Hi all, yes PDB that was a similar thing to what i was talking about my dad made it but maybe had seen one and copied the idea. 
Here are a couple of pictures of my dad driving the combine. It was bought second hand from a farm in Hartney Witney near reading it took 2 dayâs to drive it home didnât travel very fast. He must have put up a fox or deer always had a shot gun handy. We didnât have any bulk grain trailers but pulled along side a flat trailer and filled West of England sackâs.
Look what the Boss unearthed when she cleaned out a cupboard today, an old CMR from 1974 from PBC European Transport who I pulled for back in the day, it went on to trade in several different guises but alas is no more, thats 47 years ago where has that time gone, Buzzer.
Click on CMR twice to read.
Donât bear thinking about John all them years back 19 and a bit ton of Aluminium ingots. Still nothing from Wrighty hope all ok up there. Maybe he got a good price for the 2 cowâs and he has jetted of some where exotic.
Evening Buzzer
Nowt exciting going on up ere this week, mixed weather sunshine then heavy showers but at last there are signs that the grass is now growing.
Our two heifers at Carlisle got to ÂŁ2200 and ÂŁ3200 so we turned them out and the next day we were contacted with an offer of 5k for the younger one, so they are stopping at home and Rglenda is off to the Great Yorkshire show in July.
On the elevator front we used to have a Lely Anylevel that was red with a Briggs and Stratton petrol engine, had it for years and we used to put straw bales on top of the silage clamp with it and also we used it to unload 100cwt bags of fertiliser into the barn.
Busy day at work tomorrow off to Carlisle for an inspection then up to Oban and Inverness, so that should keep us goingâŚ
Cheers Wrighty.
Wrighty good to here from you, sorry your heifers did not make your expectations but as we have said before thats auctions for you, never know what the outcome will be. Today we sorted out the biggest of the bunch 14 in fact and took them down the marsh for the Summer, just been down and checked them and they seem fine grazing away but not too much growth there, I have restrained them in a 7 acre field for a few days till they get used to running free, they always go mad when you first let them out. Got two at 23mo and they are off to market tomorrow as if I keep them this Summer they will be too close to the 30 month limit so better they go now, still got 14 left inside but the park they are going into they dont want them in there till mid June so they will have to wait a bit, cheers Buzzer.
Just a kwick update on the two steers that went to Salisbury, the trade has got a little slower especially for the younger cattle but the older stuff for feeding on is still good. Had a long wait as mine were only 3 lots from the end of sale but they did not disappoint the Blue X making ÂŁ1160 and the Charolais X ÂŁ1235 so came home a happy bunny, cheers Buzzer.
Evening Buzzer
Sounds like youâve had a good day today, makes it all worthwhile when you have a good doâŚ
Todayâs load bound for Horncastle and Louth.
Cheers Wrighty.
Nice to see a herd of cattle in the New Forest last week.Should have got a better pic of them. 
Tractor on a walk this week.
Went down the marsh to check on the steers today and took âWoodyâ our dog with me just to get them used to him, on arrival they were all laid down nice and quiet just chewing the cud as they do but soon became aware of the dog and got up and came and investigate, they had a little game of chase but soon got fed up with that. You can see where they have been as the ground is quite wet in places so they can have a couple more days in that bit then I will let them have the run of all the ground except the haylage field, sad but we have to lock all the gates else some â â â â â â will leave a gate open even though its private and they should not be trespassing, cheers Buzzer.
