Tractor & Farming Heritage June 2014

148PAGES THE BIGGEST

AND FARMING HERITAGE MAGAZINE

MAG EVER

Tractor JUNE 2014

JUNE 2014 www.tractormagazine.co.uk

AND FARMING HERITAGE MAGAZINE

The 1884’s rise to power Oldest working MASSEY-HARRIS

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GOLDE YEARS N BASILD AT ON

Bought a tractor, got it restored...

WHAT NEXT?

PRACTICAL ADVICE

Clutch stripdown Build your own sandblasting cabinet Working clothes

Full story

Vineyard-spec Fergie T20 found in Dorset

The steep Steyr way History of the MP6’s short-lived production from scraper to star

June 2014

£3.90

Restoration

No. 128

■ COUNTY 1884 ■ MARSHALL MP6 ■ STEYR 540 ■ VINEYARD T20 ■ FORD 7810 SILVER JUBILEE ■ RED GIANTS

KING OF THE COUNTYS

conTenTS

TRACTOR AND FARMING HERITAGE JUNE 2014

Regulars 3

Welcome

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news

All the latest news from the world of tractors and heritage.

Graham’s Grumbles

This month’s moan is about the many and varied delights that are blasted at us 24/7 via the wonders of multi-channel television.

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Tractor Talk

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Reed All About it!

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Your news, views and comments about the vintage and classic scene.

Jo Roberts meets a pioneering farming couple from North Wales who are harvesting their own water reed to supply British thatchers.

Steering the Right course

Graham Hampstead continues the restoration of his Super Dexta, and is amazed at the results of so many years neglect on the tractor.

114 next Month

Preview of the July issue of Tractor & Farming Heritage magazine.

146 last Word

Farmer Brown brings home a rather expensive ‘micro pig’ called ‘Tiny’ which is rapidly growing into a whopping great sow.

YourTractors 6

Ford in the Blood

Part 2 of the Cradock family’s threegeneration association with Fordson, Ford and New Holland tractors which has lasted more than 75 years.

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30 COVER STORY

36 COVER STORY

James Graham’s farm is home to the world’s smallest sheep, but when it comes to tractors, he chooses the Massey Ferguson Red Giants.

Why not Just Ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy each month?

TractorJune2014

Dave’s Tractors

Dave Taylor recalls the sounds and smells that made farming a pleasure – then there was the Fordson E27N and Bomford hedgetrimmer.

on the Straight and narrow

Not just a narrow Ferguson T20, but a vineyard-spec one that somehow ended up in Dorset instead of France.

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The short and tall of it

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The Steyr way to restoration

This Austrian-built Steyr 540 was found in a breaker’s yard unwanted and in line for the crusher; Bob Wardhaugh tells us how the ex-slurry scraper was restored.

42 COVER STORY

48 COVER STORY

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King of the countys

We chart the rise to power of the County 1884 and see how these large and powerful tractors came into existence.

50 Golden years of the Basildon line

The Blue Force 1000 event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Ford 1000 Series and 50 years of tractor production at Basildon.

The Home Farm Diaries

June 1981’s a busy month on the farm and HR finds it best to keep moving to get the jobs done while avoiding those pesky flies.

Massey’s oldest

COVER STORY

Author and Massey-Harris enthusiast John Farnworth, tells us how the winner of an oldest-working Massey tractor award, a M-H No. 2, came to be added to his extensive collection.

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Steam at War

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Continuing his series on how the First World War influenced agricultural machinery development, Stuart Gibbard explains why steam still had a part to play.

Marshall’s ‘six-pack’

COVER STORY

Tractor enthusiasts have a fascination with British tractors that were unusual, unpopular, rare and produced in low numbers, the MP6 fits all of these.

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Tractor Archive

More heritage memories from the farming literature of yesteryear.

Ford 7810 ‘Silver Jubilee’

Launched in 1989 to commemorate 25 years of tractor production at Basildon, the ‘silver’ 7810 has become one of the most sought after tractors of the modern age.

