The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: Odin on November 03, 2013, 10:09:09 am
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Selling my potato planter as I have purchased a new one. ( an old new one ).
The machine for sale is a Ferguson 'automatic' planter. Dates from around the late 1950s. It is in full working order and planted 2 acre of potatoes this year.
I have used it on my DB885 but a smaller tractor would operate it as it only needs to be pulled along by the 3 point linkage, there is no PTO as its own wheels turn the planting mechanism.
Reason for selling it is I have up graded to something more modern.
It is not advertised anywhere else but I will be entering it in the auction at the David Brown Tractor Club at Meltham, Huddersfield in December. I am asking £250.
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Its mine, all mine! Had a good drive up to collect on Saturday and very nice to meet Odin and see his collection of machines. Can't wait for spring to be able to try it out!
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Very advanced, mine has a bell, every time it rings the two planters drop a potatoe down the chute....as the driver you can have a laugh by increasing your speed !
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Nice to meet Ben 'frum' Cambridge, hope the altitude of West Yorkshire was a pleasant experience and that the planter serves him well. I have used it for three years and it got my operation running. It is a very reliable machine .... unllike the weather.
The 'Bell' Method was the L model which required two potato operatives on the planter working to instructions from The Bell.
This is the GT model with a delux platform for an observer to stand on. This model picks up the seed potatoes automatically and drops them into the shoot. In theory, no operatives are required on the planter but it is best to have a 'bod' on there just to over see the operation.
The upgrade that I have purchased is the GLX Custom Delux model. (about 25 yr old). I have yet to operate it as it is still in my workshop being overhauled, however. It relies on cups to lift the seed spuds from the hopper and raises them to the top of the shoot. Here there is a wire finger fitted that lifts as a spud passes which in turn operates a light in the tractor. So the light flashes consistently when working correctly. This 'newer' machine also has more adjustment for furrow width and spacing. It can also feed a fertilizer directly into the furrow as the spud is planted.
Much less labour intensive for me and should allow me to grow a larger potato which is a demand.
Unlike Ben who runs a co-operative, getting folk to do 'owt around these parts aint happening. Considering this village was a hot spot for the Luddite Uprising exactly 200 years ago (October 1813).. how things have changed..... loans, four wheel drives, TV and fast food. :eyelashes:
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Odin, were you at a farm sale near ulverston earlier this year ?
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Yes, I was at a Farm Sale (forgot the name of the farm) but it was near Urswick, or Gtt Urzuk as the locals call it. The farm was almost a museum, the tackle was very old but in excellent condition. I bought three items including some horse drawn 'zig-zags'.
There was another farm sale nearer Ulverston that I missed but bought a Fergy disc harrow by proxy.
Like it around there, still a nice piece of England.
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I thought I recognised you from the photo, I was there too, bought the plough and the rowing bodies, I think you bought the stich harrows, spoke to you briefly, when you mentioned Huddersfield.
The farm was only a mile from small holding I grew up on, my sister lives there now, I still need to go over and collect the implements !
My sister bought the big stone trough in the yard...which gave me and the brother in law an interesting removal project......thankfully it's still in one piece !
Gt ossick. Is the correct pronunciation !
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Aye.
I also bought a mint Ferguson Grubber, or tyned cultivator and the low bodied hay trailer that was originally a Scammell Mechanical Horse trailer that was used in Vickers. Still got all the markings on it. Came from Peter Stables farm in Gt ossick. Done me proud all that stuff. It wasn't an expensive day.
My second home on that coast, Grand parents burried at St Michaels at Rampside. Spent best days of my life on a farm in the 1970s between Peasholme and Newbiggin.