Old farming dayz ,memorys.

Riding on the tool box of a Fordson "N" while mother drove it and father built the load of loose hay, loaded by the Bamford pitcher. 1949 or so, I would think.

My earliest memory is sitting on the wide mudguard of a standard Fordson watching Dad ploughing with a Ransomes Motrac trailer plough and thinking what a skilled job it was to do the whole field without reversing. Some of our fields were ridge and furrow which had to be retained throughout the rotation and one tapers from a long hedge at one end to a short one at the other. I still cannot work out how he ploughed that !

peewit said:

My earliest memory is sitting on the wide mudguard of a standard Fordson watching Dad ploughing with a Ransomes Motrac trailer plough and thinking what a skilled job it was to do the whole field without reversing. Some of our fields were ridge and furrow which had to be retained throughout the rotation and one tapers from a long hedge at one end to a short one at the other. I still cannot work out how he ploughed that !

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Carefully!

laying/sitting sleep infont of the seat of the 7710 4wd while da cut silage with a taruup doublechop. was falling asleep on the toolbox and I couldn't fall when on the floor lol.

Riding on a David Brown Cropmaster in its extra wide seat next to my mother as she turned hay with a Vicon siderake. I would have been under 5, as not at school yet. When I got older I was plonked on a blanket at the side of the field with some colouring in books and crayons and given strict instructions on pain of death not to move off the blanket. And being an obedient child I stayed put

Also being driven around in an old series 2 Landrover, piled to the gunnels with small bales of hay feeding cattle that were wintering out. And eventually being allowed to steer the LR in very low gear while Dad chucked hay off the back.

I also remember one day after my father had baled a field of hay, the neighbour came out with an old hay rake behind a tractor and proceeded to drive up and down the field collecting the wisps of unbaled hay into a few more swaths, which Dad baled for him. I was amazed how what looked like an empty field could produce more bales.

Observing seemingly every aspect of Dad and his lovely workman/apprentice putting up the cow kennels. I was about 3, and can remember the smell of the timbers, and the sound of the mixer. Can also remember walking through the fascinating grey goo that I later learned to call concrete

Swaying in the link box behind the MF35 and helping to see the sheep. I'd have been 5 by then. Riding back standing on the step, wedged between Dad and the back mudguard. There must have been a sheep in the link box.

The only thing to look forward to........the past.

Standing on the back of a trailer with dad spreading muck with a fork in the field. Happy times

Sitting on the top step of the massy 788 while dad was combining

Sliding down the bag shoot and ripping the arse out of my trousers (well shorts) I was about 4.

swedish red said:

Sitting on the top step of the massy 788 while dad was combining

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Used to sit on the tool box behind the seat.

le bon paysan said:

Used to sit on the tool box behind the seat.

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All that dust and itching from spring barley but I loved it

swedish red said:

All that dust and itching from spring barley but I loved it

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And when tall enough looking in the tank and watching the ladybirds.

riding on grandfathers grey trailer ....watching corn being bagged off.....heaps of ladybirds amongst the corn....all the sacks in lines in the 'big hut'......'big hut' full of ewes now and still got the grey trailer

are well first memories where being put in a old Oak barrel in the byre at milking time, it was so they could keep an eye on me yet not able to to mix with the cows for safety, must of been about 3 or 4 at the time, near the end of milking the barrel was pulled to the dairy, and watched the milk being tipped in the D can by mother, going down the old lister zigzag cooler into the churns below, father would be feeding the cows at this time, after breakfast he would take the churns down the loning to the milk stand, i used to enjoy riding in the trailer with the cans of milk, till 1 day while sitting on the side board over a bump and i fell out on me head, never been right since,

I can remember riding between dads legs on a B275 cutting hay, this was really good I loved it,and as we only made hay then, dad would cut, turn and bale in the afternoon while mother milked, so more time was spent in the barrel than I wanted,
we nearly had a disaster, dad had a b250 with a loader on it and a bale slave on the front, and used it to load bales on the trailer, mother was on the trailer stacking them in a hilly field, as they thought the best place and safest for me was sat on the B275 with the trailer on, I would be happy and mother could keep an eye on me, However I managed to kick the little gear stick out of gear, and off the tractor went, about 5 rounds of bales on the trailer with mother on top, she was shouting at dad, I knew something was wrong and started to cry, as the tractor moved faster and faster, dad jumped off the loader tractor and ran down the field, with one hand on the front hay rails and other on mudguard managed to jump on the drawbar, managed to steer the tractor around cross ways on the hillside and it stopped of a sudden, as the trailer overturned mother on the top of bales, dad grabbed me and took me to mother laying on the hay field among the bales , and if that was not enough as all three of us,me crying dad with a sore leg and mother laid in pain, the loader tractor passed us at a good turn of speed and ploughed into the hedge with lots of damage, mother was sore fore days, and dad had hurt his leg on the drawbar, I do have vivid memories of it, but was reminded about it for many times for years after, sometime reminded at times I did not want reminding as it was not cool when out in public in your teens lol

by the age of about 8 father used to put the tractor in gear slowly and let me drive in a grass field that had ewes in, he would get in the trailer and fork them out, 8 and driving thought I had made it, lol
we grew about 4 acre of spuds, and my job was driving the tractor and trailer for the swills to be emptied in to,
and can remember taking spuds on with tractor and trailer odd time on the road when I was 10,

some things never leave you, even in later life, the smell of the cow byre when you opened the door in the morning, and to this day the smell of new mown hay, the stars on a clear night, as dad and me crossed the yard to put extra happing on the spuds in the shed due to frost, the smell of the turnip heap, fresh cut kale fed to the cows, the other thing i remember is the ice on the inside of the bedroom windows on cold frosty mornings and bedding that was like a lead blanket with layers of patchwork quilts,

One of my earliest memories would be of Winter ploughing in the sixties .....riding beside Dad on a 1958 Fordson Major pulling a 3f Ransomes TS 59 shivering with the cold and bored to tears asking Dad "how many more rounds before we go home" .

I've still got the tractor and the plough .

The romance has gone out of farming . Or I'm to old to see it