We recently visited Thomas Gilman and Adam Taylor from S M Gilman & Partners in Newport, Shropshire and spoke to them about their new and older model Fendt Tractors and New Fendt Tigo forage wagon.

The farm is around 700 acres, and is made up of dairy and beef cattle, as well as around 250 acres of wheat grown each year and sold off farm. Adam and Thomas explained that there are around 250 pedigree Friesian Holsteins milking on Lely robots. There is also a beef herd of 150. They also have space for some sheep to winter graze on turnips. Thomas and Adam do a bit of contracting too.

Grass and maize is grown for silage to feed their own livestock, as they are housed all year round.

The farm has recently bought a Fendt Tigo 65 VR forage wagon to help with the grass silage season, and as a trailer for the maize harvest. Thomas said, ‘now was the right time to buy one as we needed to replace the current old forage harvester and silage trailers, so we decided to try a chopper and trailer in one.’

Adam and Thomas were impressed with the speed at which the forage wagon works, reporting that it is lightweight and compact compared to other forage wagons of the same capacity. Adam added,

‘You know when you have a full load on board, but having the moveable bulkhead that compacts the grass, makes a big load with a smaller sized wagon compared to other wagons. Other forage wagons are at least 1m longer for the same capacity.’

Both Thomas and Adam agreed that using the Fendt Tigo forage wagon is a different way of working. Before they had it, they would use their large tractor for mowing for a day, and then the next day do the chopping. They would then use their other tractors with trailers to collect the grass.

Now, in contrast, they can mow and chop in one day, or the following day depending on the conditions. They both agreed that it was a learning curve this year, but by the last cut of silage grass they had it all worked out. Due to the recent purchase of a Fendt 720 and a Fendt 728, they can keep one tractor mowing all day and the other following behind with the Fendt Tigo. Thomas added,

‘If the grass is a bit wet and needs a bit of time, then the Tigo can hang on and the mower can slow down a bit. We can get on quickly with how well it chops, and with the optional extra of the fast unloading feature, we can get unloaded quickly too.’

Having the Fendt Tigo means that less tractors are needed during silage season, and this gives Thomas and Adam efficiency and time savings, as well as releasing other tractors to do the normal day-to-day work.

As well as the Fendt Tigo, Thomas and Adam have three Fendt tractors. They bought a Fendt 312 in 2016 that does yard work, including feeding throughout the year. Earlier this year, they traded in one of their Fendt 828 tractors for a new Fendt 720, and then during silage season they had a Fendt 728 on demo from TR Machinery, and decided to keep it, trading in their other Fendt 828.

The Fendt 728 came with some optional extras that Thomas and Adam would not usually have, but Adam, who mostly drives the Fendt 728 would not be without them now! The additional features include vario grip, an additional screen that can retract into the roof space, RTK guidance, spools and worklights.

The Fendt 720 is used for ploughing, mowing, hedgecutting and for work that does not need as much horsepower as the Fendt 728 has. The Fendt 728 is used for drilling, pulling the Fendt Tigo and other heavier work when more horsepower is needed. Both Adam and Thomas agreed that the new tractors are better suited to their needs. They found that the two Fendt 828 tractors they had were almost too big and clumsy. Adam added, ‘We changed to slightly smaller tractors for agility and manoeuvrability. They are big enough to do the heavy jobs, when more horsepower is needed, and small enough to be able to move around for smaller jobs across the farm.

Thomas and Adam also commented on the fuel efficiency of both the Fendt 720 and the Fendt 728 compared to the Fendt 828s they previously owned. They noticed straight away with the Fendt 720 and its 1000 eco system, they used 40% less fuel when they ran the slurry pump system from it. Similarly, when the farm used the Fendt 728 on demo, fuel efficiency as one of the main things they looked for when they used it alongside the Fendt Tigo they had already bought. They found that the Fendt 728 used 15 litres less diesel an hour. Adam said, ‘This 30% saving on fuel made a big difference compared to running the Fendt 828 on the same work.’

The farm has been customers of RVW Pugh, and now its sister company, TR machinery for around 20 years. They find the service great and were very surprised that Sam Johnson, one of TR Machinery’s engineers came to them one Sunday night to fix a bolt on the Fendt Tigo. Adam added, ‘We were in the middle of making silage and we called TR Machinery about the bolt, expecting someone to come to the farm first thing in the morning. However, Sam was there within 2 hours, and fixed it straight away!’ As a result of this they only had 2 ½ hours of downtime.

Thomas and Adam have big plans for the farm going forward. They are currently building a new shed for the calves, and moving the beef herd to the same site as the dairy herd, as they are currently in different locations. They would also like to expand the contracting side of their business with the Fendt Tigo, and Thomas said, ‘If we got busier with silage contracting we would definitely buy another Fendt Tigo to support this.’  

The support from sales people at TR Machinery has been great too, they have got to know a few people from the sales team over the years, and more recently Paul, Sales Support and Martyn, Sales Director through the demo Fendt 728 they had.