Belarusfan

Very nice pics Mart

yea great pic mate

would it be possable to get a few more "classic" potato/vine topper's

like the one in the 2006 "potatoe harvest stopped" as im thinking of

making a topper to go behind a DB 1490

also any pics of old two row ransomes potatoe digger would be brill

cvheers nigel  ;)

lovely quality photos there 

Hi Nigel,

There are some more pics of the topper here:

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1231.htm

I hope they may be useful.

I don't think I have any Ransomes lifter photos but I'll check for you.

Chris

A great site Chris and you seem to be a dab hand with the camera.

I'm sure it will help with many members model convos.

Thanks Jamie

not decided yet but was thinking about a carrot harvester

Seems a good idea

really like the site chris top stuff. Come over to hawstead and whepstead some time and get me on using my jd (MOWER!!!!!!) :D

Thanks Nice to know there's more local members

Great site, great pictures, and great for looking at for if you need reference pictures if your making or converting models. It's been a very big help to me 

Thanks for the comments What will you try next? May I suggest a Mastenbroek? :

Looks excellent :)

Starane Gold will definitely kill everything - we used that last year on a field that has quite a lot of vetch in it - burnt it to a crisp but also slightly checked the spring barley too so needs to get very low rates - if I remember correctly we only put it on at 1/2 rate and still it checked the barley

At that sounds a little harsh then if it did that at 1/2 rate Lables don't generally give references to winter or spring triticale and just say 'triticale' which should be ok, but as the spring type has only increased in popularity recently I wonder if they don't write winter as triticale was mostly all winter? \

Brillant pics, love the pea havesters stuck

Thanks Yes some conditions this year weren't really ideal

Happy Birthday all

That's brilliant Chris, really enjoyed reading that  . It's 'The Good Life' on steroids! 

Keep us updated, looking forward to seeing the other operations throughout the year.

It's a real achievement to do what you're doing, and nice to see you using interesting, obscure or obsolete machinery too.

Great stuff 

Thanks Simon I guess it is a little like the good life

Interesting stuff there Chris - MCPA and CMPP with abit of Ally or Harmony M should do the trick

That is the current question, what to go on with, did look at some Starane 2...  I guess it will depend on what's available.

Can I add my support for this site too...I spent far longer than I intended online recently looking through the pix, excellent stuff Chris

You can indeed Joe Thanks

i have to agree as well has been a favourite of mine for a long time now  , just a pitty there isn't more silage in your neck of the woods  :'(

Indeed, it's mostly an arable area, although there's plenty of pigs, poultry and some beef too, but not a great deal of dairy.

Another one of my regular haunts - keep up the good work Chris

Thanks, it's nice to hear some feedback :)

Excellent update to this topic Chris.......Nice to see how the rest of your year went....... :)

Thanks Mart, hopefully this year will be more successful yield wise

Wow What lovely pictures. I can see that i will be spending a lot of time lookink through all of them!

I have added the site to my favorites.

Some of the photos have brought back some nice memories esp the sugar beet images. I never did enjoy hoeing beet but it was satisfying at the and of the day. In a strange sort of way i miss it.

I look forward to some more updates.

Thanks

Thanks a lot Chris 

Thats a whole load of more wasted hours of working time I stand to loose now..

What a site  - some cracking stuff mate 

Thanks Marky, hopefully you'll still have time to work your new toy

Thanks for the link Chris, Smashing photos of a very large assortment of tractors and machinery, well worth a look

That is a very nice website, it is in my favorits now.

Erik.

Thanks guys

A blatant bit of self advertising I'm afraid But as this section seems to be developing into quite a useful 'directory' I thought I would like to add my own site

So www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk

Hi Chris, I've just been looking through your website and just wanted to say it's great and some of the pictures will be a help to me as I'm in the middle of building a trencher/drainer and stone/gravel trailer

What make/model are you going for? I expect you've found all the trenchers on there, but just in case you haven't:

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1028.htm

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1155.htm

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1160.htm

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1205.htm

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1206.htm

this is a class topic, love it, you've got me in the mood for growing things all i need is....

1acre field

ford 2000

2furrow plough

cultivator

2meter planter

some fertilizer

wee trailer

mini combine

baler

=jackpot :D

great topic, keep er lit

Thanks

Great read and good photos. 

A bit herbicide will give a better yield this year too. 

Thanks, hopefully it should keep things a bit tidier.

No it was one of our diggers I took to the yard I think they levelled some ground to put containers on Chris Thurstons don't have much left now : I move there drainer etc there was pictures on here in my topic 'pictures from work' but I think they've gone since the server change :(

Ah yes that would make sense. Indeed it's a shame they've gone downhill so much. They did have their own lowloader and DAF 85 or 90?

Some pics I have of their drainer:

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1160.htm

Do you move the crawlers as well then? Or maybe theyre small enough to do with their own trailers?

