This is a subscriber-only article
Sometimes, when you get something new, it makes you reminisce about how things were in the past.
Last week, I got a new meal bin and it made me think about the changes in meal deliveries during my time farming.
The furthest back that I can remember was my father growing his own corn and bruising it on-farm. This was only very small scale and it did not last very long.
We then moved on to buying our meal in 4st paper bags. These were delivered once a week in a lorry. All bags were manually lifted off the lorry, carried into a shed and built up in the corner. At the time, it seemed like a lot of meal, but in reality, it was only about 40 bags.
I can remember my father gathering up the paper bags and tying them together, and a guy would come and buy them from him. It was not a massive amount of money.
From what I recall, he used to try and sell them all just before Christmas. Looking back, he probably had a good reason for doing that.
Collect
Things started to move on, and we began to collect the meal rather than getting it delivered. Bags changed to plastic and then bulk bags. In the meantime, we had increased the size of the farm, so were using a lot more.
All winter, I would be watching for a few dry hours so that I could get to the meal store and back, without getting it wet. This was becoming a real drag and, about 17 years ago, I decided to buy a meal bin.
At the time, I thought that I would go for an 8t split bin, but after talking to some other farmers, I decided to go for a 10t version in case things got bigger.
It was a great addition to the farm and I started to wonder how I managed without it. And, of course, the farm expanded further, and even the 10t bin was not large enough. Instead of reverting back to bulk bags, I bought a couple of tubs to add to my options.
New shed
Four years ago, we built a new cattle house away from the main yard. At the time, we put in a base for a meal bin but, as with most projects, we overspent and the meal bin was put on the back burner.
Since then, there was always something else that seemed to be more important than a meal bin. We kept carting meal about in plastic tubs. It seemed as if there were bulk deliveries coming every week and we were always in danger of running out.
With more cattle on the farm, it was becoming harder to find the time to get through all the work, so I decided it was time to make the investment. I ordered the new bin at the end of June and it was delivered last week.
This time I went for a 12t split bin. It will probably turn out to be too small at some point in the future, but at the moment it is big enough and I am more than delighted to have it in place. On its own, it probably will not make me a lot of money, but it will save time and make the whole farming operation a little more straightforward.
In this very strange year, there has been very little to look forward to, but I was looking forward to this meal bin coming. When it arrived last week I had a very big smile on my face. I looked at the cattle house and thought to myself: “At last, it’s job done”.
SHARING OPTIONS: