Regulars
3 Welcome
11 News
All the latest news of what’s going on in the world of tractors and farming heritage.
73 Tractor Talk
Win tickets to The International Model Tractor, Plant & Construction Machinery Show and in February 2013 plus our regular letter of the month.
78 Model World
It is time for the autumn collections down on the scale farm and Henry Smith picks out a selection of high quality offerings from some of the top model manufacturers this season.
81 Everyone’s Favourite Tractor
Find out why Friends of Ferguson Heritage’s Ploughing co-ordinator Robert Godfrey thinks that Ferguson tractors offer the best fun you can have for around £1000.
86 Meet the flockers
With their unusual appearance and amusing behaviour Polly Pullar’s Guinea fowl are certainly worth a guinea a minute in entertainment value.
89 Rare Breeds
No.105 Badger Face Welsh Mountain Sheep
90 Things aren’t what they used to be
While trying to get on with his latest tractor mending Graham Hampstead keeps discovering that the art of modern manufacturing is not always to his liking.
120 Farming Focus: Charolais cattle
There can be no denying the positive impact that the Charolais breed of cattle has had on the British beef sector. Perhaps regarded as a new breed to Britain, it actually celebrates half a century of life in the UK in 2012.
122 Next Month
Preview of the January issue of Tractor magazine.
In the workshop
40 Piston smash
Ben Phillips completes the rebuild of a the Ferguson TEF-20 that arrived at his workshop with the engine in a terrible condition.
Your tractors
6 Red letter days for sleeping giant
Craig MacDonald from North Berwick in Scotland is the proud owner of a superbly restored 1966 Massey Ferguson 130, a tractor which his family has owned from new.
16 Here’s to the power of ten
To celebrate 10 years of the Newark Vintage Tractor Show this November, we trace the show’s development with David Green, former chairman of Notts NVTEC and one of the driving forces behind the show.
22 British Ploughing Championships
The 62nd British National Ploughing Championships were held at Whittington, Staffordshire by kind permission of J F & B M Gray on October 13-14. Donald Bowler reports.
26 Irish elegance
Pete Kelly visits County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, to see a newly-restored McCormick International B-250 that’s been a treasured member of Brian Durnien’s family for 35 years.
28 Big blues
A quiet woodyard in the south of England is perhaps not the place that you would expect to find representatives of some of Ford’s largest tractors built from 1968 to 1994 – but that is just what we found with a Ford 8000, a TW35 Force II and an 8830 all residing together.
34 A bumper crop of Welsh Rushes
The UK broke all manner of records this year, however the one which affected Jo Roberts the most was the ‘wettest June since records began’.
36 Great leap forward?
Nothing to do with easing oil, Allis-Chalmers’ WD45D was, at the time, an advanced tractor with a whole host of new features.
Marketplace
94 Tractor Events
More events from around the country including the Blue Force Conversions Day with many unusual tractors at work such as the Doe 130 featured on this month’s cover belonging to Nigel Burton.
102 Sales & Marketplace
No respite for the auctioneers again this month as interest in vintage and classic tractor sales continues apace.
Farming heritage
42 E-B at Alistair Robertson’s
You can be guaranteed of something interesting at Alistair Robertson’s collection near Edinburgh; this time a couple of extremely rare ploughs and tractor of the same make – Emerson-Brantingham.
47 Sale seals silver link
The ‘Queen’s Tractor’ returns home after a winning bid from its former owners. We look into the background of this famous machine and explain its place in history.
52 Holding back the years
Vintage and veteran tractors turn back the clock to the good old days and show how it used to be done at the Little Casterton Working Weekend, Lincolnshire on September 15-16.
54 A tough act to follow
IHGB received many visitors to its tractor factories in Doncaster, especially during the 1970s. Ask any what impressed them most and you could put money on it that they would say the foundry at Wheatley Hall Road.
57 Ford 8-16 Model B
It’s a Ford, but not as we know it. It wasn’t built by the Ford Motor Company and it has no connection whatsoever with Henry Ford. In fact it predates Henry’s Model F tractor by some two years.
58 The Tractor Power Wars
Our series following how tractor manufacturers tried to stay on top in the early 1960s by increasing the power of the vehicles moves into four-wheel drive and conversions for specialist jobs.
62 Tractor Gallery
This time we feature a ‘superbly unrestored’ Massey Ferguson 35 on a farm a few miles from Alnwick in Northumberland.
65 Tractor Archive
More farming memories depicted through the pages of implement and agricultural brochures of the day.
69 The history of Valtra
The early years. With extensive access to the archives of Valtra Inc, Alan Barnes follows the rise of a global tractor manufacturer.
