only had up to 35 cows here finnished milking in 98
how many is a few ?
I remember the time when...
- Thread starter Landless Gentry
- Start date
- Location
- East Essexshire
There used to be a very tall chimney over Southend way that gave me straight lines parallel to the headland on three separate grass fields for mowing.
Then they blew it up a couple of summers ago
- Location
- South Wales UK
Who wanted gps, auto steer, myriad of screens and gadgets in cabs when you had good markers in the landscapes
DeeGee
Member
- Location
- North East Wales
Bagger combines when hundredweight hessian sacks were filled and tied on a platform that was roughly three or four foot (a metre) off floor level.
For some reason instead of them being directly transferred across onto a trailer from the bagging platform they were invariably slid down a chute to be left in supine recumbence upon the stubble, often partly concealed by a straw swath. They then had to be searched for, and if and when found had to be physically lifted onto a tractor drawn trailer.
Seemed like a lot of unnecessary hard work, when if a trailer had been parked at headlands the sacks could have easily been moved across to such with very little effort.
Do people think I should perhaps patent this brilliant idea and possibly retire on the royalties generated from such inventive genius?
For some reason instead of them being directly transferred across onto a trailer from the bagging platform they were invariably slid down a chute to be left in supine recumbence upon the stubble, often partly concealed by a straw swath. They then had to be searched for, and if and when found had to be physically lifted onto a tractor drawn trailer.
Seemed like a lot of unnecessary hard work, when if a trailer had been parked at headlands the sacks could have easily been moved across to such with very little effort.
Do people think I should perhaps patent this brilliant idea and possibly retire on the royalties generated from such inventive genius?
Old boy that farmed our place back in the 70s, milked (so I'm told) 18 cows and lugged the churns up the lane in a transport box. The old "four cow" House still has the mangers, stalls and vacumn line. The wooden stand that was up the lane when I was a boy is long gone.
We found this when we bought the place..
he sent 1582 gal in April 1961 wonder what sort of money he'd have had..
We found this when we bought the place..
I May as well give this beauty an airing, While I've got the box of memorabilia out
100 cigarettes
Tha Ulsterscot
Member
- Location
- Greyabbey Co. Down.
I went to Ag. college in the 1970's here in N.I. , when the "troubles" were at their height. We used a rope banger in class one day which was hung down between a double radiator with a fuse attached. It went off with a noise like a massive bomb, which resulted in the whole place being evacuated, much to our amusement. It was only after that all hell broke loose, when the principal found out what we had done.All the farmers' sons used to take rope crow bangers to school and use the bangers for different purposes. Dad actively encouraged it as he thought it showed initiative, and kept us away from drugs, drink, girls, etc.
A favourite trick by the less savoury characters was to tape some together, drop them in a plastic dustbin with a short delay and wedge a lad into the bin bottom first. The idea was to create a human cannonball. They used to make it more interesting by balancing the bin on the edge of the bridge over the mill stream.
Not being in the violent crowd, my bangers were used for more scientific experiments such as launching drainpipes into space and blowing holes in the wall. On one occaission, a banger was smouldering nicely in a hole in the brick wall when the school padre came past and stopped for a chat. We all prayed silently and sure enough, the fuse went out. Eventually the whole school was hauled up and we were told that any more explosions would result in a huge explosion from the head, so it fizzled out.
On our last day, dad gave me a load of ropes and advised me to hang them down the school drain gratings for the benefit of the live-in teachers and boarders. As I went home early, I never knew if it worked or not.
kfpben
Member
- Location
- Mid Hampshire
I was in the US a couple of years ago and we stopped at a petrol station that was selling tickets for the village raffle.I May as well give this beauty an airing, While I've got the box of memorabilia out
View attachment 788010 100 cigarettes
The star prize was a semi-automatic assault rifle!
Av Gorritt
Member
- Location
- NE Ches / SE Lancs
I was on a tour of the "Deep South " some time back , and the tour guide had a collection of cd s that were appropriate to the State we were travelling in , which she played on the coach PA system . One of them was the " off to Lucyanna for to see my Susyanna" one quoted above, and yes , another was
" South Carolina's a sultry clime ,
where we used to work in the Summer time
Massa neath the shade would lay ,
While we poor n----rs toiled away "
Perhaps we weren't quite as sensitive then - at any rate nobody complained .
I do remember singing both of the above song in singing lessons when I was in primary school , but of course that was a very long time back - long before PC was thought of . In fact there was only one non- white person in our town at the time , and he was a lightly coloured Spaniard ,with a gold ring in one ear , long before fellas had ear rings, locally known as Mig-u-el , so I suppose he didn't count .
- Location
- Northumberland
Bagger combine shoots were great for sliding down as a five year old kid! My uncle and cousin had a David Brown Albion trailer 5 foot cut one,pulled by a red DB 950,and used to come across and cut our corn,all 30 acres of it. It was always stored undercover,and the outfit would have been a sight to behold now.Sadly,my cousin sold it for scrap in the 80s
We used to buy our cow cake from Bibby,and the Barley went in the 112lbs hessian bags,while the Oats went in the 140lbs ones(10 stone of cake in them in old money) Then picked up onto the old low level trailer bogie,back to the farmyard and up into the granary,one bag at a time on the Lister elevator.
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Roy_H
Member
The MF 19 was the muck spreader that expanded my vocabulary. We had 2 of the hateful things!
Campbell
Member
- Location
- Herefordshire
Living in Ellesmere, @silverfox, I can remember the 'wake up' sound of clanking milk churns from the United Dairy's plant. Loads of folks worked there in the day..
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Exfarmer
Member
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
The best I can find is about 2/6d (30p )a gallon in the late forties.
This would vary slightly by butterfat, seasonal loading and whereabouts in the country.
So about £197/50/00
Roy_H
Member
I don't suppose The H.S.E. would allow anyone to lug 10 gallon milk churns these days. Look how cement bags have 'shrunk' over the years!
Three Dairys within 10 miles of each other, Ellesmere, Whittington and Ruyton x1 towns. All gone, they lug it miles now.
primmiemoo
Member
- Location
- Devon
They weren't so much lugged as spun into place by the lids, iirc. I've had a go with water filled churns taken from the spring to a temporary trough places using the link box, and was surprised by how easy they were to manoeuvre.
Exfarmer
Member
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
They would still have to be lifted on to the stand , which was rarely the height of the lorry. once on the lorry sometimes they would carry a few extra on top which again was a straight lift.
A steel churn would weigh 30lbs. so with 10 gallons was 130 and if we were short of churns and we had filled to the 11 gallon mark 140lbs.
imagine turning up at a farm with 40 odd of those to lug about every day
We would always give the driver a hand if anyone was about but that was not the case always.
These guys did it every day and as I posted somewhere else, when we went bulk our churn driver stayed on the churns, as he fancied a lady dairy farmer down the road with about 5 cows
Ramrod
Member
- Location
- Skendleby Psalter, Lincolnshire
cwt bags?? think you will find 12st minimum, mainly Firmin bags. Peas were 16st.
Combining then was so slow, thought better to dump bags in heaps of maybe 3-5, than stop to unload. Hard graft didn't matter then, keep the wheels turning.
For some reason the name of the man that collected the churns, sticks in my mind.
Joe Guest. The dairy employed a lot of lads from our village
- Tags
- agronomist docks roots varieties