s a change of scenery. Plus, I’m always thinking about the next tank mix – unlike power harrowing where you pick up your lunch box and leave your brain at home.

And your least favourite?

Mowers. No model in particular, but none are built strongly enough for the job.

They’re going into the unknown, always the first thing to hit something and, unlike a flail, they’re not tough enough for the pain they’re subjected to. The tinwork can’t hack the constant vibrations, either.

Latest purchase?

We’ve replaced two balers, with a McHale 750 coming in for the old V660 and a second-hand Massey Ferguson 2270XD for one of the 2170s.

The old one had made 80,000 bales and was starting to cost us money, so we bit the bullet and spent £98,000 on a 2021 model with 19,000 on the clock.

Its extra bale packing capacity should allow us to get another 1.5t on each trailer and 2t on the wagons, which will save us on haulage costs.

I’m also hoping to track down a replacement bale chaser before the season starts, having sold our Heath QM.

It was a bit of a gamble as it was working fine, but it was a 2007 model and would only stack seven bales high and 14 in total, rather than eight and 16 on the newer ones.

They’re niche machines that don’t come up for sale very often but I’m hoping I can track down a Heath MC2 by the summer. I’ve got my eye on a 2018 version for £85,000.

Oldest machine still at work?

A Case 956 XL that my old man acquired for nostalgic reasons in 2015. He’d bought a brand-new one in the 1980s and fancied it as a retirement hobby.

It has a set of dual wheels for rolling, occasionally goes on the tedder and rake, and runs our three-point linkage-mounted cement mixer.

How long do you keep your machines?

We’ll run them until they’re not up to the job or start costing too much money. Age isn’t a factor – it’s purely about reliability.

However, depreciation costs are becoming a bit of a killer. I tend to work on a figure of 10-15% a year, but that is being scuppered by dealers being so reluctant to take trade-ins at anything like a sensible price.

The tractors are a good example. We were offered £40,000 for the 7720 when looking to replace it with a new model, so it worked out cheaper to buy the second-hand T214 and have three on the books.

We certainly don’t want to be committed to huge finance packages upwards of £100k and end up busy fools trying to find work to pay for it.

My preference is to run older kit and see the money we earn go into our pockets. The flip side of that is that there’s no crying if we’re lumbered with a big breakdown bill.

Next on your wishlist?

Other than a new bale chaser, which is the current priority, it’d be a 36m replacement for the 24m Sands Horizon sprayer, purely to streamline the business.

As it is, we’ve only got the Bateman RB35 at 36m, and we’re pushing it hard to cover the potato ground from May to September.

I’m hoping to convince some of our customers to put in 36m tramlines in the autumn. If that works out, we’ll look to swap the sprayer over the winter.

A replacement for the Massey 7720 could be on the cards too. We’ve got a big tractor for the square baler, so something around the 200hp mark would be ample for the land work we currently undertake.

Most embarrassing incident?

Running out of diesel while leading corn for another contractor.

Unfortunately, it was right in the middle of Malton at 11pm on a Saturday night, so there were plenty of spectators.

It was the last load of the day and I knew I was running it tight; the fuel gauge on the old Massey 6480 I was driving had a habit of bouncing around when it got to about one-quarter full, and it had been doing so since 4pm.

As I headed down the hill into Malton, the dregs sloshed to the front of the tank and the tractor stalled. Not my finest moment.

Biggest repair bill?

Two gearboxes, both Dyna-6s, that cost a combined £29,000. The 12-plate 7620 had its in 2018 and the 67-plate 7720 failed in 2019 while winter ploughing.

Other big bills include £15,000 for a gearbox on the square baler and £10,000 for a wheel motor on the Sands sprayer.

The insurance helped with some, but I’ve learnt to prepare for a whopper every year.

I like to recount these horror stories whenever customers moan at our prices.

Most overpriced spare part?

We’re always getting caught out by the cost of small items – usually those that we nip to the dealer for when servicing a machine.

Big prices are to be expected when replacing major components but, in some ways, the cumulative total of all the little bits and bobs can be just as bad. One month, several innocuous jaunts to Russells totted up to £1,200.

