Ed Musson moved to Bardarroch Farm in 2004, within a year he had bought his first hedge cutter and started contracting in the Ayrshire area. Ed now runs Musson Contracting Ltd, a company he started with his wife, Jennifer in August of 2014.
Based in Ochiltree, Cumnock the Mussons slowly turned the former 200-acre Ayrshire dairy into a fully-fledged base for machinery contracting complete with a fleet of John Deere Tractors.
“We started out doing small jobs like hedge cutting and ploughing. Then in 2009 got the opportunity to buy a bulk fertiliser hauling and spreading contract through Origin fertilisers. The price of fertiliser in the last couple of years did start to make it a less justifiable option to the farmer and so pricing our contracts became more of an issue. That’s when I moved more into more organic methods like manure and slurry.”
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Ed then got the opportunity to take over a silage round from a retiring contractor. This involved purchasing a few key pieces of grass machinery and all his slurry spreading kit.
“In my first year, I started with a few grass customers which has slowly expanded as the years progressed. We then had the opportunity to chop rye for a local digester. It was unsuccessful the first year as it was hard to get the chop quality they required. The following season we upgraded to a Krone Big X 1100, it is a bigger forager which has a faster drum speed and gives us the right level of chop quality. We now chop 900 to 1000 acres of Rye and whole crop and approximately 6000 acres of grass to which I haven’t had any complaints of chop quality.”
“We started slurry in 2014, we had to work away at it but jobs soon came through word of mouth.”
Ed predominately operates using systems from Northern Irish brand SlurryKat which he sources through local dealers S & J Allan in Tarbolton. This is also where Ed has been able to purchase a lot of his John Deere tractors.
Ed uses the 6R 155 model of John Deere for his tractors and he currently keeps them for five years before replacing them.
“We found that five years worked for us when balancing running cost and wear and tear but the cost have risen significantly in the last two years so I think I would be looking to run it down to three years.”
In terms of slurry kit Musson Contracting favour dribble bars over splash plates.
“We used to use splash plates but now with the legislation alongside the efficiency you get from dribble bars that is what we tend to use for slurry. Splash plates are cheaper to run but they are slower, messier and more wasteful.”
As of January this year, the Scottish Government banned the use of high trajectory splash plate slurry spreading by contractors on farms with high stock numbers with a further ban on low trajectory splash plates by 2027. The focus is on implementing more precise methods of spreading with dribble bar and trailing shoe applicators leading the way.
Ed uses a 12 metre and 10 metre duo dribble bar piping system complete with flow meters for the accuracy of the application. This combined with the Greenstar GPS from John Deere ensures no overlapping. He also has a tanker mounted 9 metre farmline dribble bar from SlurryKat. He uses two SlurryKat DODA HD35 pumps for its high flow rates and efficiency.
He originally started out with only one tanker but was able to buy another from the same contractor who sold him the silage equipment and all the slurry tankers have now been upgraded to the SlurryKat brand.
For spreading fields further away from the store, Ed uses DCI Arms and L27 umbilical pumps on all the tankers. Two are 3500g double axle and one 2700g with a single axle.
“It is a pricier spec of tanker but it eliminates the need for one extra tractor with a dump station.”
Ed used to hire dung spreaders but has since bought a second-hand rear discharge spreader to add to his collection. The spreader is a Bunning Lowland 105 Compact, it can hold 10 tonnes, has 12.9 cubic capacity and is used on lowland silage and stubble ground.
He likes to use a mix of hen pen and liquid digestate on his own second cut silage with the first cut getting fertiliser. He currently grows silage, spring wheat and winter barley.
Contracting is his main source of income though and Ed has found the former dairy farm a good place to run his business out of. With increasing acres and tighter weather windows, Ed now operates two Krone foragers throughout the silage season.
“Since we don’t really house the same amount of livestock, the steadings now act as my workshops and I am able to house more machinery.”
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Ed uses his workshop to help carry out servicing and general maintenance on his machinery to keep costs down.
“I quite like the mechanical side of the business and I try and do all my own maintenance if I can to keep costs down. What I can repair myself, I will.”
Bardarroch farm isn’t totally free of livestock with Ed taking in cows for bed and breakfast throughout the winter months.
“I never been much of a livestock man, to be honest, my dad was a pedigree Holstein breeder down in Gloucester but I’d much rather be looking after tractors.”
Musson Contracting currently employs three full-time and two part-time staff members with the hope to hire some more staff in the new year but Ed recalls the hiring process.
“It is really hard finding people with the right skill set and attitude. You think it is just sitting in a tractor but you need folk to understand the process and have the right work ethic, shifts vary you don’t just clock out at five and call it a day sometimes you need to be there early in the morning or late at night and a lot of people just don’t want to do that. Not to mention when you are working with very expensive equipment you need to trust that they know what they are doing as there is so little room for error.”
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The team currently consists of Ed Musson, Robbie Watson, Andrew Craig and Jamie Crosthwaite with Ed’s wife, Jennifer who keeps the office and accounts in order in between her work as a local primary school teacher.
Farm Facts
How many years have you been contracting?
• Coming up to 20 years from when I started in 2004.
What range of contracting work do you carry out?
• We are agricultural contractors and so carry out ploughing and hedge-cutting but specialise mostly in slurry and silage.
Number of employees?
• 3 full-time employees and during busier times of the year seasonal staff is required.
Acreage?
• 200 acres altogether on farm, including 20 acres of winter barley which is combined, plus 20 acres of spring wheat which is produced into wholecrop, then sold to a neighbouring dairy farm.
Number of cows?
• We offer a B&B system for housing cattle during winter months and currently have 100 dairy youngstock.
On the Spot
Best advice for someone wishing to start contracting?
• Start small but don’t undercharge and don’t be afraid to ask an established contractor for help to get your name out.
Your favourite job within your role?
• I enjoy all aspects, for during winter you can stop once the sun goes down allowing a better work-life balance and a little less stress, however the busiest times like silage season or slurry are incomparable and being able to work within your team.
4 items you recommend carrying in the tractor toolbox?
• In this order…1. Hammer, 2. Grease gun, 3. A good set of spanners, 4. A great deal of patience!
Tractor manufacturer of choice and why?
• Personally, for me, it’s John Deere, I find them reliable, good build quality and they hold value.
Favourite tractor cleaning product?
• ‘Autoglym’ – we purchase this for use externally on the tractors and can go through our steam cleaner, it’s nice supporting an independent retailer and just a simple text when we need more products is convenient. Most of our lads use ‘Chrome’ to keep the interiors of the tractors tidy.
Who do you recommend for parts when carrying out in-house servicing/maintenance?
• Most tractor parts/oil for servicing we get from S & J Allan Agricultural Engineers, Ayr. As for wearing parts for ploughs and power harrows, we get supplies from Pan Anglia.
What position do you see yourself in 2033?
• Hopefully still married! Mostly I want to still be serving customers as best as I can, I don’t have huge plans, but they do say ‘never say never’, staffing may be the only holdback.
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