Using a vintage tractor to drill maize is eventful

First. Plough with a two furrow, conventional Fergie plough. The tractor was a 21st birthday present for Adam, our friend’s son.

It was originally in the nature of a restoration project, but as the tractor is in good mechanical order and the restoration largely cosmetic, the Fergie is good to go. John was delighted to hear that Mick, Adam’s Dad, was pleased with his son’s ploughing. Rare praise indeed.

Second. And this not accessible to the Fergie as power harrows were not in common use till the 1980s, power harrow the land for a good seed bed.

Third. Ring your mate John. to ask if he ever remembered using a Fergie drill. Although certainly not on a tractor in the 40s and 50s, John can recall using one on the farm after he left school. So a trip out for the day was arranged and John set off, brain in gear, to help set up the drill.

Fourth. Calibrate to drill the maize in approximately 20inch rows. Not centimetres you note. Inches. This was pre-metric drilling. Maize seed is much bigger than wheat, barley and especially rape, so the slides on the drill had to be opened up to take the size of seed.

Fifth .Tip the seed out of the bag, and trundle off to drill. The function of the crop is to be game cover. Mick is improving his shoot with the hope of holding more birds. Pheasants love to pick the seed out of the corn cobs and most game birds feel safe in a field of maize as it offers them cover from overhead predators. The first strip to be drilled was on a hill side. So they started at the top of the hill and drilled down.

“Adam was making a super job of it” John said “The seed bed was damp so there was plenty of moisture for the corn and he was burying the seed well. When he got down to the bottom of the hill and turned round to go back up, the Fergie struggled. The tyres were spinning and it was hard for the tractor to pull the corn drill back up the seed bed.”

Sixth. Take a decision to drill down hill only and get back up the hill, running on the grass either side of the strip, without drilling. That worked.

Seventh. Roll the crop in; but by then John needed to be home to feed round the cattle and check the sheep. He spoke to Mick that night and he and Adam were celebrating a job well done.

Perhaps all this new space age tackle, with satellite technology and computer precision, isn’t so necessary after all.