The 3m Topper.
A three-metre flail topper for margins, paddocks and the parts of a field a combine is never going to see. £85 a day, machine only, collected from here.
The specification.
The machine
- Working width
- 2.98 mOffset 60 cm to the right, which matters near a hedge
- Tractor required
- 90 hp110 if the grass is heavy
- Linkage
- Three-point, category IIAnd a PTO at 540
- PTO
- 540 rpmNot 1000. It has been connected to 1000 twice
In work
- Cut height
- 40–200 mmAdjustable on skids, badly
- Flails
- Y-type, 96 of themAbout eight go missing a season
- Weight
- 860 kgLight enough for an old tractor
- Output, realistic
- 1.4–2 ha/hourSlower in anything approaching a crop
Figures are from the machine itself rather than from a brochure. Where the two disagree, the brochure is wrong.
What it fits.
A 90 hp tractor with category II linkage and a 540 PTO. The most widely usable machine here.
If you are not certain your tractor will do it, ring before you hitch up rather than after. We have had two people arrive with the wrong linkage category and one with no air brakes, and all three of those were avoidable phone calls.
Who has actually used it.
Named because a machine with a history is easier to trust than a machine with a specification. Where somebody broke something, it says so.
Six different smallholders
Mostly for paddocks and pony grazing
The parish council at a neighbouring village
For a churchyard, which we did not charge for
Lisa
On the wildflower ground, at the wrong time of year, once
What it is bad at. It is a topper, which means it is bad at everything except topping. It will not cut a hay crop, it leaves a mat that smothers grass if the material is heavy, and it throws stone with real enthusiasm. On this farm that last point is not a footnote — there is a windscreen in the yard with a flint-shaped hole in it, and the flint came off this machine.
When it is free.
Half days are two thirds of the day rate, because the loading, the walk round and the clean take the same time either way.
Tuesday8 September
Thursday10 September
Monday15 September
Pick a time and we will hold it for ten minutes. Hold that day
This is a demonstration build. Nothing here books anything, no deposit is taken and no card details are collected at any point. Prices are indicative and are published so the arithmetic can be argued with.
The terms, in four lines.
£85 a day
Machine only. No fuel, no operator.
Your insurance
Hired-in plant cover, shown before it leaves.
Owner keeps first call
If it is our weather, it comes home.
Back clean and full
Or it comes back with an invoice.
The other seven.
The 6m Tine Drill
Six metres of tine drill, bought in a fit of optimism in 2021 and used for about nine days a…
The Cambridge Rolls
Twelve point three metres of ring rolls. The cheapest thing to hire here and the one with the longest waiting…
The Bale Wrapper
A trailed round-bale wrapper. Nobody hires this because they want to. They hire it because the forecast changed.
The Post Knocker
A tractor-mounted post driver. The single most useful item on this list and the one most likely to hurt somebody.
The Subsoiler
A three-leg low-disturbance subsoiler. The most misused machine in British arable farming and we have misused it ourselves.
The 16t Grain Trailer
Sixteen tonnes, sprung drawbar, commercial axles and a working tarpaulin, which is rarer than it should be.
The Hedge Cutter
A six-and-a-half metre reach flail hedge cutter. Legally unusable for six months of the year, which is the most important…
Before you hire anything.
Insurance, briefings, and the two things we will not hire out at all.
