Watch out slugs, I'm out to get you this year!

So what to make of 2014? A year of challenges with some steep learning curves but good decisions made will aid the business to be even more efficient in 2015.

Putting two in for one has restructured the tractors, as we have found it is more cost effective to hire in a second tractor for peak times when we require it with the horsepower we want for a particular job.

The replacement is a new John Deere 6215R that will be universal enough for a variety of tasks. It has the addition of a power boost up to 250hp, so with some added weight will allow it to lug the six-metre trailed drill, but with the weight dropped off will be a light enough tractor for spreading fertiliser with row crop wheels and other top work.

With efficiency in mind the move has been made to go up to 30m tramlines off 24m. Our Knight self-propelled crop sprayer was due for a change so it seemed an ideal time to do it. A new Knight was bought but within a few hours of use started to pull a lot of diesel into the engine oil. Knight was not able to offer me any satisfactory solution to this major problem. So with that in mind it went back on a lorry and was returned to the factory.

The hunt was on for a replacement, and we have since bought a Sam Vision. It is a very compact lightweight machine and hides its 4,000-litre capacity well. It is on large wheel motors and together with 200hp gives it plenty of torque for forward speed and braking.

With spring around the corner the attention will soon turn to fieldwork with the usual pressure of spraying and fertiliser spreading. We will also have a few small fields to re-drill after failed wheat that got plagued by slugs. The wheat was following oil seed rape and in my farming career I have never experienced them as bad as that. Going out with the quad bike armed with slug pellets was just like feeding stock! But be warned – no slug will escape my grip this autumn with my twin disc fanjet broadcaster mounted on the front of the sprayer!

To hopefully open up another avenue with our 13-tonne excavator we have bought and fitted a mechanical thumb to it. This allows it to handle timber safely by being able to use the bucket like a grab to handle trees, brash or stumps. It is an ideal tool that can be used to clear woodland if any felling has been done.

Tim Cooke is an arable farmer near Telford