TractorsThe role of machinery in managing agri­cul­tural risk

Risk, in any busi­ness, is hard to manage and miti­gate, but espe­cially hard in the complex, volatile world of farming, food produc­tion and envi­ron­mental enhance­ment. For Robbie Dennis, who farms at Stans­field in Suffolk, risk can encom­pass many things; inputs, crop values, labour, machinery, poli­tics, and many other vari­ables which change from season to season.

To put his busi­ness, H E Dennis, in the best possible posi­tion, he tries to deal in certainty wher­ever he can, be that the contracts he signs to grow milling wheat and specific oilseed rape vari­eties, or the purchase of a John Deere 7R 310 which arrived on farm during the spring.

H E Dennis & Son, near Sudbury in East Anglia, is made up of just over 1,000 hectares which has been worked by the Dennis family for the past century. Of that land, about 400ha is owned with the remaining 650ha contract farmed for neigh­bouring landowners.

Flex­ible crop rota­tion

“Our rota­tion is flex­ible but is typi­cally wheat, spring barley, winter barley, oilseed rape, wheat, and then either sugar beet or beans. We have also recently intro­duced spring oats into the rota­tion as an alter­na­tive break crop,” says Robbie.

The rota­tion is diverse, but some crops can pose chal­lenges. “It’s defi­nitely become harder to grow oilseed rape,” says Robbie. “We’ve stuck with it but adapted our target yields – if we manage three tonnes per hectare, we’re doing alright. Agro­nom­i­cally it is a good break crop for us and has the poten­tial to provide decent returns.”

“We have some quite high-value contracts at the moment – we’re growing some High Erucic Acid Rape­seed (HEAR) that is paying quite a lot over the market and still making it worth­while. It’s about managing risk and reward.

“We’ll review every year because at some point we might decide that it’s best we don’t grow it anymore. We’ve brought in other break crops to try and lessen the blow and manage crop­ping risk.”

The busi­ness relies heavily on skilled, reli­able labour in the form of Dan Guiry who carries out most oper­a­tions for the contracting busi­ness.

Dan spends most of his time in the 7R 310 which was selected for its versa­tility, power and comfort. It replaced a previous 7R which had more than 6,000 hours on the clock. The new machine has done 230 hours since February.

High comfort for satis­fied drivers

“Oper­ator satis­fac­tion is the big thing as to why we’ve always used John Deere machines,” says Robbie. “Espe­cially when it comes to comfort which means that Dan is happier on the tractor and does a better job.

“If you give someone the best tools and working condi­tions, they are more likely to take pride in their work and do the best job possible. We certainly see that with Dan who is excep­tional at what he does.
“Reli­a­bility, resale value and cost of owner­ship also comes into it – if you get a really good resale value it makes cost of owner­ship not too bad.”

Dan has been working for Robbie for nine years. Along­side the 7R the farm’s fleet includes a 2021 6250R with around 3,000 hours on the clock. “The 7R does all the primary culti­va­tions and the majority of the drilling, but it’s a fairly universal machine and I can use it for almost anything I need,” says Dan.

“Both trac­tors have the power to do pretty much every job because we have a range of six-metre imple­ments that either machine can pull.”

One of the standout features of the 7R is the Reac­tive Steering system – a new premium auto­mo­tive-style option that auto­mat­i­cally recen­tres the steering wheel when turning corners. It allows oper­a­tors to enjoy excep­tion­ally comfort­able and precise line-holding on the road and expe­ri­ence effort­less steering.

“With the reac­tive steering it makes the tractor drive almost like a car,” Dan says. “It couldn’t be nicer out on the road, it’s comfy.

Spacious cab and easy oper­a­tion

“Normally the steering wheel doesn’t recentre the tractor, and at high speed on the road you’ve usually got to keep it in a straight line and keep it on the road, whereas now the steering does that for you.

“It takes some getting used to, but it defi­nitely makes driving the machine so much better.” The comfort in the 7R also impresses Dan, as well as the displays inside the cab.

“The 7R is a nice place to spend the day in,” says Dan. “It has a big cab and it’s got every­thing in it that you might want. The corner post display and the extended gen4 monitor are so handy, I always think of them like a smart­phone – they’re just simple to use and every­thing is set how I need it.”

Robbie sees the bene­fits of getting involved in a number of stew­ard­ship schemes to further help manage his busi­ness with certainty. He orig­i­nally had a Higher-Level Stew­ard­ship (HLS) agree­ment before going into a Coun­try­side Stew­ard­ship Agree­ment a couple of years ago, which he says is going quite well. Robbie is now begin­ning to intro­duce some further Sustain­able Farming Incen­tive options on top of these existing stew­ard­ships.

“With stew­ard­ship we can look at each year and see what works in terms of inte­grating into the rota­tion, but also what helps in terms of prac­tical use on the farm,” Robbie says.

“But some of these options mean that you can end up creating more work for your­self if you’re not careful, but we see them as a very impor­tant part of the farm going forwards. You have to look at every­thing and decide what works for you and what doesn’t, and we are doing that with the SFI.”
Machinery and tech­nology play their part in supporting the oper­a­tion.

“The John Deere trac­tors are great machine,” says Robbie. “I drive the 6250R a lot and that is a real all-rounder. It was a delib­erate choice to purchase multi-purposed trac­tors that can do all oper­a­tions. “I think that helps with our flex­i­bility, helps with time­li­ness, and allows us to be on multiple farms at once when you’re farming for different clients.”

Preci­sion agri­cul­ture with high bene­fits

Robbie and Dan see them­selves as advo­cates of agri­cul­tural tech­nology and the evolu­tion of preci­sion farming, and with both impressed with features such as the Oper­a­tions Center with Starfire receiver. Auto­Trac guid­ance is used, and vari­able rate appli­ca­tions are deployed wher­ever possible.

“I can see that all this tech­nology is adding benefit to what we do. I’m not someone who just charges in and uses stuff for the sake of it,” says Robbie. “I’m really keen to try things and see if I can see a defi­nite benefit from some­thing, then adopting it and inte­grating it where I can.

I’m really keen to try things and see if I can see a defi­nite benefit from some­thing.

Robbie Dennis

“I look at all the infor­ma­tion being fed back to the Oper­a­tions Center, partic­u­larly fuel use and idle times to get a feel for how effi­cient we are being. It’s also useful to be able to know where Dan is at any point using the GPS locator as we work across a large area. At harvest I use it to see where the grain trailers are to opti­mise the routes we take on the road and keeping up with the combine.”

H E Dennis is looked after by the Ben Burgess depot at Newmarket, which is about 20 miles from the farm. “We have a good, long-standing rela­tion­ship with our dealer, and parts and servicing has always been carried out there on these machines. The 7R was a stock tractor when we chose it. I asked for a price and bench­marked it against other options and it was compet­i­tive so we know we are getting a fair price.”

With the changes that are affecting farming both for better and for worse, every­thing that Robbie does is down to oper­ating with certainty and finding every avenue to try and grow and better his busi­ness.

“It’s all about managing risk,” says Robbie. “Managing risk doesn’t mean elim­i­nating risk, it just means having a sensible approach.

“You’ve got to try and keep control where you can, but there’s a lot of vari­ables in farming that are outside your control. You’ve got to learn to live with it and just try to manage it as best you can.”