REPORT: After carefully considering equivalent machines from three manufacturers, Euston Farms in Suffolk opted for a new Claas Trion 750TT for the 2024 harvest. We visited during its first week to find out more about the criteria behind the decision and how the new machine was settling in.
Euston Farms is the in-house farming operation on the 4,250ha (10,500ac) Euston Estate. Located near Thetford, just on the Suffolk side of the Norfolk
border, the farm’s soils are predominantly light. Indeed around 65% is blowing Breckland sand, and the remaining 45% is clay loam. For many decades the cropping was centred around cereals and sugar beet, plus some maize and grass for a dairy herd, and a limited supply of irrigation water meant that vegetable growing was restrained to a small area rented out for carrots and potatoes. But the cows went in 2001, and the first reservoir was completed in 2006 allowing root vegetable production on a larger scale. In 2015 an AD plant was built on-farm by an outside company which created demand for energy crops. Additionally, due to the reduction in support payments the estate has sought to create more regular less weather dependent income which has seen carbon capturing Paulownia tree plantations established and a solar farm installed. All of this potentially reduced the combinable area, but due to tenanted farms being taken back in-hand when agreements came to their natural conclusion the area farmed in-house
has increased to 2,385ha and the combine’s workload remained relatively consistent.
Cropping this year consists of 670ha of winter wheat, 200ha of winter barley, 485ha rented out to grow potatoes, onions, carrots and parsnips, 405ha of AD maize, 200ha of sugar beet, 80ha of forage rye, 485ha of grass including parkland and meadows, and a considerable area of stewardship options
such as pollen and nectar mixes. Yield can be limited on the lighter land, so this is mitigated by growing breadmaking wheat and hybrid winter barley for seed to attract premiums. New Holland combines were used at Euston for many years, with a trio of Clayson 8070s replaced by three semi-rotary TF models in the mid-80s. But a pre-series Claas Commandor 228CS replaced a TF42 in 1989, and three became two in 1992 when a second 228CS replaced the remaining TF44 and TF46. The launch of the high-capacity Claas Lexion 480 increased efficiency and allowed further rationalisation, with a single machine replacing both Commandors in 1996.
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