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Reminiscences of island life

Lawrence MacEwen from the surprisingly fertile tiny Hebridean Island of Muck, continues his nostalgic look back at his farming life.

Heritage

The Short and Tall of it

Having trouble finding a copy of this magazine?

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Workshop 92 COVER STORY

94 COVER STORY

98 COVER STORY

The possibilities are endless

So, you’ve bought your tractor and had it restored, what next? If you think the fun has ended there, think again... it’s only just begun.

Make your own Sandblasting cabinet

Richard Lofting shows you how, for an outlay of just a few pounds, you can create your own blast cabinet.

clutching at Straws

To avoid any slip ups in your restoration Ben Phillips shows us the straightforward way to strip out a suspect clutch from a Leyland 154.

102 products

All the latest tractor and farming heritage-related product releases.

Marketplace 104 What’s on

Your guide to heritage days out throughout the season in our comprehensive event guide.

109 Forthcoming Sales & Auctions 110 events

We review the Eastern Counties Vintage Tractor Show, and preview the Newby Hall Tractor Fest and Fife rallies. tractormagazine.co.uk

TRACTORS FEATURED THIS ISSUE

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The possibilities are endless

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Norwich spectacular

SUBSCRIBE! Only £3 per issue

Ford 5000 .......................................................6 Ford 7000 .......................................................6 Ford 8340 .......................................................6 Ford 6600 .......................................................6 Massey Ferguson 130 ............................12 Massey Ferguson 135 ............................12 Massey Ferguson 165 ............................12 Massey Ferguson 175 ............................12 Fordson E27N............................................28 Ferguson T20 (vineyard).......................30 Steyr 540 ......................................................36 County 1884...............................................42 Massey-Harris No.2..................................56 Marshall MP6 .............................................66 Super Dexta................................................88 Ford 7810 (Silver Jubilee).....................77

✦ see page 22 for further details

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Ford in the blood

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Steam at War

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Reed all about it!

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Massey’s oldest

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50 golden years of the Basildon line

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Page tract class or if sectioied n Page 11 5 tractormagazine.co.uk

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YourTractors

the

ShoRt and

Tall oF it

James Graham’s farm is home to the world’s smallest sheep, as well as a herd of the smallest breed of donkey in the world. However, when it comes to tractors, he chooses the Massey Ferguson Red Giants.

James now has a set of the very impressive European built Massey Ferguson 100 Series Red Giants.

During the 1950s Corlett Sons & Cowley Ltd had one grey Ferguson tractor going out of its yard every day; it was the biggest agricultural dealer on the Isle of Man. During the 1960s and 70s over 75% of tractors sold on the island were Massey Ferguson.

Words Gina Harvey Pictures Peter D Simpson

J

ames has always been involved in farming; his father Matthew moved the family from Scotland in 1964 to become manager of Suffolk-based MacRae Farms Ltd which owned a livestock farm on the Isle of Man. At that time the company was the pioneer of Charolais cattle importation to Britain.

James said: “At that time importing these cattle from France was like going to the moon, it was something so unusual for the normal farm to do. Lady MacRae applied for an import licence to bring 40 Charolais cattle from France and as the Isle of Man was an Independent Protectorate separate from the UK, she was duly granted it. At this time the Americans also wanted to import, but they were only able to get them through the UK or Isle of Man, so she was in a fortunate position to be able to supply the US market with Charolais cattle.

The best option

About James Graham Massey Ferguson enthusiast James Graham had a chance to work for a company that he believes was the greatest tractor manufacturer there is. But instead took a two-year work experience in America where he gained a real insight into a totally different type of farming system with both machinery and livestock and, indeed, he saw some of the most amazing things in his life.

Leaving the Isle of Man, James attended the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester and later was offered a job as a trainee demonstrator with Massey Ferguson. “rough contacts at the MacRae farm I was offered a job in America, so it was a toss-up between working for Massey or travelling to America; for an eager youngster there was no competition.

