I remember the time when...

jimred

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pennines
Uncle smoking a pipe as he milked in the byre. Watching him tuck a kitten on to a cluster to help a slow milker. The kitten sat there warm and snug, pulsating slowly.
Him accurately squirting the foremilk from each cow at the bowl next to a group of cats in the dung passage. Cell counts had not been invented.
We were high tech. Had an old treacle tin filled with stones and sawdust to put on the cluster.
 

jimred

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Pennines
I remember the days when nearly every farm around here had an Irish man working and living on the farm. Living quarters was a shed you'd be shamed for putting a dog in these days. Not one of those men could stand up straight.
Different times and damned glad of that!
Used to bid for them in ring at Skipton Market. I only remember having one for hay time when we were still carting loose hay. He used to sleep in barn.
 

dowcow

Member
Location
Lancashire
I heard most decent sized farms around here had a bit of a loft in the barn, or a shed somewhere for the Irish labourers that travelled around and were only there for planting or harvest. Conditions were rough, but things were rough for a lot of people back then. In in the large farmhouse there would be frost on top of the bedcovers some mornings, allegedly.

Also, regarding the milk churns. I have heard several times that some people on having their milk rejected for poor keeping quality, would add a splash of hyper-chlorite to the stuff and send it back, and it wouldn't be rejected that time.

I've also heard of a local farmer in the past who used to sell silo. I'm imagining by the 3 ton trailer load because the story was that he used to fill the trailer with a fork, by hand, and it didn't take him all that long. He used to fill a trailer daily to feed his cows also.

I also heard of another local farmer who at silo time would have his entire family on the clamp, and every buckrake full of grass they would level by fork before he got back with the next buckrake full. The whole clamp was filled that way.

It sounds like when people moved on from hay, they didn't want to cheat themselves out of keeping themselves fit doing the job.
 
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There used to be a wood turning company near here making multiple copies of a single item , a Queen Anne chair leg for instance . All the fails and misfits went down to the boiler house , raising stem for heating . The stoker only had one arm , and he had a long handled shovel , the end of which he tucked under his arm , and the shovel itself looked more like a an old Fergie loader bucket ! He would put many a two handed man to shame . About the same time there were many more small farms hereabouts than there are now , and they more often than not had a live-in farm lad . A group of them used to congregate on one or other of the farms , with a bit of serious "iron man " rivalry . It was said , although I never saw it myself that one of the trials was to put a 1 cwt meal bag in a 40 gallon drum - one on each hand , and they reckoned that one of the lads there could lift the pair of them out of the drums , both together , one in each hand . Like I said , I never saw it myself , but it was said to be true . I reckon that was some feat .
 
One other thing too , and the older lot around Hayfield would know the man - Jack Hill . (dead now )He had an Austin SWB tipper and the job of keeping Slack's paper mill stocked with coal and free of ashes . He used to do 4/5 loads of coal a day from the sidings , and remove 2/3 loads of ash - all hand balled over the side of the waggon . I did a day for him once and it nearly killed me !
 
There used to be a wood turning company near here making multiple copies of a single item , a Queen Anne chair leg for instance . All the fails and misfits went down to the boiler house , raising stem for heating . The stoker only had one arm , and he had a long handled shovel , the end of which he tucked under his arm , and the shovel itself looked more like a an old Fergie loader bucket ! He would put many a two handed man to shame . About the same time there were many more small farms hereabouts than there are now , and they more often than not had a live-in farm lad . A group of them used to congregate on one or other of the farms , with a bit of serious "iron man " rivalry . It was said , although I never saw it myself that one of the trials was to put a 1 cwt meal bag in a 40 gallon drum - one on each hand , and they reckoned that one of the lads there could lift the pair of them out of the drums , both together , one in each hand . Like I said , I never saw it myself , but it was said to be true . I reckon that was some feat .

50kgish a sack into a 40 gallon drum, one handed? That would take some doing just gripping the thing.
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
I wonder how many on here have the knack of rolling a full churn? I found it came in handy with the big gas cylinder. :)

We used to roll our churns about 30 yards from the dairy to the milk stand, we were still doing it when I finished at Harper in1968, just changed to bulk the next year. I can still roll anything that will, a big gas cylinder is a doddle with one hand on the top rim!
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
I can remember Gramp talking about a couple, Bill and Ive, who must have been gypsies I imagine, having an old caravan down at an off lying block of ground, they would be there for potato picking and then move on. The caravan was eventually burnt, years later, when they had stopped coming.
By all accounts, they would lay their morning turd in an Ambrosia rice or a bean tin and chuck it in the hedge bottom.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Last time I dug ditches in the field was in 1963 with a new spade dad bought me . He would not let me have time off school so I did it at night. Got a nice spade now to play with
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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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