I remember when.............

[jendan]

Yes, dad took nearly all summer to do a small acreage with a Ford 3000, JF side mounted single chop, blowing into a tipping trailer with corrugated tin sides. Harvester dropped off, and the trailer taken back to the clamp to empty. The JF belonged to a syndicate. A step up from carting it off the field with a Rex Paterson buckrake. Went back to making hay for a few years before giving up the cows in 1979. No pics from that era at all. Other than my grandmother using a Wuffler...

View attachment 972980

That photo could have been taken on our farm.We had a 4000 6x C reg bought new,although it was usually on the IH B 47 baler. With a B reg Super Dexter on the wuffler.You always tried not to cross the rows at the headlands or you could get them bunged up,with large hay crops.As a 13 year old kid,they were hellish hard to un block.

 

[Munkul]

I remember coming home from primary school one day and there was a brand new N reg MF 390T sat in the yard... to us, at this point, this was the absolute pinnacle of agricultural engineering.

Since then, we've barely moved forward in tech although 2-3 years ago, we convinced dad that we needed a proper telehandler with shear grab.... up til that point we were still using an MF 185 with a muck grab for feeding silage out. What an absolute embarrassment.
The day the second-hand manitou 634 came to the farm, that same afternoon dad turned to me and said "I don't know why I let you talk me into buying this thing, flipping waste of money"

Obviously, the manitou is the most used and loved bit of kit on the entire farm now... I mean, it's obvious to pretty much any dairy farmer with a lick of sense... I honestly don't know how we managed without one... we just borrowed one now and again from my uncle for lifting and moving stuff...!

 

[Y Fan Wen]

If you right, that sounds cheap. I started riding a motorbike in 1960 and as I remember it the cheapest that I bought was 4/4d a gallon.

Very soon after it went straight from 3/6 to 5/- after a budget.

 

[Old Tup]

He was the man who first made round bale silage in bags / sheeted stacks in the early 80’s using a NH chain and slat baler

Lloyd Foster farmed in County Durham, he was looking for a way for upland farmers to utilise grass when grazing wasn’t keeping on top of it.
His main criteria was that it could be done with existing machinery on the farm and the costs kept to a minimum.
Hay was the obvious option, but silage made much more sense eliminating the weather risk.
A spike on the three point linkage of the farm tractor moved the bales, the bags were easily applied and tied off.
Strange how it has morphed into a mega bucks industry….

 

[Chickcatcher]

@Y Fan Wen Gosh
I hadn't got you as young as 3/6 a gallon down here after YFC travelling everywhere in a Mini pickup 3 gallons for 10 bob and it would see you through to the next Disco on Saturday.

 

[Kidds]

I remember coming home from primary school one day and there was a brand new N reg MF 390T sat in the yard... to us, at this point, this was the absolute pinnacle of agricultural engineering.

Since then, we've barely moved forward in tech although 2-3 years ago, we convinced dad that we needed a proper telehandler with shear grab.... up til that point we were still using an MF 185 with a muck grab for feeding silage out. What an absolute embarrassment.
The day the second-hand manitou 634 came to the farm, that same afternoon dad turned to me and said "I don't know why I let you talk me into buying this thing, flipping waste of money"

Obviously, the manitou is the most used and loved bit of kit on the entire farm now... I mean, it's obvious to pretty much any dairy farmer with a lick of sense... I honestly don't know how we managed without one... we just borrowed one now and again from my uncle for lifting and moving stuff...!

You have my sympathy as I have been there and got the t-shirt. The amount of fuss made when I got a forklift for the back of the 35 was unbelievable, and we too hardly moved on after that.
We had a knackered Manitou forklift with no brakes and wouldn't start and a Ripvator on a 574 with no front weights and a permanent flat tyre,
This was for 6 farms and sending out over 20 pallets of produce a day regularly.

 

[oakleaf]

Equally, “If beer gets to £1 a pint I’m giving up drinking.”

However l do know someone who said he’d give up smoking when they went over a pound a pack. As brands broke the pound barrier he switched to cheaper ones until eventually even the real cheapos went to £1.05 and true to his word he did actually stop.

 

[X344chap]

You have my sympathy as I have been there and got the t-shirt. The amount of fuss made when I got a forklift for the back of the 35 was unbelievable, and we too hardly moved on after that.
We had a knackered Manitou forklift with no brakes and wouldn't start and a Ripvator on a 574 with no front weights and a permanent flat tyre,
This was for 6 farms and sending out over 20 pallets of produce a day regularly.

3 point linkage forklift is a great piece of kit for occasional use - cant justify a telehandler for a smallholding

 

[wdah/him]

3 point linkage forklift is a great piece of kit for occasional use - cant justify a telehandler for a smallholding

Can't agree more. Never thought here we would be without our sanderson forklift and a loader tractor. Surprised how often we had the 3pl mast on the mxm this last 4 weeks waiting to fix ts115.

 

[glasshouse]

You have my sympathy as I have been there and got the t-shirt. The amount of fuss made when I got a forklift for the back of the 35 was unbelievable, and we too hardly moved on after that.
We had a knackered Manitou forklift with no brakes and wouldn't start and a Ripvator on a 574 with no front weights and a permanent flat tyre,
This was for 6 farms and sending out over 20 pallets of produce a day regularly.

Ffs
Where did all the money go?