“Aer leaving agricultural college on a Friday, I had a couple of days at home then

by Friday of the following week I was driving a John Deere tractor coupled to a New Holland Super Hayliner on a Charolais ranch in Buffalo, Wyoming where I baled hay and straw virtually every day for the next four months from 7am to 5pm, so I quickly learned a lot about the equipment.

“Aer driving the smaller, low horsepower Massey Ferguson tractors on the Isle of Man I was quickly introduced to John Deere tractors, the first one I drove was a new 2010 with nearly 47hp at the PTO. I was extremely impressed by the hydraulics, PTO clutch, power steering and the bright yellow seat. I had never seen a John Deere tractor back home on the island. ➤ June2014Tractor

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50 Basildon

FarmingHeritage

line

Golden years of the

The Blue Force 1000 event is not only a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Ford 1000 Series and 50 years of tractor production at Basildon, but a gathering of one of the greatest tractor lines to be seen worldwide.

Words & pictures Blue Force

T

he Basildon facility when opened was one of Europe’s most modern and leading tractor plants. It is now the home of New Holland aer 50 years at the centre of tractor operations.

Today it produces tractors in the 120-270hp range, which are helping farmers and contractors across the globe to farm in an ever more productive, sustainable and efficient manner.

It was the move to Basildon by the Ford Motor Co that saw the Fordson name take its place in the history books and the Ford name on the Basildon built tractors become the norm.

The beginnings

What we must not forget though is all those thousands upon thousands of tractors prior to 1964 that were built from 1917 onwards in America, Cork and at the famous Dagenham factory. e MOM, one of the very first unitised tractors, was built at the Ford automotive plant in Dearborn, America; the Fordson was also built at Dearborn and introduced as the Model F to American farmers in the spring of 1918. At this early stage over 60 of the 22hp tractors rolled out of the factory every day and within months this number had increased to over 130 units each day.

Prior to 1920 the vast majority of tractors had a similar style of design, basically a simple engine which was modified and mounted on to a frame with drive transmitted to a simple form of transmission.

A Ford Super Major 5000 is driven off the production line to an 800 capacity parking area to await despatch. Inset: The famous and very rare 1917 Ford built MOM (Ministry of Munitions) tractor that was built for the British market which helped improve and increase food production during the First World War.

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Basildon – built to last

By the end of 1920 over 100,000 Fordsons had been built and at that time it had been reported that tractors on farms in America totalled in the region of 300,000.

By the time of the onset of the Second World War Fordson tractors were rolling off the production line at the rate of 500 a week. e Model F however, had a front axle fitted with smaller front wheels attached to an engine coupled to a transmission and rear axle with larger wheels which was built as one unit with no chassis or subframe, a style still used to this day on modern tractors. Aer numerous visits and discussions a new tractor plant was opened in Cork, Ireland with production beginning in the summer of 1919. e tractor plant at Dearborn was closed in the autumn of 1920 aer some 100,000 units were built, with production moving to the Rouge.

The construction of a purpose built factory at Basildon for the fully integrated production of tractors began in 1962, and May 15, 1964 saw the very first tractors go down the production line of Europe’s most modern tractor manufacturing facility.

A quarter of a century later, in 1989, over two million engines had been produced and the now iconic Ford 7810 Silver Jubilee model was launched to commemorate this important milestone.

Another key year for Basildon was the unveiling of the state-of-the-art

visitor centre in 2012, the same year the plant achieved Bronze World Class Manufacturing status and the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, visited the factory.

Since 1964 over 1.6 million tractors and 3.1 million engines have been produced at Basildon. Today the plant employs more than one thousand people dedicated to producing industry-leading tractors. The facility can accommodate more than 10,000 different product specifications and 85% of total production is exported across the globe.

Glory days at the new plant at Basildon showing Ford 1000 Series tractors overflowing into the staff car park.

“The Fordson design team moved on a step and introduced the new Fordson Model N...”

