Welcome
Once again the British Tractor Challenge Committee is bidding to beat the current mass working tractor record held by Australia. The target is 2006 tractors, the venue Hullavington, Wiltshire, where Britain failed to take the record from the Irish in 2003, and the date the weekend of 24-25 June 2006. This time, writes the Editor, we cannot afford to fail.

Miles of smiles!
Yet another memorable National Vintage Tractor Road Run has been and gone, but this year’s Easter Sunday event in Lancashire was one of the best yet, writes Pete Kelly, with additional photography by Fred Needham, Noel Bridgeman and David Bowers.

Origin of the species
The magic of the Waterloo Boy tractor, the forerunner of the John Deere breed, is revealed as Pete Kelly and Tony Hoyland visit Mike Kendall to spend a morning with his recently-restored 1922 Model N.

News

A day to remember
Pete Kelly finds himself in the company of new-found friends with an eye for a good tractor collection as he returns across the border to give a talk to members of the Scottish Vintage Tractor & Engine Club in Perth.

The last load
With some more great cartoons by Pete Wilford, David Bowers recalls a tiring race against time to gather in the hay bales before a violent thunderstorm lashed a Lancashire farm.

Funny Farm
Things get serious for once as Pete Kelly experiences the joys - and heartbreaks - of lambing time.

Rare Breeds Factfile
The 15th short article in Marianne Thomas’s popular series is about Whitebred Shorthorn cattle.

Letters

Gone hopping!
Alan Barnes recalls the hop-fields of his Kentish youth, and laments the shrinking acreages given over to this most traditional of crops in the Garden of England.

Tractor Talk
Ernie Dutton of Cheshire brings a bit of history back to life as he tries out a local Ruston Hornsby ‘Shorturn’ plough with his recently-acquired Fordson F.

Ploughing in Herefordshire
Pete Kelly reports from the Herefordshire Ploughing Association’s brilliantly organised Ploughing Match, which attracted well over 100 entries in bright but bitterly cold conditions towards the end of February.

The good life
Our new columnist, Graham Hampstead, who repairs and restores Fordson Dexta tractors, lives an idyllic lifestyle surrounded by animals near Old Leake in Lincolnshire. Pete Kelly reports.

County tops £17,000 in big Malvern sale
Even though the Malvern hills were covered in a light blanket of snow, thousands attended the annual Tractor World Show at the Three Counties Showground on 5-6 March. Jane Brooks joined the Saturday crowd.

Sonny Smith - reversible genius
In the second part of his feature about 10-times World Reversible Ploughing Champion Sonny Smith, David Bowers charts Sonny’s rise to fame and tells of his admiration for Ford’s Select-O-Speed transmission, which had an Achilles’ heel in the wrong hands.

Mad dogs and Chamberlains...
Roger Hamlin joins five Chamberlain tractors and a solitary David Brown Cropmaster as their owners embark on a 115-mile marathon to the Naracoorte Rally under the unrelenting Australian sun.
Farming under distant skies
A dream comes true for Polly Pullar as she is invited to look at farming in South Africa - and see a little local wildlife along the way.

When dairying was tops!
In Farming by the Fireside, Pete Kelly admires the qualities of a handful of issues of The Dairy Farmer magazine from more than half-a-century ago, kindly loaned by John Blake.

A lifetime under the hammer
John Barker keeps an eye for a bargain as he attends the sale of farming equipment and machinery amassed by Nelson Dance, who died last year after farming near Andover, Hants, since the 1930s.

A bit of a bind!
It took a bit of head-scratching to get it out but, when Ross Yeaman’s Canadian-built Wallace binder emerged from the remains of the shed where it had stood for many years, all agreed it had been well worth the effort, writes Peter Small.

Fred’s Restoration Problem-Solver

Diary Dates
Don’t forget it costs nothing to put news of your forthcoming events on these pages.

The Herriot dream - Welsh-style!
Jo Roberts joins Lleyn Peninsula-based farm vet Ken Williams for a day.

Advintage
Hundreds of classified advertisements for the vintage enthusiast.

Welcome
Once again the British Tractor Challenge Committee is bidding to beat the current mass working tractor record held by Australia. The target is 2006 tractors, the venue Hullavington, Wiltshire, where Britain failed to take the record from the Irish in 2003, and the date the weekend of 24-25 June 2006. This time, writes the Editor,....