Not wishing to antagonise anyone on âThe every day story of country folk threadâ but following all the âHu Harâ on both the BBC and our local ITV Border TV about the pending death and destruction of our farming industry can I ask a straight forward question. If this impending free trade deal with Oz goes ahead ( which I sincerely hope it will) and the Beef and Lamb imports start arriving in the UK -----AND ----- the product is of equivalent quality and taste ----- AND----- it is cheaper than the same UK produced product WHY should British consumers be forced to pay the same price ( as a result of applied tariffs to the imported product) as the same UK produced Beef & Lamb. If the imported product is inferior then it wonât be bought by the UK consumer so it will fizzle so no problem for our UK producers !! However, if the indisputable quality of New Zealand lamb is anything to go by I can well see a problem arising. Anne regularly at my behest buys lamb from the regular Farmers markets that have been held in Kendal prior to Covid ! but I have to say with chequered results so why should the Consumer be forced to pay more for a similar product at an artificially inflated price when a similar and comparable product can be imported from OZ/NZ ? No contest as far as I can see . The MMB was a glaring example of running a protectionist regime which fortunately was disbanded.
I am quite open to listening to valid reasoning on the issue but not for the demand for inflated protectionism ! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Not wishing to antagonise anyone on âThe every day story of country folk threadâ but following all the âHu Harâ on both the BBC and our local ITV Border TV about the pending death and destruction of our farming industry can I ask a straight forward question. If this impending free trade deal with Oz goes ahead ( which I sincerely hope it will) and the Beef and Lamb imports start arriving in the UK -----AND ----- the product is of equivalent quality and taste ----- AND----- it is cheaper than the same UK produced product WHY should British consumers be forced to pay the same price ( as a result of applied tariffs to the imported product) as the same UK produced Beef & Lamb. If the imported product is inferior then it wonât be bought by the UK consumer so it will fizzle so no problem for our UK producers !! However, if the indisputable quality of New Zealand lamb is anything to go by I can well see a problem arising. Anne regularly at my behest buys lamb from the regular Farmers markets that have been held in Kendal prior to Covid ! but I have to say with chequered results so why should the Consumer be forced to pay more for a similar product at an artificially inflated price when a similar and comparable product can be imported from OZ/NZ ? No contest as far as I can see . The MMB was a glaring example of running a protectionist regime which fortunately was disbanded.
I am quite open to listening to valid reasoning on the issue but not for the demand for inflated protectionism ! Cheers Dennis.
There are arguments that Australian beef uses growth hormones that are currently illegal in the UK.
Thst gives an advantage to them, our farmers canât have.
If we choose we can enable our farmers to use these methods and level the playing field.
Same argument with USA chicken meat. Different more cramped housing is allowed in the States, along with different slaughterhouse hygiene rules.
Different uses allowed of antibiotics too.
Genetically Modified Feeds are allowed in some other countries but not in the UK.
Do you want us to change our laws to line up with foreign laws?
.
To ensure free trade we would need to allow our farmers equal freedom to foreign farmers.
We would effectively have our food and animal welfare standards set by the US and Aus governments.
.
Iâm not staying their rules are necessarily dangerous, just that they are taking a different line than us. Do we want want hedges ripped up to enable more efficient larger machines on bigger monoculture fields?
.
Works in other industries too.
We could equally allow freedom to Lithuanian hauliers to come here and provide cheap rates for our industry too, couldnât we? Where is the difference?
Now for my penny worth as Dennis has fired the start gun, when it comes to food it is the buyers choice the decisions they make on purchases and a lot have to cut there cloth accordingly as to the budget they have to spend. A lot of our present generation do not necessarily go for quality and when I see the adverts by Iceland and the like one wonders who feeds there family on that sort of fare but they do and a lot of them, supermarkets are to blame for lots of our diets as they have the majority of the market, there are no longer any seasons as one can purchase say strawberries as an example from any where in the world year round nowadays, they have massive buying power and more or less dictate what we eat. Long gone are many Butchers and Bakers and Green grocers that I remember as a kid growing up on a farm but we had many a meal in front of us that was totally home produced.
