Things are starting to dry up now on the land so it is time to get some muck on the land so, for the first time this year the team got into the field.
This is my Ferguson collection!
Harriet came to me as a heap of bits from a shed on Swaffham allotments. The previous owner had split her to do the clutch and could not get her back together so he started stripping her out for parts. I felt sad to just see the bits laying there so I bought her and collected them on my friends low loader trailer and Henrietta. The words that greeted me when I drove into his farm yard was “Going in to the scrap business now are we”? Within two hours and with the help of his rear loader and a couple of gallons of petrol we had a running tractor. Not pretty but a runner all the same. All this was over thirty years ago and she was a very expensive tractor. £40.00!
Note the John Deere yellow on her rear wheels. These came off Dotty, they are water loaded and sprayed yellow so they had to come straight off. I bought a pair of Dexta wheels with good tyres and fitted to her and Harriet got the water loaded Ferguson ones.
A few months later we moved to Black Horse House which, at the time, had few walls downstairs and a massive wood burner. To keep warm that first winter we needed masses of wood which we bought in lengths from the forestry commission. To cut this up I bought a saw bench, dated about 1890 which we collected again with Henrietta and with it came a MIL Loader for a Ferguson, this quickly got mounted on Harriet.
She shifted many tons of builders rubble as we worked on the house, loading 15 12 ton builders skips, trailer loads of brick rubble that went to a local farmer to fill in ruts in his gateways and, of course, loading tons of muck that we spread on the land.
I have not looked after her very well but she runs well, I keep the oil changed and she is always ready to start and work. I have done a few jobs on her over the years like a new radiator and water pump, a second hand cylinder head and a second hand manifold when this rusted away. As I said, she is not pretty but I would not be without her, the loader is slow but it is far better than throwing stuff on trailers with a shovel and fork.
Nuffy is my main tractor and is perfect for this job with Independent PTO. Independent PTO is not operated by the main clutch but with a separate lever like a hand brake. The only problem is it also controls the hydraulic pump so with the clutch disengaged you have no hydraulics or PTO.
The Ferguson connection is Harry Ferguson Design, the company Harry set up after leaving Massey-Ferguson, designed these tractors for the British Motor Corporation. The tractor was not a success and suffered from hard steering and engine vibration but Nuffy is the second generation and some of the problems had been sorted by the time she was built in October 1968. The 3/45 and 4/65 only lasted two years before BMC became British Leyland and thye tractor had tinwork and colour changed and a balancer fitted in the 4/98 engine.
Mobile Wind Direction Indicator? The Howard Rotospreader! Get it wrong and in a strong wind the driver gets large lumps of muck thrown at him.
Nuffy finished the muck spreading and then was hitched to my “new” three furrow, deep digger Ransomes plough and ploughed happily on Sunday. No worries about smuts from the exhaust or “oil slobber” after that workout.
The Ransomes Plough, still need a few parts like one skimmer. I used one that I had from a TS82 but it is not the right one.
These bodies are digger ones and completely turn and shatter the soil.
As compared to the "stood up" furrows of the EPIC. The EPIC is great for over winter ploughing as the high crests break down easily and dry well. The problems with EPIC are you need good skimmers to put the weeds under the furrow slice and, If the land is heavy and a bit wet, the furrow slice can fall back into the furrow.
Still I suppose she is about 62 years old.
I have a UDM on my single furrow digger but had not had it alongside the 3 furrow to check and was going by eye. Problem is, the bodies on the 3 furrow are even rarer than hens teeth so I shall have to be careful, they are UDC which was possibly only used on three export ploughs so how they found their way onto this one I do not know. I did get the plough from a dealer/farmer who had a lot of ploughs he bought in so it is possible it came from overseas.
