Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2010 | Page 79

country life

Island Life - October/November 2010

Photo: Class Jaguar 890 Forage Harvester, chops grass, maize and wholecrop wheat

Bun keeps pace with the
ever-changing times
Having been an integral part of the Island

idle for up to 10 months of the year. That

farming community for more than 30 years,

is where Bun and his dedicated team come

you would imagine there is very little that

in, providing a variety of services from

would surprise Bun Symes about the industry

harvesting to spraying and muck spreading to

any more.

hedge cutting.

But Bun openly admits that sometimes

Bun is able to offer all agricultural

even he finds it difficult to comprehend the

contracting needs, and reckons: “No job is

incredible advances in farming machinery and

too small.” He backs up that statement by

equipment he has seen, particularly over the

pointing out: : “I used to have a very slow

last decade.

old Czechoslovakian tractor called a Zetor,

He set up Symes Brothers in 1976 from

and I remember taking it all the way to

his farm off Stag Lane, Newport, with his

Freshwater on the back of a low loader to

brother Nick. At the time his total stock

do about one and a half acres. It took me

comprised little more than a couple of

longer to load and unload than it did to do

two-wheel drive tractors and a small combine

the field.

harvester.
So no wonder he marvels at the machinery

“I don’t think a job has ever beaten us
although we have had a few mishaps. We

now in his possession or available to him –

have turned over tractors and combines on

the likes of a Claas combine that steers itself,

really steep ground. That was down to the

and a GPS-controlled crop sprayer. But it is

fact that back in the late 1970s and early

not only the quality of equipment that has

1980s people were growing corn where really

risen. Inevitably, the costs have escalated to

they shouldn’t have been growing it.

the same degree.
Hence, many Island farmers find it unviable

“We were being asked to combine fields
which were basically too steep, so mishaps

to splash out many thousands of pounds

were aplenty in those days, but not so much

on a piece of machinery that might stand

these days – thank goodness!”

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