REPORT: Having scaled back his contracting business 12 years ago to take a more relaxed approach to farming, Ceredigion contractor Geraint Jones found himself tooling-up last season after the contractor he was working with passed away suddenly. It was a case of go big, or go home.
Since scaling back his own 1,600 hectare contract silage operation in 2012, Geraint ‘Gog’ Jones found himself ploughing, lime spreading, hedge cutting, slurry and muck spreading, silage carting and buck raking, as an owner operator. It was a more relaxed pace, clamping 600ha of grass, and was one that came with little stress. But that 11-year hiatus from full-time contracting came to an abrupt halt at the start of the 2023 silage season, and Geraint was suddenly presented with a career-changing decision.
“Nothing is forever, and circumstances can change in an instant,” he says. “And when the contractor I was working with unfortunately passed away suddenly at the start of the 2023 silage season, I faced a choice – restart silaging as a whole or lose the buck raking and carting work that I had.
“None of us saw this coming, and it was very much a case of go big or go home,” he recalls. “And I found myself in immediate need of a self-propelled forager. I’d had Claas models in the past, so it was an obvious choice – but finding what you want at short notice, with a limited budget, isn’t easy.”
Based at Pantydderw, Nanternis in Ceredigion, Geraint’s then skeletal fleet of kit had been pared down to match his owner operator workload, though he suddenly found himself with a need for a lot more machinery. Not keen to tick too many boxes on borrowed money, he bought selectively. By searching classified adverts and dealer stock, he was able to find a 500hp, low houred Claas Jaguar 860 on narrow 650/75 R32 tyres that was for sale with Rickerby’s.
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