As for the farming front I passionately believe there should be NO subsidies paid out to any one in the Industry, this just creates a form of false accounting and should not be allowed in any business but thats my opinion and others may think differently. On one point Franglais mentioned about hedges being ripped out to make way for bigger machinery that has been going on for a good few decades already to accommodate the huge machines we see in the fields ie combines which can cost several hundreds of thousands of pounds and are used for a couple months a year then stored in a barn with many big farms and estates joining forces and sharing such equipment. Now some have woken up to the green approach and have left verges round these vast expanses of fields for which I may add they get paid for, as for GM crops it is for the punters who buy the goods on offer to check what they are buying and if they dont agree with it dont buy it and as always market trends will dictate success or failure of said goods but again cost has a massive influence in the decision of what people buy. Just a thought how many mums check where a product comes from or how it was produced or what it contains not many they just get what the kids will eat without fuss good or bad. Today its all about time, is it easier to just sling it in the microwave and wait for the ping or prepare a meal from scratch with fresh produce or just ring for a takeaway, things have changed a great deal from when I was young when the mother stayed at home and looked after the house, kids and did all the homemade cooking, nowadays due to financial pressure more mothers go out to work so have less time for proper housekeeping its the way things have progressed.
Dennis I am with you on the New Zealand lamb as its good value and there is no way you would catch me spending ÂŁ25 for a leg of English lamb even though one could if so desired, we just wait till Tesco have the NZ on offer at a tenner a leg and go and get a dozen and put them in the freezer. Will recline now with a cup of tea and await the flack, cheers Buzzer
Well John it would appear that us âWurzelsâ are few and far between at the moment based on the lack of response so here is a shot of me with one of my great Pacers, Dalechief shot after his first win at York raceway as a 2 year old , he went on to win the National Pacing Derby at Tir Prince the following year in 1990. Oh ! and having tried âSalt marshâ lamb a couple of times it is absolute â â â â â !! Just tastes of salt so the best thing that comes off the salt marshes in â â â â â â â â â â â â â is turf for bowling greens ! Cheers Dennis.
Bewick:
Not wishing to antagonise anyone on âThe every day story of country folk threadâ but following all the âHu Harâ on both the BBC and our local ITV Border TV about the pending death and destruction of our farming industry can I ask a straight forward question. If this impending free trade deal with Oz goes ahead ( which I sincerely hope it will) and the Beef and Lamb imports start arriving in the UK -----AND ----- the product is of equivalent quality and taste ----- AND----- it is cheaper than the same UK produced product WHY should British consumers be forced to pay the same price ( as a result of applied tariffs to the imported product) as the same UK produced Beef & Lamb. If the imported product is inferior then it wonât be bought by the UK consumer so it will fizzle so no problem for our UK producers !! However, if the indisputable quality of New Zealand lamb is anything to go by I can well see a problem arising. Anne regularly at my behest buys lamb from the regular Farmers markets that have been held in Kendal prior to Covid ! but I have to say with chequered results so why should the Consumer be forced to pay more for a similar product at an artificially inflated price when a similar and comparable product can be imported from OZ/NZ ? No contest as far as I can see . The MMB was a glaring example of running a protectionist regime which fortunately was disbanded.
I am quite open to listening to valid reasoning on the issue but not for the demand for inflated protectionism ! Cheers Dennis.
Morning Buzzer
Well Dennis I take it from your post that if the Brexit deal had scrapped all cabbotage rules for foreign/european trucks that would of been fine too. As Iâm sure Buzzer will agree Davies International survive/thrive in a cut throat market dominated by our foreign friends⌠why, because they provide a reliable customer focused service that people are prepared to pay for. Iâm all for fair competition but can we not look after our own interests first. Why do people think food should be for nothing, we all know as a percentage of the weekly budget food now is a lot less than it was say 30yrs ago. As for the MMB Iâm sure the majority of farmers would quite happily see it back and be getting a fair price for their milk, margins have never been so tight and to supply such heroâs as Tosco they will send you one of their âexpertsâ to tell you how it should be done. would you be happy to buy New Zealand milk if it were 10p a pint?, at least food produced in this country has traceability which is what weâve been told it must have by the consumerâŚ
Also our green and pleasant land isnât there buy some miracle itâs mostly through generations of toil by hardworking farmers, and when our Goverment has done itâs best and driven the industry to extinction we will all be able to go walking in a wilderness of thistleâs, nettleâs and scrub.
