Ploughing, My first attempt

Now bare in mind I’m a town-ny that’s moved out into the North Lincolnshire countryside so I’ve never had anything to do with ploughing a field, let alone the setting up of a plough and the plough itself need refurbishment to work right, never the less I was going to have a go. The area that I chose to plough was about 20-yards by 20-yards, an area of the field that was un-even through heavy vehicles causing ruts with their wheels, maybe this was another obstacle that would affect the finished result.

So I reversed the tractor and plough up to the fence and lowered it all the way, with the tractor in 1st gear I set off. The plough started to cut into the ground but only slightly, just skimming the turf off and rolling it over. There was one small patch where I had crossed an old wheel rut where the plough didn’t even touch it and left the green grass showing at the bottom of the rut. As for the straightness of the two furrows, well they were about as straight as a banana. Having spent many years driving heavy earthmoving plant, I knew straight away the angle of attack of the plough was wrong so I shortened the top link on the couplings which made the points of the plough shares point down slightly more and off I went reversing to the fence with the right hand rear wheel in the previous furrow.

Off I went again but this time the plough dug in too deep and brought me to a standstill as the wheels struggled to grip. I lifted the plough on the hydraulics slightly and we soon started to move forwards cutting at a reasonable depth this time. Now it became apparent what the stop block was for on the hydraulic control lever was for, to ensure the hydraulics set their selves to the same position each time they were lowered. I noted the position of the control lever on the next pass and ploughed a few more furrows finding a technique for lowering at the beginning of the cut and raising the plough at the end of the cut. I also found the furrows were starting to look straighter which was pleasing to see.

I completed my 20 x 20-yard area, which was by no means perfect and I look forward to learning more about ploughing. The 2 miniature horses “Storm” and “Shadow” had started to show an interest in the ploughed area so I then repeated the process but ploughing across the furrows to break the earth up further. Then I dropped the plough off where I’d intended to put it in the first place. Next I coupled up to the weeder that I’d bought some months since believing it was a set of Ferguson grass harrows. After a few passes with the weeder the ground was much leveller and safe for the horses to run about on and an ideal patch for the Shetland “Ricky” to have a good roll and a proper muck bath.

Monday 26th July 2010

The car and trailer with plough on board was still sat outside the cottage this morning so while Wendy went to feed the horses, I got the Brasso out to polish the brass plate on the plough and get some information. The plough is a Massey Ferguson, which I knew from sale and it is a type 794, serial number R 001523, which I didn’t know. About an hour later and after a very helpful phone conversation with Graham Pressman, a Ferguson plough manual was ordered and on it’s way to me.

Later, I took the plough up to the field to off load it. It was quite easy to lift with my engine lifter then just drive the trailer out from underneath the plough and once on the ground, I could have a good look around it and take some more pictures of it and consider how I’m going to restore it. I think the forged items will just need a heavy wire brushing but the steel plate parts will need to be shot blasted. The cutting edges of the plough will need replacing if I can get them.

With the plough un-loaded and sat in the middle of the field, I really couldn’t leave it there for fear of the horses stumbling over it in the middle of the night and where I wanted to put it was inaccessible with the car and trailer and almost impossible to get even ground for the engine lifter to be safe, so I started the tractor up to move it further up the field. I coupled the plough to the tractor and the hydraulics lifted it with ease although when I came to drive away, the sharpness of the clutch did lift the front wheels a little. This made me wonder if the plough was a little too big for Susie May, my little grey Fergie. So I decided to have a go at a bit of ploughing!!!

Sunday 25th July 2010

This morning found me getting up just after 5:00-am to drive the 275-miles to Dunfermline in Scotland to collect my latest acquisition, the plough. I bought the plough a few weeks since but was unable to collect it until this weekend. My journey saw me travelling north up the A1 to just north of Newcastle where I joined the A68 all the way to the A720 Edinburgh bypass then over the Forth road bridge and to the ASDA at Dunfermline where I was to meet Stuart who was to take me to his Grandma’s farm where the plough was. After loading the plough into the trailer and chatting for a short while I was back on my way home. The journey home wasn’t as good as the one up to Dunfermline, traffic was heavier and I got behind a military convoy which delayed me. I arrived home just before 8:00-pm.