# 16. Farming 1995 - 2015

On Sheriffs Court Farm, with the sprayer being upgraded to one with 24 metre wide booms meant that the fertilizer spreader also had to be replaced with one that could cover 24 metres. Out went the boom spreader. In its place came a 'Lely Centre Liner'. This machine had two spinning discs with upright fins on them. Powered by the 'Power Take Off' (PTO). This machine could throw fertilizer 48 metres. The hopper holding 2 tonnes of fertilizer.

This machine was also equipped with a small hydraulic ram on one side. In the 1990's more and more concern was aired of the amount of nitrates being found in our fresh water systems. When going round the outside of a field  this machine was capable of throwing fertilizer way over any surrounding dykes or streams. To combat this, when going round the outside of a field you could tilt the whole machine, directing the fertilizer down to the edge of the field. A later machine we had, had a hydraulic ram that dropped a deflector plate next to the outside spinner which would do the same thing.

A health scare which some groups tried to promote in the 1990's was that the nitrates in the water was a cause of stomach cancer until it was pointed out that farm workers, one of the healthiest lifestyles in the world, had no high signs of them suffering from this cancer.

All fertilizer is delivered during the winter months and stored in designated barns. It was delivered in 500 kilo waterproof bags. In the early 2000's it was delivered in 600 kilo bags. The reason for this increase in size was so that the hauliers that transported the fertilizer could load their trailers to their full capacity. It did not help us on the farm one bit. I could now only empty 3 bags into the Lely spreader (our next spreader had a bigger hopper). On more than one occasion this led to confusion as to how much we had used or how much we had left in the barn.

At the end of this period many farms went from 24 metre to 36 metre wide sprayers. These big self-propelled machines with 3000 litre capacities and if supplied with water in the field can cover several hundred hectares a day. Most mounted fertilizer spreaders cannot throw the material that distance accurately. These farms now use liquid fertilizer.  The big sprayers you see in the fields from March to May may not always be applying chemicals.

*Terry Marsh*

Originally published in the Monkton News (December 2025).