I thought I regonised it I took a 14ton digger in there last year for Thurstons ;)

Oh really, do you mean actually into the field? As that must have been pre-2006? Or just to the yard? I wondered how you knew as it would had to have been an amazing guess!

Were you transporting one of their Hymacs?

Thurstons used to be VERY interesting, but sadly most of the nice bits and pieces have gone, and that's just as far as I can remember so must have had some lovely things back in the day?

Wonderful Chris, what was the yield last year?

I would LOVE to have just a little bit of land like you have and do what you do, keep up the updates

robbo

Last year was dissapointing for a number of reasons but mostly rabbits (hence the triticale), and the fact that I cut half way too late. Also a herbicide would have helped things. So it's hard to actually judge what I would have got if it'd cut it all properly, but I salvaged about 525kg.

Hi Chris is your field behind Finbows yard ???

maybe : I don't actually own it, just use

I must say that does look nice! An excellent purchase, now I guess she's just got to pay for herself?

I thought it might be a nice idea to resurrect this thread and update it with the rest of last year and this year.

Quite a few of the photos are already on here but now they are all together in order to complete the 'diary'.

Combining the first half of the barley, 11 August 07:

Belarus 250 on the 1t trailer, parked on a bit the rabbits cut for me:

Sacks:

and the sample (note the greenery, seems almost all combines dont like it and have trouble removing it):

Combining the second half, 11 September 07:

Exactly one month later, and look at the increase in size of the weeds and poor quality of the crop:

250 again:

Dressing the barley to remove awns, small pieces of straw, weed seeds, small pieces of weed, and other rubbish:

and a lovely sample:

Back to the field again. It was left until 15 December, during which time the weeds died down and the straw started to rot. I then topped it to chop up the straw and bring the stubble height down to the ground, so that this would all rot quicker and be easier to plough in. So, topping with the Belarus 250 and my Hayter topper:

A full cycle; back to ploughing again. This year the Belarus MTZ-82 was ready and in working order. As it is fairly light land I can get away with ploughing it in the spring, and this has the added benefit that no weeds grow after ploughing/before drilling.

On 8 March I ploughed most of it with my Rabe Werk Hawk-S 3 furrow:

The rest of it was ploughed on 4 April, after a friend had removed a heap of rubble and old trees with a digger. Sadly it had been very wet and the JCB had left ruts and caused some compaction, so one area was fairly wet and ploughed up rough, with the tractor ploughing through water filled ruts at times.

Finishing off a small strip:

The rough area:

General view:

Breaking the land down was different this year, as I had bought a power harrow. So the seedbed was a lot better compared to using the harrows last year. Could have done with some dual wheels but not really worth it for the area.

Belarus MTZ-82 and Maschio HB3000 3m power harrow, 12 April:

General view, the bottom piece had already had a very shallow pass to level off the flags:

This year's crop is Spring Triticale (a cross between Rye and Wheat, and supposedly rabbit proof), variety Trimour, and was drilled on 15 April. Sadly there had been a couple of small showers after power harrowing so it had needed a couple of days to dry.

Belarus 250 (with home made markers) and Ransomes Nordsten Lift-o-matic 3m cultivator drill:

the finished article:

Of course my drill has no following harrows, so a pass with the seed harrows was needed to make sure the seed was covered, and to confuse the rooks by messing up the marks left by the drill!

Belarus 250 and gang of light seed harrows:

and after:

Four days and a couple of showers later it had germinated:

Another week and it was poking it's head out, 11 days after drilling:

and finally today, looking ok apart from the un-drilled strips where coulters blocked, and in need of a spray to clean up some weeds and some nitrogen:

It's going to be spring barley, it was winter oats but the rabbits caused total devastation to the 3 fields over the winter so they were subsoiled and now cultivated. The cultivating was done to allow the air into the ground to dry it out, it may not look like it but in other areas of the fields it was so wet that I came very close to needing pulling out, just adds to the fun

Not those sweet, fluffy, innocent little bunny rabbits? : :P

The blue one looks smashing with decals 8)

MJB1.......you ever get bored, seen too many ford 5000's yet, JD3350s ha ha!

if you drive the same road each day, you don't read the signs, but when a new sign appears, you read it, and wonder what it is

i like not so common classics, because they tell a story that has not been told, they are equally as rare as mainstream classics.

people buy classic tractors and restore them because they drove one when they were kids, that is great, others buy and restore classic tractors, because no one else has one

and lets face it, in 30 years time, someone is going to ask, what ever happened to the MTZ-80.......etc

they are cheap to buy, different to look at, do the job, and you don't blend into the crowd......and lets face it, i imagine chris got this one for a good price, and its pulling that plough alright, its got a cab, 4wd and hyd remotes for the rollover plough......

