November and December each year is dedicated to lifting carrots.

Contractor's passion is doing a good job

LINCOLNSHIRE contractor Philip Baumber may have been in the business for more than 20 years, but he remains enthusiastic about farming and is still looking for opportunities to expand. Like many of his contemporaries, he started with small niche services, but has been able to move into contract farming and a successful carrot-growing operation.
Philip grew up on the family farm at Scopwick, a few miles south of Lincoln, and got involved in contracting as soon as he graduated - with a Higher National Certificate in Agricultural Engineering - from the Lincolnshire College of Agriculture's Caythorpe campus in 1985.
While he began by working in partnership with another contractor, offering hedge cutting, baling and sugarbeet lifting services, in 1991 Philip branched out on his own and continued the same kind of work.
"For the about the first 10 years all I did was hedge cutting and beet drilling," he told Farmers Guide. "The hedge cutting was a useful niche at the time because no-one else wanted to do it, and this part of the business expanded to the point where I had three hedge cutters on the go."
Hedge cutting remains a part of the business today, although much less important.
"When the environmental schemes started we lost half our work overnight," Philip said. "And then, when we did go back to the farms, we needed much heavier machines to handle the extra growth we were expected to deal with."

Philip Baumber has been involved in contracting since he left college in 1985.

The shape of the business changed completely in 1997, with Philip taking over the family farm when his father retired.
"The home farm was just 150 acres so it was a natural progression to take on more land," Philip said. "A chat with an existing customer resulted in me taking on my first whole-farm contract in 1999. It was only a small farm to start with, but it was important in getting the business established."
The extra land meant that Philip could afford to run bigger kit than the home farm could justify, although he was careful not to get carried away.
"We have never been the biggest or flashiest of contractors, but we do pay attention to detail," he said. "We used to buy a lot of secondhand equipment and mend or modify when necessary, although now we tend to buy new and take care of what operate. In the past you could buy machines that had been well cared and were good for a few years' more work, but now everyone seems to be getting every last bit of work out of a machine before they sell it, and more often than not it would be more trouble than it's worth."
That's not to say that everything in the Baumber fleet is bang up to date. A new John Deere tractor is one recent addition, but the firm also relies on a fleet of reliable Ford and New Holland models.
"I like to get 10,000 hours from a tractor if I can," Philip said, "and the blue tractors have proved more than up to the job."
The whole-farm contracting work means that the business runs a JCB Fastrac with a demountable sprayer, and it also has a John Deere combine. Bailey trailers and a Bunning muck spreader - which is hired out - also figure in the fleet.
"I like working with these family firms as the service is so much better," Philip said.
In 2001 Philip started growing carrots on a field scale and this remains an important part of the business today. Although he won't say exactly how many hectares he now grows, November and December is almost exclusively dedicated to harvesting them using a converted Grimme potato lifter.
"I rent the land and carry out all the work to establish, grow and harvest the carrots," he said. "They're all grown under contract with prices set in advance, although with this year's diesel and fertiliser price increases it's going to be difficult to fix prices for next year's crop."
At this time of year, Philip's team is at its largest with one full-time, one part-time and a self-employed worker, as well as his own labour.
"The frightening thing is that I'm the youngest member of the team," he said. "I've got a good balance of labour and I can keep them busy and the customers happy, but I don't know where my staff are going to come from in the future."
And it's the same story with customers.
"I can't think of a single customer who's younger than me," Philip said. "There's just no new blood coming into the industry.
"Unfortunately, when my customers retire their farms tend to be absorbed into big units that don't use contractors. In fact some of them are buying bigger kit than they need in the hope they can take on some contracting work themselves, but thankfully it's not as easy as that."
Looking to the future, Philip is still looking to grow his whole-farm contracting business, and he's also on the lookout for more land for growing carrots. On the machinery side, meanwhile, he has recently added a 13t, 360-degree excavator that is available for hire.
"I'm happy to say that I've got an experienced team that shares my passion for doing a good job," Philip said. "Whatever work we do, we're always prepared and carry a good stock of spares and even repair our own punctures.
"As the distance to dealers gets ever greater, and the weather more unreliable, it's important to do everything we can to get the job done in a timely manner and keep downtime to a minimum."