In 1972 when I was 16 I cut silage with a Kidd single chop behind a 2 year old Massey 178,Massey 65 mk2 hauling to the pit and John Deere 2020 pushing up.The following year we graduated to New Holland double chop pulled behind Massey 1080..The New Holland gave serious gear box trouble..
This reminds me of our old David Brown “hurricane “ forage harvester we had on our small farm back in the sixties/early seventies, I remember it being a bit of a chore travelling from the field to the silage pit, as you had to take the tractor/harvester/trailer combination and it was a bitch to reverse, I remember
I started off farming on a YTS on a 90 cow dairy herd: they had a double chop- winter I used to use a silage knife- I'm sure Dan will know what one is- then fork the silage into a dumper drive down the feed passage and tip the silage out, 8-9 dumpers full each am apart from my day off Sundays. Hard old work days way they farmed, 1981/2 but didn't hurt me lol
For something dragged out of a hedge with holes and dull knifes on it, that did fair well! I reckon Gareth might have a little smile watching this vid lol
Had a cousin rent his land for 30+ years to a neighbour and went to collect his baler from the hedge he parked it in, and found that rather than a baler he had a pile of rust. Lol :-)
This brings back memories of this forage harvester. My uncle used to come and take the end rigs off our hay fields with one of these. I told my uncle and mum that this was the way forward but wold they listen? No lol. I look forward to seeing you getting this Kidd Forage Harvester patched up and hope to see her blow grass into that trailer sitting there. Great video Dan
Hello there. Just to let you know how much me and dad really enjoy vintage Thursdays. We are much like yourself in the fact we love tinkering around with older kit ( when time allows and between milkings ) keep up the good work!
Another great vintage Thursday, Dan - thank you. Living near Devizes, I’m happy to report that Kidd’s are still manufacturing farm machinery in Devizes, off Folly Road. Their slogan is “Good, Strong Tackle”, which you’ve proved by dragging the double-cut out of the bushes and using it without any fettling. Kidd’s have been taken over by both Taarup and Kverneland and built Vicon machines in the past, but following a management buy-out in 2003, they became Kidd again.
Nothing wrong with the old single and double chop harvesters, they were brilliant machines in their time and the old precision chops aswell lift 12 acres in a day, even now whenever I think of silage I picture a JF 900 with that distinct hum
is it a kidd....... typed that before you said it ...... we had two kidd 650 side flingers muck spreaders back in about 1987 , they seemed big at the time .
we had a kidd 346 double chop which had 6 blades on the flywheel it was quit surprising how short it would chop we used to use it direct cutting arable silage undersown with grass seeds
six blades and blower paddles will make it blow a lot better , also it is missing the hydraulic ram to lift header,i have spent 20 odd years pulling one of those three cuts a year all direct cut plus some zero grazing .still gets used as a topper
Great to see that Kidd working again remember seeing them working as boy with little old trailers with congregated metal sides loaded right up brilliant stuff 👍
Great video Dan ,I rescued a vintage Vicon fertilizer spreader off a neighbor , lifted out of a ditch with our Fordson major and loader brought it home ,I intend to restore it for use and for show
Quality effort young man! Nothing like dragging and old machine out from the bushes and having a go with it. If you wern't so far away I would love to have helped bring it back to working order. I have used a Kidd PTO circular saw and that machine is a really good bit of kit.
Interesting.Were never as common here as the Taarup or New Holland. |Seem to remember that the chopper flywheel on the Kidd had a bearing only on one side. The other were supported on both sides
Great stuff Dan. You should aim to atleast fill both those silage trailers in the background with her next spring . Get them back working too 👍🏻👍🏻 Hopefully we see some videos of you patching her up 👍🏻
Remember father using one of these in the 70s and 80s with a David Brown 995 and then 1390 in Cornwall I remember him winding the chute and trying to steer around the bends when opening up. Brilliant memories for me. Great videos Dan.
Another great video thanks Dan I didn’t know that Kidd we’re manufactured locally thanks for the history lesson ,was that a fergie trailer in the background with silage sides on? Would go well with the double chop
Time to pull the old dinosaur in the tail!Have old Tårup that doesn have auger or blower,cause flails are turned 90 degr.,so blowing grass out directly!JF has other system with knives on a cylinder,also directly blowing out,except if it picks up an old horse shoe,then it cuts it into pieces and ruin knives.
Good vid, Dan. I remember when I was very young the farm used two Lundall's ( if that's the correct spelling? ) Not sure if that's the name of the manufacturer? Then the farm bought a new Holland self propelled and quite possibly that's when they started growing maize. Be grand to see you use it next year if you get the time to get her repaired.
Quite amazing the way it was put to work after all the years sounds like the forager has been a faithful old servant to you and your neighbour. The Kidd machinery was very popular I believe back in the day and from Devizes apparently my dear departed Mothers home. Thank you Dan.
Great to see them working well togeather fantastic video! Definitely worth keeping if it does that well after 8 years and you've given me some good tips to get our old double chop working again one day
