When tractors replaced horses.

homefarm

Member
Location
N.West
@Treemover said: the dawn of a new era of driverless tractors and electric tractors fast approaching, this might be the end of an old era, much like transition from horse to tractor.

Anyone remember or know how it happened?

How was it money wise. Did working horse values crash or was it done so gradually that worn out horses were just replaced with a tractor.

I just remember our last horse it was used to undersow barley with grass seed with a clover seed barrow. It was kept in a loose box, dropped dead one morning breaking the door and landing in the yard. At least it did not need removing from the stable!!

The clover seed barrow had the shafts removed and replaced with a drawbar some other implements had this done but ploughs cultivators where mostly bought with the first tractor I think.

No idea how the money /cost worked though.

Asking as I can imagine robot machines but not how the transition will work.
 
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honeyend

Member
Not old enough to remember horses but I knew an old knacker/horse dealer. He said he could remember them being unharnessed out of the plough and being taken straight the railway to be sent to the knacker. I think they were a lot tougher then.
 

Lincsman

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Not old enough to remember horses but I knew an old knacker/horse dealer. He said he could remember them being unharnessed out of the plough and being taken straight the railway to be sent to the knacker. I think they were a lot tougher then.
Unlike a tractor it would need still feeding if not used.
 

DaveB

Member
Location
Worcs
The big change started when many farm horses were commandeered by the military for service in the 1914/18
great war. Most of them died, and alternatives had to be found. The march to total mechanisation had begun.
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
I'm old enough to remember our two last horses, Dolly and Prince, they were still being used for harrowing in corn, and carting roots etc about 1954-5 ish, I remember one on a tip cart walking between rows of cut mangolds as they were forked or thrown into the cart, best thing was they just moved up on their own as we went up the row. (I was only 6 or 7 at the time). We had anE27N Fordson as Dads first tractor , quickly replaced by a TE20, a second one arrived when the horses went in 1955. The single furrow fergy reversible came with that one I think. Not many acres to plough in those days anyway !
 

chaffcutter

Moderator
Arable Farmer
Location
S. Staffs
Have some photos of Grandad using a hay sweep on the front of a car, pushing hay up to a field stack, forked onto a Blanch ? elevator about four feet wide? Probably in the late 1940's as it is at ours where Dad started in 1945, aged 20
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Presumably, it was cost effective to replace horses with tractors. If you're a one man band owner/ driver, I don't think driverless electric tractors would stack up.
 

joe soapy

Member
Location
devon
As with the change from horse to tractor it will start with driver and driverless working along side each other for a good while.
We will probably see full robotics in the veg crops first, then automated tractors coming into the fields on a follow me basis such as when harvesting,
or or drilling using smaller tractors but more of them.
here we have gone from 40 HP tractors to 150 +, and suddenly compaction is appearing every where ,something we never had before the heavier tractors came.
Its really noticable in the reseeds after maize last autumn.
 

essexpete

Member
Location
Essex
I think farmers used cars for certain jobs between the wars as they were cheaper than tractors
Grandfather used a hay sweep on the front of an old Ford car.
The last genuine working horse in this area was sold in a farm sale in 1974. A percheron, he was used by a stockman feeding out. He prefered the horse for the stop start from the ground.
 
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RhysT

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Swansea
Our tractor mechanic worked for Massey for over 50 years. A legend in the Swansea area. He told me that years ago when out delivering 35's he would never be able leave a farm without a cheque for the full amount. Never any finance needed!
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
My mum can remember using a haysweep on an old bull-nosed Morris, pushing whole fields of hay to in field stacks where it was forked onto an elevator. They had some deepish Warwickshire ridge and furrow, and turning wrong resulted in broken sweep staves and a fair bollocking.
 

joe soapy

Member
Location
devon
Our tractor mechanic worked for Massey for over 50 years. A legend in the Swansea area. He told me that years ago when out delivering 35's he would never be able leave a farm without a cheque for the full amount. Never any finance needed!
back then a 35 was about £600 or maybe 10 fat bullocks, if the ratio was the same now i think many of us would be able to pay cash
 

joe soapy

Member
Location
devon
My mum can remember using a haysweep on an old bull-nosed Morris, pushing whole fields of hay to in field stacks where it was forked onto an elevator. They had some deepish Warwickshire ridge and furrow, and turning wrong resulted in broken sweep staves and a fair bollocking.

My eariast memories are of fordson standards with the sweep mounted on brackets fitted to the front axel, hay was pushed to a hay pole and grab worked by a horse.
Working the grab was almost an art form and done with great precision
 

v8willy

Member
Mixed Farmer
I was allways led to believe that as said above horses went in the first war, then there was the compulsory ploughing up for grassland for food crops in the 2nd war, which made more work to be done. Was there not some form of grant scheme for tractors, maybe linked into ploughing up?
 

JWL

Member
Location
Hereford
I rolled a 25 acre field with a set of trailed cambridge rolls after I'd drilled it once with my old Daihatsu for a bet. The only thing that let me down was trying to get them back up a rough track when I'd got them hooked up in the transport position. I got a fair bollicking off the manager when he appeared out of the blue, he did see the funny side afterwards, thankfully :whistle:
 

Dry Rot

Member
Livestock Farmer
The grass sickness epidemic, especially in th north east of Scotland, would have put paid to many horses.

I remember stacking sheaves of oats on my uncle's wagon pulled by a pair of Shire horses. My job was to place the sheaves to make the load as they were forked up to me. We had half a row left and, although already over loaded, uncle thought we'd get that too. Just as we'd finished, the whole load slid off! My uncle was a rather laid back character and the load was left for the morning in the hope that it would not rain! Yes, rode on the hay sweep pulled by a horse at hay making too.

Sadly, the next time I went to stay there were no horses, just a little grey fergie sitting in the shed.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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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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