Welcome to our Spring 2024 Paddock Maintenance Newsletter. 

With another extremely wet and challenging few months hopefully behind us, it's time to look forward and plan. 
Thank you again for your patience, and putting faith in our work methods, and equipment, to allow us to carry on as best as possible without making a mess, to get as much done as possible to fulfil your requirements. 
It is clear that the requirement for ditch maintenance, drainage installation and moleing may well pay dividends on your land in the future, as well as looking at soil structure and compaction. 

What's new?

We have made the hard decision to sell our first, and oldest tractor. It has served us well but we felt we just didn't need it anymore, and Dan can only drive one thing at a time! We felt it would be better to use the money to update the sprayer to a larger, up-to-date machine, to keep up with demand, and what seems to be smaller spray windows relating to weather conditions. 
We have also invested in a front loader with Pallet forks, a bucket and a muck grab, (we cannot offer muck removal off site due to logistics). Another string to the bow to assist in day-to-day requirements. 

***Important***

Last month Dan attended an annual spray operators' course to keep up to date with his points, and current affairs surrounding Plant Protection Products (PPP's), and environmental points of interest. 
There was a subject surrounding an enforcement policy headed by DEFRA and the HSE, to who we had to register with last year as a company that works with PPP's. We were advised that if you have a holding number for any form of agriculture, horticulture or amenity, and if you, or we, apply PPP's on that land you are advised to be registered if you are not already. 
It is nothing to worry about, it's mainly for record keeping in the unlikely event you are visited by a pesticide enforcement officer, and I'm told you are less likely to be visited if you are registered. 

Spring 2024

Finally, some good news! Our labour rates will not be increasing at this time, in fact, there are some small price deductions since the seed and fertiliser markets have started to fall. 
Chemical and fertiliser are still fluctuating so we can only base today's figures on what we have available to us at this time. Moving forward, as hedge-cutting season is drawing to a close, it's time to be thinking about the following maintenance measures:

• Moss Control spraying (large lawns and paddocks)
• Scarifying (large lawns and paddocks)
• Harrowing 
• Rolling 
• Over-seeding 
• Aeration 
• Fertilising 
• Spraying
• Cut & Collect Flail