Machinery An Important Part Of Show

Press, Volume C, Issue 29673, 17 November 1961, Page 18

Machinery An Important Part Of Show

Last year the Courtenay Agricultural and Pastoral Association tried a new idea — a moving parade of all the movable machinery in the trade exhibits—and this was so successful the parade will be repeated tomorrow. One of the few associations to do so, it believes that the parade brings the machinery section into closer contact with the rest of the show and provides an added diversion in the ring from the long series of horse and pony events. Held during the lunch break the machinery parade included headers, tractors, balers, towed implements and vehicles which made a spectacular sight for the hundreds of families picnicking on the grass by the ringside in front of their cars. Machinery displays are an Important part of the show. Frequently they are where a farmer first sees and has time to discuss some improvement to an existing machine or some entirely new development. Early Days— When the shows were in their early days the emphasis was on improvement of livestock and produce. Types of animals were being bred and selected for their suitability to the new conditions of the land being broken in from tussock and scrub. Better types of seeds with higher yields were being sought Later, as cropping became the mainstay of many of the plains farmers there was the need for improved machines. Some of the first ploughing in the Malvern district was done with bullocks using crude implements and harness but within a few years there were improvements. The double furrow plough, with its easier steering and depth control, was a great advance over the singlefurrow swing plough. Harrows and coulters replaced

the dragging of brushwood over the broadcast seed. The flail and winnowing shovel gave way to simple threshing machines which were soon replaced by the famous wooden mill and the traction engine. In their turn, too, have been superseded by header harvesters which have done away with reaping, binding, stooking, stacking and threshing and replaced them with one operation. Bulk Grain— The latest changes are towards bulk handling which was pioneered in the Darfleld district. The harvested grain is no longer filled into bags but is handled by augers and conveyors to and from hoppers and bins to silos and railway waggons for storage and transport. Tractors have replaced horses and a part of the country show—the Clydesdale draught horses—has faded from the scene. Traction engine trains of waggons and even the railways to some extent have been replaced by fast, motor-trucks which can make the time between farm and freezing works or market a matter of an hour or Little more. All of these changes have been mirrored in the trade displays of the shows. Farming has become a highly complex system of business in which efficiency must be uppermost. The farmer has to be able to make use of machines to cheapen his costs of production more and more. Simple fire-welding by the local blacksmith and a pleasant morning’s yarning in the sun is no longer the result of a breakdown on the farm. Many farmers now have their own gas and electric welding units on the farm and special courses are run each year at Lincoln College to teach farmers how to use these units properly. The farm workshop is often capable of quite major tasks

of repair and construction and many farmers with an inventive turn of mind make up implements to help them in their work. The application of simple hydraulic mechanisms to farm tractors has revolutionised many farm tasks. The three-point linkage systems enable implements to be simply and accurately controlled by the driver of the tractor, with often a saving of labour. As well as for ploughs and cultivators the three-point linkage is used for hay sweeps and buck rakes in front and behind, ditch cleaners and diggers, fork lifts and front-end loaders. An ingenious unit invented and built on a Darfield farm last year was a hay bale lifter which lifted up a pile of bales from the ground where they had been dumped from the baler and stacked them on the truck deck. Ingenuity— With bulk handling of grain becoming popular as a means of saving farm labour there has been an incentive to farmers to adapt existing equipment themselves to save on heavy capital outlay. With last year's trying harvest weather there were many bright ideas that were put into practice and worked well which were made in the farm workshop while the farmer waited for L the weather to clear and the crop to dry out. Machinery firms are not being pushed out of the repair business. Modern farm equipment has become highly specialised and complex and calls for servicing and maintenance of the highest order and this type of work can not be done by the farmer. The farmer has taken over the simple repair and replacement work which was formerly done by blacksmith and local mechanic.