It’s things like lenses and bulbs, bolts and, on the Sands sprayer, a sensor switch for the auto section shut-off. Given it’s the size of a thumb, I ordered a new one and a second for stock, only to get a £400 bill.

And shear-bolts on the McConnel Discaerator cost £10 apiece. We went through eight on one job in the Yorkshire Wolds.

As a result, we’re increasingly conscious about doing our homework and shopping around.

Best invention?

Mounting a second-hand 24m Techneat applicator on a lightweight Agribuggy 2700.

We stripped off the spray pack and built a new frame to carry the 300kg hopper, which turned out to be the easy bit.

Getting the spreader plates, which we fabricated in-house, mounted at 50cm intervals without them fouling the cab or framework when the boom is folded for transport was far more difficult.

We then had some help from a local engineer, Nick Craggs, to sort the electrics.

As well as Avadex, we’re hoping to use it to apply slug pellets and spread small-seeded cover crop mixes. We’ve got 250ha of the latter to do in June.

What couldn’t you live without in the workshop?

Gas bottles and the hydraulic press…If you want to bend something then send it here.  We seem to have incredibly bad luck, whether it’s wonky rake arms, twisted power harrow skirts, or anything else.

Everyday transport?

A 19-plate, 83,000-mile Nissan Navara that I’ve had for a year.

I ripped off the drawbar and bent the chassis rails of my old D-Max, so ended up flogging it to We Buy Any Car.

I saw the Navara on a dealer’s website and, though I wasn’t a fan of them, I’ve grown to like it.

Best and worst tractors you’ve had?

Weirdly, the best and worst is the same tractor – a 2009 John Deere 6930.

I bought it in 2013 on 2,400 hours for £42,500 and absolutely loved it, to the point that I would buy it back now. It would be one hell of a yard tractor.

But it cost me a fortune. It went through a turbo and a set of brakes, I spent £6,000 to replace a bearing in the gearbox, and another £1,200 on a seat kit.

A lot of the problems were self-inflicted, as it had been given the Derv Doctor treatment and had the EGR blanked off.

It was putting out 210hp at the shaft, bellowed black smoke, and was fast enough to leave a Berlingo van standing at a set of traffic lights and beat a Fendt 724 up a hill leading tatties.

After a never-ending series of niggles, I sold it four years and 6,000 hours later for £29,000. Its replacement was a Massey 7620, which didn’t come close to it for comfort.

Sadly, I moved it on just before 6930 prices went crazy. The year after, I saw one almost identical to mine up for £35,000, and that figure would now be in the 40s.

Most surprisingly useful feature on a machine?

The Bateman sprayer’s ability to show a previous job in the same field. If one of us hasn’t sprayed a particular field before, we can see which route was taken previously. It makes life so much easier, especially for spuds and pre-ems.

Most pointless piece of technology?

Headland management never gets used. I’ve tried setting it up by recording the process, but it’s never quite right and I always end up doing it manually.

Biggest machinery bargain?

That would be the £7,500 I paid for a local contractor’s Agribuggy, Avadex applicator and fertiliser spreader.

I didn’t really want them at the time and thought I’d just sell them on and make a few quid, but several others gave up their rounds soon after and we ended up with a stack of work.

But our single-rotor rake runs it close. I bought it on a whim for £2,000 at York Machinery Sale and, as it happened, the following harvest was wet. It ended up turning 400ha of straw.

It’s certainly not in its Sunday best and, having been shaken to bits by a 250hp tractor, has been welded together and beefed up several times.

We’ll hang onto until it dies – at which point it’ll be plonked at the end of the drive with a flowerpot on top.

Biggest bugbear?

Anyone’s response to a breakdown being “ahh, yes – they’re prone to doing that”.

If I send a machine in for a service and there’s a known trouble spot then I’d rather it was sorted at the time, before it fails, and the original part put on the shelf as a spare.

There’s nothing worse than being laid up during harvest and waiting for bits when the issue could have been avoided. It really rattles my cage.