believe me, i get some funny looks and some very curious on people talking to me, when we get the SAMECAR out and go for a drive, its a tractor, its vintage, its 4wd, 50hp, does over 40k on the road, ha ha!.....and it has a passenger seat

i believe the vintage tractor schene is flooded with the sameolesameole, but that is my opinion, some of the best kept secrets in vintage machinery are still out there in russia, italy, germany, brasil,......we haven't found them yet..........this is because of the language barrier and the states of the nations they are in

hats off to chris, he has a classic tractor i would like, that 2wd 25hp belarus of his, that would be a great tractor for road rallys........and it has a cab!........wonder if it fits on a car trailer

hey belarusfan, ya, its the twist knob on top of the main lever on the right side of the steering wheel,

been a while since i drove, one, i had a real crash course in belarus operation about 5 years ago, i got to a farmers yard harvesting on night shift with my new idea uni, and 8x4 mitsi truck and 3 axle trailer, had to do a million point turn to turn the truck, or shift 4 belaruses and drive round the shed, took me 15 minutes to figure how to start the first one (didn't know it had a isolator switch behind the seat), once i got it figured, and found reverse, i was away ha ha!......the farmer had a 611, 720 920 and 920 with a big turbo on it

Very very well said, and very true Spot on.

Out of interest, how many SAMECARs were made? As it seems an excellent concept? A slightly more agricultural Unimog?

My lever is under the steering on the floor, but same idea I'm sure.

Very interesting you've driven all of those The 611 is a UMZ from Dnepropetrovsk in the Ukraine, we never had them here sadly, what was it like?  How did it compare with the MTZs?

ya belarus was a state/country of USSR.........don't they make a tracked machine up there?? i am told the quadtrac and challenger sales into that country have a tarrif added when sold so there must be domestic industry they are trying to protect

belarus was the name given to tractors for export from 6 factorys by a state owned enterprise (?!) exporting russian quality domestic product

there were also factories in the ukraine wasn't they (another state/country or the USSR)

i forget all the names, chris got a couple  mind you he is a guru

wasn't there one called lipsek? and kirovets

kirovets later went out on its own, trying to recreate a brand of machinery.........guess they figured the belarus marketing was two restricting, i really think cause a lot of kirovets was made in ukraine, and ukraine was split off russia former USSR early, and the ukraine tractor manufacturer saw it was a opportunity to grow

hey chris is that MTZ you got, got the gearlever with the knob on top you twist for ranges?

The tracked machines were traditionally made at Volgograd, but recently (post USSR) MTZ themsleves have introduced a tracked machine from Minsk. Pic of Minsk version: http://www.tractors.com.by/img/tractors/2100/2102-01L.JPG

Yes the Belarus name was given by Tractoroexport who as you say were responsible for those quality machines . In the home market most were painted light blue though instead of red.

List of the main factories involved (with pics of their models over here if I have them):

MTZ Plant, Minsk in Belarus, produced mainly MTZ-50/52 and MTZ-80/82 (70-90hp)

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp553.htm

VTZ Plant, Vladimir in Russia, produced the T-25a and T-30 twin cylinder machines

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1192.htm

LTZ Plant, Lipetsk in Russia, produced T-40, T-40a, LTZ-60, and other air cooled tractors

http://www.farmtoysforum.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=9070.0;attach=19933;image

VGTZ Plant, Volgograd in Russia, produced the 101.5hp DT-75 series of crawlers

XTZ Plant, Kharkov in Ukraine, produced the 165hp T-150 series of artics and some crawlers

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp1031.htm

Chişinău Plant, Moldova, now Tracom, produced light crawlers (mainly the T-70) based on MTZ tractors for row crop and vineyard work

Kirovets Plant, St Petersburg, Russia, produced K-700, K-700A and then later models e.g. K-744, all high hp artics

Rostov-on-Don combine plant, Russia, (now called Rostselmash but doubt it was during USSR???), produced SK-4 Niva and Don 1500b combines

Most plants are still around, but for how much longer?

The Kirovets plant lost access to the Belarus name with the break up of the USSR, as Belarus was in Belarus and Kiro in Russia. Hence the having to use Kirovets. They seem to have done a good job on their own also..

My MTZ has got a splitter where you sort of twist the lever if that's what you mean?

You wouldn`t say that if you had ever driven one

They are a little different

maybe we will see the lockwood contracting use the first million he makes from his book to re invest in some quality plant for the ag division, well the first 10K that is.....ha ha!.......will buy a whole lot of stuff for that much

I'm afraid it would be more Soviet iron :D

Ostensibly Belarus (as it is now known), but I think Belarus was just a brand name mainly and many of them were made in Minsk which I think is in the Ukraine?

This one is a true Belarus, from the Minsk factory (in Belarus ), but during USSR times all Soviet tractors (from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus) were badged as 'Belarus' in export markets. My little one is a Russian from Vladimir.

  An Uncle of mine used to have a MTZ 52, was starting to rust when he bought it, from new I might add. Strange thing to drive but would pull like a train , what you might call an aquired taste.

Quite a lot of the 'new' ones were sometimes not so 'new' : At least now a new tractor is a new tractor.

I think you summed it up well there; 'an aquired taste'