Contractors keep costs under control
Contractors keep costs under control
WITH potato harvest and deliveries to Belfast keeping Mr McFerran and father, Roy, busy, cereal sowing is left mostly to contactors, Brian Horner ploughing and Robert Bowman using a 3m Fiona power harrow/drill combination.
Charges are "reasonable" and last years cereals cost about £60.50/ha (£24.50/acre) to get in the ground. "We plough the headlands ourselves and heavy flat roll everything after drilling."
Stone-picking both before sowing and after rolling is an extra, but essential expense on the stony land, casual labour for potato harvest being drafted in.
Though precautionary slug pellets are used on potatoes, they are rarely required on cereals, says Mr McFerran. "We just do not seem to have a slug problem."
Minimum tillage is rare in the province. "I do not know anyone around here doing it." The soils heavy stone content could prove troublesome for some of the more complex one-pass machines, he adds.