Great to see some good civil discussion on a traditional agricultural subject.
For me personally the two operations in the farming calendar year which gives me most satisfaction are ploughing and harvesting, before the days of quiet cabs there was nothing I enjoyed better as a teenager than ploughing with the seagulls following quickly behind shouting away and the smell of the soil, all these you do not experience in todays modern cabs, then harvesting a crop after growing it is also very rewarding.
My ploughing interest and connections go back a few generations, Alan mentioned the famous Ransomes of Ipswich ploughs, back in the days of horses both my great grandfather and grandfather ploughed in competitions in Lincolnshire using Ransome ploughs, in doing this and winning many prizes they were like demonstrating salesmen for Ransomes ploughs, I still have many of these prize certificates and family photgraphs of the two geneartions locally at matches. So naturally my dad always enjoyed and talked about ploughing and as a young lad I sat with him for hours on the tractor watching behind what was happening and how a plough works, but must say I didn't always listen to his knowledge!! he always told me the best way to learn how a plough runs is to walk behind one.
During the early 1980's when I started vintage ploughing I would attend many local ploughing matches, he woud come with me, often riding on the M-H 25 fender, eventually Health and Safety stopped this as only one person can ride on a tractor here in a public place, so after years of doing it he found that difficult to take.
I used to plough with the styled M-H 25 and a three furrow Ransome RSLD plough which grandfather bought new, also I ploughed with the green Pacemaker and popular M-H No 26 two furrow plough.
As I progressed I really enjoyed the ploughing and skill I had learnt but must say I found the majority of the culture changing at these events, the competitors were at each others throat to win the silver cups and prize money, as described earlier in this thread the conditon of their work to achieve this was what my dad used to call "gardening" following with a fork or sometimes their hands burying any visible trash, I even experienced fighting at one match many years ago over the eventual winner.
That was it for me and I have never ploughed again in a match, I like nothing better than to go to a vintage working event and demonstrate any of my tractors and implements, including ploughs and the M-H Pulverator plough, which of course would be frowned upon at any competative ploughing match.
At a demostration everyone including owners and visiting public enjoy seeing the equipment working how it was originally intended to do, that's what gives me satisfaction.
Alan, IL plowman and Jerry good to see you doing some fine work with your ploughs and thanks for some good photographs. I have never ploughed with my GP it looks like you got the hang of it with those furrows IL, is it good to use as a ploughing tractor?
I know there is a place for everyone and everything on this earth and hope we keep it that way so we all get along fine.
JWB those well turned furrows in the fall allow mother nature to work during the winter months with frost rain and everything else, then when you go over them in the spring with your harrows they break down into a lovely seed bed, to sow your spring crop.
Here are a few old photographs of the 25 and Ransome plough and the Pacemaker with No 26 plough back in the early 1980's.
Malcolm.