Pioneers

Henry Ford and his team were not only leaders in the automotive industry in those early years but were pioneers and leaders in agricultural tractor design and Ford’s mass production methods changed the way tractors were built around the world for ever.

Fordson Model F tractors were exported worldwide and by the time Model F production came to an end in early 1928, more than half a million tractors had been built in America and Ireland. e Fordson design team moved on and introduced the new Fordson Model N which was first demonstrated in the autumn of 1928 with full production commencing in the spring of 1929 at Cork, the world’s largest tractor manufacturing facility. ➤ tractormagazine.co.uk

Even though a little outdated when it was released in 1945, the Fordson Major, more commonly referred to as the E27N, was more of a stop gap while the Ford Motor Co was developing the new Fordson Major.

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FarmingHeritage

The

Home Farm

DIARIES

JUNE 1981

It’s a busy month on the farm and HR finds it best to keep moving to get the jobs done while avoiding those pesky flies (or take refuge in the Q cab).

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Words & pictures ‘HR’

tractormagazine.co.uk

Haymaking was one of the major jobs in June; plenty of science had gone into developing ways to harvest it – but the greatest of all was still predicting the weather.

Horsey hay

Hay was still an important crop on Home Farm in the early 1980s. Over the years a good trade had been built up with the ‘horsey people’, whether that be studs, riding establishments or the hunting fraternity based in Leicestershire.

The only snag was that they all still required their hay in small bales. There was practically no market for hay in big round bales with these customers. It didn’t matter as the job had been mechanised as much as it could be with a Cooks flat eight system.

H It was not uncommon of Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher to ruffle a few feathers back in the 1980s.

igh summer, June 1981, and hay time, that’s where we are. e Conservative government with Prime Minister Mrs atcher, was beginning to ruffle a few feathers. But as we now know she had only just started. e country was in a mess, so nothing new there then, when she took over. We soon learnt that what she said she would do; she did, even giving the Common Market (EU) ministers a good hand-bagging. It’s about time they got another one from somebody!

Well, there’s never much time to dither about in June. e two main jobs kept our man’s nose to the grindstone without respite.

Early in the month there were the sheep to deal with. A close eye has to be kept on the critters at this time of the year. Blow flies – that’s the problem. If the weather is dry then it is not too bad, their wool stays dry, and the flies’ eggs don’t readily hatch into maggots.

But if there are frequent showers then, oh dear, what a pain.

Lingering

When these boys hit town there was no let-up ‘till the job was done. tractormagazine.co.uk

Our man would then have to inspect the flock every 24 hours without fail. With showers, their wool stays damp and that is a perfect breeding ground for the maggots. If ever any of you readers have had to deal with a sheep that has been ‘struck’ by blow flies then you will know what I mean. e smell lingers with you for days, and even aer years in a ‘non sheep’ environment it’s still there.

During one of the worming sessions in May the flock was given a ‘look through’ for any that needed a trim up around the hind quarters. In our man’s part of the world this is known as ‘clagging’.

It’s a filthy job, with the shepherd, the shears, and just about everything else in the vicinity turning a nasty shade of green. But, as they say it has to be done. ➤ June2014Tractor

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NextMonth

AND FARMING H ERITAGE MAGAZINE

The flexible ible Fordsons ▲ The Fordson E27N was adapted for many applications; we meet Peter and Mark Dean who have restored a Chaseside front loader as well as an E27N snowplough.

ON SALE JuN E 10

I’ve been waiting for you

Three of a kind

It’s no secret how much Ben Phillips likes his MF 135s; but there is another – the Massey Ferguson 65 – and finally, after all these years, one comes into his workshop for overhaul.

Jonathan Whitlam tells a classic tale of Lamborghini tractors back in the 1980s and how their arrival on a Suffolk farm changed working life there.

Plus Fendt ■ Massey Ferguson ■ John Deere ■ Marketplace ■ Jo Roberts ■ Practical Workshop ■ Graham Hampstead ■ National Road Run Report 114

TractorJune2014

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