I still remember my youth, when we crawled on our knees through the furrow and collected the potatoes in baskets. Then later, on the threshing floor, cleaned and sorted over a vibrating sieve. Reward for 8 hours of work was 20Kg of potatoes. As a child, one did not have much to expect here in Germany.
As my Mother's sadly long departed dear Irish friend always said" If you've potatoes in the house you've always a meal! If Bro's hands were as fast as his mouth it'd be a one man job! Lol
Did this early 50's,but picked by hand crawling along the rows and putting them in baskets, got 5 shillings a day, big wages for us kids in those times. Should put kids back doing this, gives them some kind of values for life ahead and appreciate what they have
Great too see 1 of those harvesters going....I was brought up picking spuds by hand with swills and bags... then we got 1 of those harvesters....used it for a few yrs till we got a ransome faun harvester.... which we got on with a bit better for the simple reason it was carried on the 3 point linkage... n less likely we got mired.... but this vids brought back a lot of happy memories
Lol used to carry a bag like that in each hand by the neck to load on a flat bed trailer driven between rows of bags that were dropped of the 711 as they were filled. Young ones now days struggle lifting one bag with both hands or even 2/3 of a bag it seems 🤣🤣 enjoyed seeing the old skool machinery at work again after all these years 👍
Good to see your family all jumping in to help harvest your potatoes. Here in Kentucky we grew tobacco and a lot of labor was involved so all family members helped. My older brother grew truck garden to sell at the farmers market. He would have 3/4 of acre of potatoes. We would help him plant and harvest them. He didn't have a machine to plant or harvest them . We used a layoff plow and drop the seed potatoes by hand and cover them over by using a garden hoe. We would also use the layoff plow to dig the potatoes and pick them up by hand. A lot of hard work. The 35 Massey looks nice. Good video.
Phil there is a unloading convayer made for that machine, under the table is a pto pointing backwards, goes on there. My dad owned one of those 711 "back in the day " all the best from sunny Lancashire. Great video by the way 👏
Never had a fancy lifter like yours, 1959 we used a John Deere A single cylinder horizontal with 2 ox type adapted re- ridger chain drawn manual lifters splitting two rows at a time, later a Ferguson TED petrol/ paraffin 3 point mounted spinner, then PTO driven chain belt lifter. Good video , thanks
That takes me back as a kid Phil ‘ Glenkiln Farm & and Mount pleasant farm on the Isle of Arran Lamlash had a similar machine ‘ but It loaded the trailer ‘ excellent to see it again in action 👍
Great video. Love the old school. Respect to you and your family for sharing this. 👍 Your going to need some hessian bags for that and then you'll have an excuse to buy a bag lifter for a fergie loader👍 well done. Stay safe 🏴 👌
Absolutely class videos! 👍 Your so lucky to have the old and the newer machinery to work and the experience of ur ould lad for repairs. You and your clan are by far the best channel, very entertaining with proper machinery and good laugh ye all have doing it. Just keep doin what ur doin 😃😃😃
When I was a teenager, I had the chance to work on a potato digger. It was actually pretty fun, as there was a good team that got along with eachother. I worked on a few other farm machines at that time as well. I look back now, and I actually miss it, even though the work was actually pretty hard. Especially the hay bailing! :D
Giving out about picking a few rows of spuds. When I was young we picked 5 acres of spuds , same of turnips and carrots by hand and filled a 10 ton trailer .
My Dad and Grandpop who were the second largest potato growers in the north east from 1936 to 1968-9 had vine beaters. They were powered from the 540pto on the tractor and had rubber tines to beat the vines off the potatoes before they dug them with a Lockwood tractor mounted potato combine harvester.
We had one of these Massey harvesters in the late 70"s we pulled it with aFord 4000 the next door farmer came with his 7000 & forage harvester to defoliate the crop, I think you could set these harvesters up to either pick off potatoes or sod which ever was easier our farm was just north of Wigan and we had a sign painted on the canal embankment wall that said save on potatoes!
I love it because you Irish have the best humour of all, also I like the way you take care of your 35X, which to me is the best little tractor ever! The 710-MF spud-picker, seems to find it hard to cope with damp soil, but in sandy soil it would be excellent. Thanks for the video, great stuff.
