Farmer Stories

Nothing else comes close to the Quadtrac

06 Sep 2018

Edd Banks runs Manor Farm, Harlton in partnership with his mother and father. The 3000-acre enterprise is primarily dedicated to cereal production and sugar beet, with the straw produced fuelling a biomass plant that heats all buildings onsite including a Wedding Barn run by Edd’s wife, Paula. The farm currently employs one full-time member of staff, a Harper Adams placement student all-year-round, as well as four further students during the summer months. Machinery-wise, Manor Farm is home to a Case IH Axial Flow 9120 with 35-foot header, a Quadtrac 500, a Puma 240 CVX and a Puma 140, with a further two Puma 165 CVX machines rented this summer for harvest.

“We have had a Case IH combine since 1994 but didn’t move to red tractors until 2007,” says Edd. “We bought our first Quadtrac then, a 380, and ended up buying a Magnum 310 and an MXU 135 at the same time as we got a good fleet deal. We have continued with Case IH machines and stuck to the Quadtrac ever since, purchasing the 500 model new two years ago.

“When we first got the Quadtrac, it revolutionised our whole system. The new 500 is the perfect size for our 6m top down, 8m rapid drill and 6m subsoiler – and to drill wheat with it is a joy,” he adds. “We can cover 200 acres on a slow day and up to 350 on a good day, and with the accuracy of RTK GPS autosteer it really is the right machine for the job. Unless we dramatically change our cultivation techniques or farm size I see no reason to move away from the Quadtrac; we’ve looked at other makes but, at the moment, nothing else comes close.”

At harvest time, the Puma 240 can be found operating a square baler and the Puma 140 spends the summer hauling straw with a Heath Super Chaser. “The 240 has full RTK Trimble GPS which we swapped over from the previous Puma but, in hindsight, perhaps we should have gone for the Case IH system with a RTK Farming Ltd signal,” muses Edd.” As for the combine, we bought it in 2009 so it’s probably due for a change but it’s still going strong and I think we’ll keep it going for a bit longer yet!”