It,s great to see the little Dexter,s at work again , as versatile as a 135 , both much copied , both never equalled ! my dad , grandad , "uncle " walt & myself all made & moved literally thousands of bales this way from 1960,s up until 1990 , I.H. B46 baler simply banging bales out as if they were corks , all tied properly , going like the clappers , & one little Dexter on the front as my old neighbour would have said ; " showing the baler who,s boss " . I have borrowed one of these balers from a friend when mine had a mishap , it worked , tied right , but was awful slow , because it was not set right , this one is new , everything set right , & for an "old ,un now " it don,t half shift . Nice to see , thanks guys , I can smell the hay from here .
I frowned on the little grey Fergusson tractors in the area because they were much smaller than Fordsons. But really the ‘Fergusson System’ was brilliant. At the time, the Welsh word for tractor was ‘Fergy’
great video, them really were the days, everything was much more simple. we had a b46 with we pulled with an ordinary dexta, later we had two b47s a power major and a grey wing super, then browns, two1210s, 995, 996. we moved into new holland balers and the 90 series browns. All mc hale round balers and New holland 6070, 6080, ts125a, TL 90 and three Fiat 110 90s these days.
Thanks Eamonn. We had a b47 in the 70's. When I left school I used it for a few years before we went over to letting my Uncles bale everything up into large Hestons.
That opening shot of the Dexta and lely acrobat brings back some good memories , we were doing this at only 11 and 12 year olds , they would have kittens today if the saw kids that Young doing that.
In the farm we lived on it was a Fordson E27N TVO tractor. The bailer was loaned by a neighbouring farm; indeed all farmers were connected by a web of obligations and favours (reciprocity). No money changed hands. At bailing five old tractors would turn up including an Fieldmarshall started with a cartridge and a hammer. BANG!!!!! Dinner for all around the table. No tax to pay as nobody was paid a penny. We children ‘helped’ but mostly got in the way probably.
@@stuartjameswrightWe weren’t farmers but lived in a converted building on a 50 acre mixed dairy farm. We saw everything eg chicken and pig slaughter when I was Seven, haymaking, milking, muck spreading (shovelling off the back of a flat trailer and the farm hand snogging the farm daughters’ cousins on the cow cake sacks. There was also Jonny Switchgear who lived in the chicken loft inside the cage meant for the chickens while the chickens lived on the outside. He loved restoring amplifiers and playing music super loud. We made ‘telephone exchanges’ using hydraulic hoses and hosepipes in the hay barn, deep down in the bales. We also made flame throwers out of discarded syringes and TVO. Better than school!
@@stuartjameswright looking back I think animals were very well looked after and slaughtering was done without the creatures knowing what was coming. The sow was led into the threshing barn expecting a feed, was stunned and then hung upside down and bled into a bucket for black pudding making. The cows were named after the farmer’s female relatives. The chickens roamed all day and were shedded at night. If school hadn’t been so hellish it would have been idillic!
I remember those days so well, I had just started to work in our farm in 1969 which we still farm today, somehow life seemed a lot less rushed back then with tea brought to the field so we didn't have to stop baling for too long. I have used all the same type of equipment in this video at some point.I like the modern 4x4 tractors with the semi auto gearboxes, air-con cabs with touch screens controls and Mp3 players but there are times I miss the sun, fresh air, dust and sweat and stiff muscles when you did a days work, also having a laugh and joke with the people you are working with, happy times, thanks for uploading.
Great to hear Colin. I'm lost on the new 4x4 tractors these days on the odd time I get in one. I stopped farming in the early 90's to start a computer consultancy of all things. I was only 1 year old when the film was taken but when I was old enough to drive a tractor I was using some of the same gear in the late 70's and early 80's. Great times.
I'm 46, but that what things were like on the farm in the early 80s, small tractors, square baler and plenty of folk to help, really happy dayz and mum bring the tea out to the field. Now there's no time for anything but my wife brings the tea out. All round bales and plastic, changed days but not for the better.
Lovely film clip Stuart. Brings back memories of my childhood on our farm in the late sixties and seventies in Ireland (where I still reside). My father had a B46 and later a B47. The B46 was driven by a New Performance Super Major and the B47 by a Ford Force 5000. The shunting from the baler used to damage the spider in the diesel pump coupling in the Super Major. My father rectified that by replacing it with the more robust coupling used in the Ford industrial engines of the time. We also had a Lely Acrobat wheel rake similar to that in your film. A neighbour had a Lister elevator like yours, we did not, so a lot of heavy lifting to get the bales to barn. Yes the pace of life was much slower then but I also recall that it could be quite stressful. Rain is never far away in Ireland, so I remember doing a lot of baling with one eye on the baler and one eye on the sky, filled with anxiety that we would not be done on time. But I do think that tractors were more enjoyable to drive back then when the weather was good. My father, now in his late eighties says he has no interest in modern tractors and that they are just now computers with a big wheel in each corner. I tend to agree. Driving them used to be a tactile experience, now it has become a cerebral one and something has been lost in that.
Pleased you liked the clip. I'm working on getting some more out out as soon as I get the time. I haven't worked on the farm for the last 25 years and when I got in my brother's big tractor not so long ago I hadn't a clue.
Lovely video again. We had a Lister elevator on the farm and on the 1960 's made 8000 + hay bales a year,and heavy they were too. Dad employed a very strong man and he would bang the bales onto the elevator until there were no gaps, which overloaded us on the stack. Dad would tell me to let some slip back if we were right at the top of the Dutch barn...and some swearing would ensue. Heavy hot work but good days.