Awsome video farmer 👩🌾 Phil that will keep you going for a long time good 😌machines for the spuds 🥔 good to see the family helping keep safe from covid 🏴🏴🇬🇧👩🌾👩🌾🥔🥔👍👍😌🚜🚜😷😷
Great video, took me back to late 70,s early 80,s we had Johnson faun 1600 harvester similar type driven by a 188. It had a bagging platform on the front of the tractor. Faun had an attachment to clear the stalks from the drills. Titled a Haulm pulveriser. We also modified an old JF single chop to clear the drills.We we digging spuds early not sprayed off. Summer 1982 we were getting 5 pound a 4st bag at the field gate for Queens.
This brings back memories of school holidays in the late fifties if I remember correct the farmer used a MF 65 multi power that was down to a crawl on forward speed however the crop went straight into trailers, I think there was around five or six pickers on the harvester that kept changing places as some were hard pressed depending on where you were standing. how about trying hessian bags next time.?
Lol the thing we took the shaws off with was the old pto mounted belt driver. The old fashioned cast iron pulley driven off the back with chains welded on it. Always an argument as to who would drive it though i was usually tasked with the welding. Favourite bit was i clucking told ya
Chrisht !!!! I rember back in the 90s when I was a teenager in Ireland... Every year Id have to do the spuds with me Uncle.... Horrible Horrible week... We had an agromet z609 digger .. two row which used to just dig and run the spuds up a conveyor belt and drop them out the back..stalks and all.... Then we were on our hands and knees with 10 litre white buckets picking and firing them into the loader bucket until we wished we were somewhere else... We did 7 acres every year... Took about a week to do with about 12 of us at it..... Every now and again If I was lucky.. Id be sent to the shed to work on the grader and bagger.. Wouldn't do it again for Love nor money !!
I picked for a farmer for 10 years , he had a blue ransoms digger , single row , on the back of a Massey 565 , we picked them into wire shopping baskets and fired them into trailers : We could fill 2-3 trailers a day in long drills , back breaking work for the 1st 3 or 4 days but then the body gets used to it . Healthy grafting n no picnic
yes ,i followed a 2 row that would leave them on the ground back breaking even at 16 ,fun memory was the farmers wife brought us all big snack boxes of chicken and chips n tae and we were all lying up with big bellies when he came back and his words were "It'll be strong tae only tomorrow " :)
What a great video with the family, are you pleased with the outcome?. And will we be seeing a full field of potatoes in the near future, tc stay safe 🚜🚜🚜
Well, YOU might call that old school. BUT, in my day, in the early 50s the old way was a potatoe fork, back breaking digging, and even more back breaking bending over to pick them up. This new fangled tater digger you show here would go so great.
I live in Michigan, USA. I grew up on a farm and wish I was there with you to help. I married a beautiful Irish girl. Her name was Molly Kelly. Why she married a Scotsman I don't know. Cheers!
Now Phil this brings back a lot oh happy memories. We used to dig potatoes with a digger like you have. We used to grow half an acer like you and Lib are thinking to grow next year. We had enough of the half acer to keep two houses going till the next harvest. Great team work Phil to see the whole family out getting the job done. Great video Phil
When I was quite a young boy, we so poor we only had one potato each to eat, my father said to me, "My boy, eat it slow and pretend its steak! " So for the 55 years, I call potatoes Irish Steak! lol
Looks a good yoke Phil a fine outfit now the tractor and harvester together . It looks a combination of a digger n potato grader all in 1 . Hope she doesn’t break down too much on ye . Great to have all the help you have onboard 👍🏻 You try a month or 6 weeks at spuds lad you will know all about it ⭐️🤩💪
Good video Phil 👍 Daddy's got to be happy with new toy . I thought little wet also .. but worked great . Love when Bro gets involved 😉 . How do you store potatoes on farm ?? Is Bro going to wipe off spuds extra dirt ? 🤯🤗🤗🤗🤗 Thanks Phil good one . !!!👨🌾👨🌾👍🍺
The way that's picking up those stones, I could do with one of those! 🤣 Great video, thanks for the video. That does look a good way to spend a few hours.
That was only a trial run for the harvester. Next year you need to grow around five acres and ye can start up a farm shop in the yard. And a few acres of them parsnips and carrots and the lot. The bro gets "man of the match" for his contribution. Well done bro. Looking forward to seeing the 35 with the front and back mowers next year😂 Great production again Phil. Well done to all involved.
