This being an agricultural post thought I would mention for those who dont know that Pedigree stock are registered with a different letter of the alphabet hence the two heifers wrighty is selling start with a P & an R so one was born a year after the other, presume this year will S but I will be corrected if wrong.
Set up the crush and run this morning ready to put my new steers through to worm and blackleg inject them prior to being turned out to grass which hoping will be this week, Buzzer.
I reckon you will have had a fair bit of rain Buzzer as we have had a fair bit the last few days.
Always something happening on this farm,clearing out the old straw and muck from the barn where the cows have had there calves recently.
ANDREW,I like your posts and are extremely jealous so many memories ,i did suss out the dog/s barking at you syndrome when enjoying, your we break i realised it was my walk as normal full pace all ways in a hurry.
I then watched all the locals whatever country i was in, as you will know they walk slow not a care in the world they were so slow as if they are stopped, on weekends walking around i found it worked ,just slow ,i found it very difficult but it works.
dbp.
Do any of the Davies drivers take a bicycle on their European trips? I would remove the front wheel so that you can stow the bike in the passenger seat foot well and secure it or put it in my trailer, if it was a fully loaded trailer or a sealed trailer I would secure it to the front or under the side bars.
On a 45 hour weekly rest, I would try and find a different place to explore and use an atlas that listed picturesque routes or interesting places to visit such as a river or lake or medieval village.
But always write down where your lorry is parked, you may laugh but after one too many Sherbets, I know of many European drivers that have forgotten where they left it .
Great photos from Andrew.
Tarmaceater:
Do any of the Davies drivers take a bicycle on their European trips? I would remove the front wheel so that you can stow the bike in the passenger seat foot well and secure it or put it in my trailer, if it was a fully loaded trailer or a sealed trailer I would secure it to the front or under the side bars.
On a 45 hour weekly rest, I would try and find a different place to explore and use an atlas that listed picturesque routes or interesting places to visit such as a river or lake or medieval village.But always write down where your lorry is parked, you may laugh but after one too many Sherbets, I know of many European drivers that have forgotten where they left it .
Great photos from Andrew.
T funny you should mention that we once had a driver who used to carry a bike on the pallet rack but think he always had too many sherbert’s before the intended bike ride, in the end we extricated a rusty relic and disposed of it as it was completely seized up, we dont have pallet racks any more so no temptation anymore.
Had a mate who ran a little D series 7.5 ton flat and he had a job delivering super market trolly’s that clipped to a wheelchair, some stores had maybe 4 some just two anyways it was a multidrop job all over the UK, he got a retired chap to do the driving and had a phone call from said driver early one evening saying the truck had been stolen from the services lorry park, anyway the police were alerted but then the old boy remembered that the cafe on the side he was parked was shut so he had walked over the bridge to the other side for his meal but forgot he had crossed over to tuther side, he had to ring home red faced to explain he had a memory lapse, was funny at the time but these things happen.
Andrew quite often goes exploring when on a 24 or has time to kill and it is amazing some of the places he finds, cheers Buzzer.
Ex DIT driver Billy Mallin in the USA today going through Utah at 75 thats MPH, not a lot of traffic in front of him to get in the way though, Buzzer
Andrew in Weil am Rhein today and he has company with a Broughton truck and one of there subbies, Buzzer.
Had a visit last evening from Mr Reynard he had a chicken or two but I got a mate coming and he’s got a couple nice lead samidges for him if he comes back, I topped the grass today so if he does come we will be able to see him.
Oh Yes , Broughton transport, formerly Mortimers transport and their famous Eat more chips logo advertising on their trailers, owned now by Toby Ovens in Melksham Wiltshire.
They were bought out by a Dutch firm whose name escapes me, but they did a lot of Greece and Turkey and Luke Vernon aka Switchlogic used to drive for them too .
One of them years ago got stuck in a village in Cornwall and the trailer had to be lifted up by a crane, it made the tabloids.
The rumour was a local was stood in the road waving for the driver to warn him but he got ignored and carried on until got well and shafted stuck .