Right Iâm off to feed some animals before a nice roast pork dinner, presumably Dennis is off for a lovely Mcdonalds with all the trimmings.
Cheers Wrighty.
Hiya Wrighty,
Now donât you go âboiling yer watterâ and to just advise you we are having a nice Aberdeen Angus joint 'wi all the trimmings PLUS a bottle of NZ Merlot ! As regard to subsidies and quotas well Iâm firmly on Buzzers side of the debate . Privately owned and operated Road Hauliers never received any artificial financial help in fact quite the opposite the industry has always been unfairly burdened with legislation solely aimed at making life as difficult as possible for the industry. Your comment about DIT being successful is quite correct but they manage this commendable achievement through their own efforts without any kind of outside âartificialâ financial help or any form of protectionism .
Without doubt the MMB was one of the most unaccountable âshowersâ and almost âStalinistâ in their treatment of the customers they sold the milk to and they even demanded to know what the manufacturers used the milk for and dependant of the final price of the product the MMB priced the raw material to each manufacturer accordingly ! So how was that for unfair interference and control ! Oh! and the MMB treat their Hauliers like crap and it was a case of if âThe Board says jumpâ their Hauliers just asked " How high ".
As far as I understand it the farming industry in NZ is every bit as good as it is in the UK although as far as Iâm concerned NZ lamb is far superior to the UK lamb and usually cheaper âwhy ? and I am speaking as a customer so why should I be forced to pay a higher price for an inferior product ? From what I have seen of NZ methods their sheep graze on organic pasture and their dairy industry is every bit as good as the UKâs so if I can buy NZ milk at 10p a pint ( as you suggest) which is proved to be every bit as wholesome in everyway why shouldnât I ? If of course the NZ product is inferior and suspect ( which it is not) I would have no hesitation in choosing not to buy it !
The same principals can and will be applied to lamb and beef from OZ for as long as the quality is of the equivalent standards to the UK product but it is cheaper then I would buy it. If the product is proven to be suspect then there is no way would I touch it with a barge poll â but time will tell I have no doubt. But the âplaying fieldâ has to be level i.e. NO SUBSIDIES OR QUOTAS ! We are now living in the modern real world for good or ill so I am sorry if we arenât seeing âeye to eyeâ but no hard feelings whatever mate ! So if in the unlikely event that this trade deal with OZ/NZ is scuppered well what was the point of Brexit ? Regards Dennis.
I also agree the farming industry would be better without subsidies, but there is this misconception that subsidies are there to provide farmers with new Landrovers and tractors which they are not, they are there to provide âcheap foodâ. It amazes me the amount of people who leave home in a morning and walk past a kettle and a toaster to go and buy breakfast at these fast food eateries, pay more for a bottle of water than beer and still claim to be hard up.
As for Brexit it is a once in a lifetime chance to put our countries interests first for once, and as usual our Goverment will â â â â this chance up as wellâŚ
I have to agree with Bewick on the MMB, in the mid 70s when I was doing Middle East as an OD, I used to take extra UHT milk as gifts to a few people in Jeddah.
Word got out and I had people crying out for bulk loads of it, but try as I could there was no way I could get bulk supplies for export.
It would have been a very good earner and possibly set me up for life, and at a time when HM Govt were pleading with us to export and earn Foreign currency. I had my father - who was in the food industry & supermarket supplies - on the case, but all to no avail.
A bit earlier than that, a mate of my fatherâs ran a big dairy herd and a milk dispensing sideline with vending machines in factories around outer London.
He got out of it, sold the farm, and moved to Australia to found a property empire with the cash from the farm, I guess he also had problems with the MMB.