This brings back memories from my own childhood , helping shift thousands of hay & straw bales , baled with our Massey - Ferguson 701 baler , it seemed a massive old beast to me , with it,s own petrol / paraffin engine on , if we could do 8 - 10 acres a day that was a good day , my job was to work the trip on the bale sledge & watch the back bale chute on the baler for " loose bales " , running right round the safe side of the baler & shout at my dad to stop & sort the loose strings out , my god , we had an army of men , most of them relatives , how times change ! . Now I have to get through 15 acres with our Massey 124 or I feel I haven,t tried , & more with the big baler , we,re none the better off for all this increased stress & pressure , bigger farms , far less men . Footnote : I,ve used one of these I.H. balers , the one in this video is moving along very well indeed , they were usually far slower , or perhaps needed re - timing . Great memory trip , Many Thanks .
brings back memories for me too i worked on a large farm from leaving school on the50s until 72 we allways had 2 701 balers and used massey ferguson 35s and 65 and 1 nuffield 4/65 i think it was but good times and hard work did me no harm am 79 and still going strong
Baling was my favourite job back then and good money to be made for baling for hire .We are still at agricultural contracting but these days it is a race .mobile phones we want you now .
My father bought a new B46 International baler in1965 .I was 7 years old I started baling with her at 15 years old my brother was baling with B47 at the same time . I baled for 10 years with that baler it never let me down once baling 35000bales a year. We then bought new 440 international's and 445 international's and b46 and 47 were parked in corner of yard for retirement .I am sorry to this day that I should have put her in a shed and oiled her up for preservation.
Sounds like same as us. We had this new, then by the time I was baling in the early 80's we had a 440. After that my Uncle John used to bale up our straw with his Heston square balers and we went from hay to round bale haylage.
Thanks Paddy, I have a few more clips in the pipeline. Have you watched my Bringing the Harvest Home Video? That is part of the same film. If you subscribe to my channel you'll get a notification when the new clips are uploaded.
Fantastic Cine film !!!!!!!!, those were hard days but good days !! thanks for sharing, great music !! very enjoyable. All the best for your farm in the future
I to remember those good old days Colin but like you I'm old now ( 69 ) but life seem so much better long hours little money but if I could would do it all again tomorrow , thanks for the memories. ,,
Back in the 1960's 100 acres of decent land could give a family a good living with a bit of luck and a lot of hard work. Learned to drive on a Massey Ferguson 35, at twelve I could unload 3 tons of pig food in 56lb sacks in under an hour. Milk was collected in churns, seed corn came in 2cwt sacks which my dad had no trouble picking up.
Sounds very much like it was on our farm. I learnt to drive on the Dexta. Unfortunately I completely ruined my back taking 1 cwt sacks of sugar beet shreds off the end of a conveyor in my early 20's. I ended up having surgery then going into computers to make a living.
That little Dexta must have had it's work cut out driving that baler. I'd have thought a Major or similar would be needed to do it with ease on a heavy crop. We had a B-46 baler and it used to spit out more loose ones than knotted ones!
There is Making hay sunshine of course I started with a Bamford 5R mower it was new in 1860s eventually got to a Jones Baler that was great Gordon Exmouth
Never really liked those Vicon Acrobats, as if your hay was still slightly damp, all it would do is wrap the whole sward up like a continuous rope. A PZ Haybob was much better as it lifted, seperated and shook the hay out much better to let air circulate through every part of the crop - made a much better row for the baler to pick up (when the time came) when rowing up with those little gates at the rear. Better aeriated and therefore properly dried hay didn't tend to 'heat' or go mouldy in the barn, when stored.
Can you solve in under ten minutes .....? A man ( or woman ) bought two horses for €860 . By selling one at 3/4 of it's cost price and the other at 4/3 of it's cost price, a total profit of €30 was achieved . How much did each horse cost ?
Hi Stuart, I take it this was filmed on a 8 or 16mm cine camera or similar ? How have you uploaded it. I've got loads of 8mm my Dad filmed in the early 70's of bailing and his new farm buildings being constructed. I was thinking of running it through the projector then using my ipad. Thanks in advance. :-)
Hi, I was extremely lucky to have the 8mm cine film completely restored so that parts could be used by the BBC's Mud, Sweat and Tractors TV series made by Available Light Productions. I've got about an hour and a half of filming throughout the year of 1966. Previously, I had had it transferred from 8mm to VHS video which used a projector based system, and although it was very watchable the quality was nowhere near as good. I did look at getting some 70's filming transferred to Digital by a company in Manchester but my pockets weren't deep enough. They take an high quality scan of each individual frame and then enhance it using various software tools. I must say that the stuff we got back from Available Light was so much clearer and in focus. If I can dig out the name of the company at Manchester I'll post it up. Stuart
Thanks for that. Sounds expensive so might hang on a little more ! If you could forward the Manchester company name I'd very grateful to you. Thanks, Gareth
Hi Ivor. The field was a 17 acre grass/marsh and was joined to the 26 acre field next to it in the mid seventies when we put new drainage in. At the time of the film, there was a clump of trees and bushes in the middle of the field with a big hole where a bomber had crashed in WW2. At the far side there was a railway embankment that used to carry the line from Howden to Selby. This was removed in the late 70's by our neighbours. So it is all very different today. Stuart