Apparently paying UK and European drivers a flat rate pay of £69 per day, work that part out if you do a 15 hours duty and a 10 hours drive, you can earn more working for an Albanian or Romanian gang leader (Master) washing cars at their car washes .
I reckon you may have used these conveyors a few times Buzzer.
Click on pages twice to read.
Imagine this is 1950’s ■■
Hi all, in the 1960’s they got a new bale conveyor on the farm where my dad worked it was a 2axle 4 wheel to tow behind a trailer big improvement on loading with a pitch fork as specially when you get up 6 or 7 layers high can’t remember the make but was mostly red with a petrol engine. 
Thanks for the input Dean 7 Kev, you are right these bale loaders were quite common back in the day and saved a lot of ■■■■■■■, as time progressed and fore loaders on tractors took over with flat 8 & 10 bale sledges and claw grabs which was much quicker, then we moved on to the big bales both round and square which can weigh in excess of half a ton but thats progress, some small farms still like little bales even today. Below is a picture of a Lister Blackstone model which was common usually with a Briggs & Stratton petrol engine.
On another note heard nought from Wrighty this week and wondered how he got on with his two heifers that went to auction let us know mate, cheers Buzzer.
I broke up one of those Lister-Blackstone elevators a couple of years ago, that had the B&S engine. Some were fitted with the Wolseley WD’s.
I have a 1936 International Model M engine that was taken from a farm elevator in Southport back in the sixties.
My engine but not my pic.
Pete.
Buzzer, nice farming touch, not many of us left who had the pleasure of balancing on a sledge behind the straw bailer with a bully farm worker going as fast as he thought covered in grit and dust mind you a good in site to work at 15.
Hi all, yes the first bale sledge we had my dad made you stood on a small platform with a bigger platform behind it, you stood on it and stacked the bales 4 high so 8 in a stack then somehow can’t remember how but it tipped and dragged the stack off then we got a new one that slid along with metal bars that slid along the ground and a frame all round it. It was about 4 bales wide 4 bales long when the bales came out off the bailer they just landed wherever so i used to ride on the sledge and straighten them out so you got more in then when it was full you pulled a string that opened a gate and left the bales in a heap. No Health and safety in those day’s i would have only been about 6 year’s old. yes Buzzer wrighty is being very quiet.
this is the same sledge as i was talking about. the one on the left i think the other thing is an early bale grab.
Buzzer:
Thanks for the input Dean 7 Kev, you are right these bale loaders were quite common back in the day and saved a lot of ■■■■■■■, as time progressed and fore loaders on tractors took over with flat 8 & 10 bale sledges and claw grabs which was much quicker, then we moved on to the big bales both round and square which can weigh in excess of half a ton but thats progress, some small farms still like little bales even today. Below is a picture of a Lister Blackstone model which was common usually with a Briggs & Stratton petrol engine.
On another note heard nought from Wrighty this week and wondered how he got on with his two heifers that went to auction let us know mate, cheers Buzzer.
Thanks for the picture Buzzer,I used to load those Lister elevators from Stamford to all over the UK,mainly went to agridealers in Scotland,used to get 6 on a trailer,with 2 having wheels hanging over the offside,some went to shows too,easy unload but a pig to reload without a crane!
Happy days!..or were they?
David
Ah Kev the early bale grab was IIRC a Perry loader which I had the honour to have owned such a beast, even made short extensions for it so it lifted higher. It fitted on a fore end loader with a cable at the top and it kept it level as it gained height and had an oil ram to squeeze the arms together, this was used in conjunction with the first type of bale sledge you and DBP mentioned and that was a filthy job especially behind a Massey 701 baler with its chomping horse head packer, had one of those as well and it made bales like little bricks having a tensioner on the side as well as down pressure, it was heavy and weighed about 3 tons, some had independent engines some Fergie but mine had an Armstrong Sidley diesel engine, oh the memories Buzzer.
Nice old photos of the sledges ,however the one i had to use was in Northamptonshire and maybe they were short of cash ,the one i learned to balance and stack was just a basic all wood sledge no sides,[1959] a flap at the rear that you pulled a rope from the front i am sure you then pushed from the front and momentum took them off the rear so long ago but never forgotten .dbp.