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Marky, How many MF brochures have you got....? R Day

Dear All, Very many thanks for your kind words of support. It's good to know what everyone likes...and likewise I would expect plenty of feedback if there was something you didn't like. Probably quite a 'modern' issue this one, although there were be some older classics in the May issue. Also a report from Nuremburg toy fair which just missed the April issue. Best regards Rory Classic Tractor

Hi Andy I have had the following response from our subs dept: 'The label cut off date for the March issue was the 16th Jan so if they subscribed after that date they will get the April issue as their first sub.' Hope this helps. RD

Dear Andy Firstly, very many thanks for subscribing to the magazine. I hope you find it interesting and worthwhile. Regarding your subscription question, I can honestly say I have no idea, but am going to find out what the procedure is. I would have expected you to have recieved e-mail confirmation of some kind, but as this is not my department I'm not entirely sure. Usually our subs dept are pretty good (with 12,000+ subs they have to be). I'll get back to you. Rory

Nope, believe it or not it's the March issue already and it's packed with Masseys. Not sure if you'll find it in Tesco, though..... RD

Marky There is a good reason why you don't have the issue containing the MF 3000 Series story: it is not out until 23rd February! RD

Marky I trust you liked the story on the prototype MF 1150s and the MF 4000 Series, not to mention the Irish collector and his MF 100 Series tractors....? It was a good month for MF enthusiasts. Can't promise it will be the same every month although there's a cracking feature on the MF 3000 Series in the next issue. Enjoy! R Day

Dear MDFord, This is something that we have noticed with our own copies in the office and to be honest it annoys us as much as it probably does you! Suffice to say I do not think it has been a regular problem in recent months, although it certainly seems to be widespread in the March issue. It is correct to say that we have been increasing the size of the issues although even at 136 pages the centre pages should not be coming adrift from the staples. FB - I am glad you have been able to read the latest issue of Classic Tractor and found it quite informative. Hopefully we can make the next one very informative! Thank you all for your feedback which incidentally I have passed on to the publisher who will in turn be sending it on to the printer for their comments. Regards R Day Editor, Classic Tractor

Nashmach, Contact number for it is 087 1337 033. Contents to include: New Tractors & Machinery Contractor Focus Practical buyer's guides Features on older machines, classic appraisals There's even an enthusiasts secion Trade Talk Down to earth reports, etc. 70% editorial, 30% advertising. Circa 8000 copies. Regards Rory

Nashmach, What do you know about the new Irish magazine 'Tractor & Plant World' which is due out soon....? Rory

Ford4ever, No offence taken. Advertorial is a nasty thing at the best of times and I have no wish to do it in CT. Regards Rory

Farmernick Yes, you're right, it is. Pictures of Robert Morley's County 4000-Four are a bit like buses - none for ages, in fact ever, then two in the same issue. It was quite a coincidence. Regards Rory

SPN, Thanks for your kind words and comments. Much appreciated. Glad you found some of the more 'oddball' subjects in the latest issue of interest. Ford4ever, Brushwood most certainly did not pay for the feature, nor were they just a good contact. I became away of their buildings whilst surfing on the www.farmmodels.co.uk website and noticed that they had some new releases for 2007. I like the 'Collectors' pages to be current so followed it up with Steve Harris who told me that there were three new buildings that had just been released at Toytrac. Steve is a supplier for Brushwood and works closely with the company, so I asked him to put the words together, but that's about all. It was certainly not an advertorial. Regards R Day

Probably the best book on the subject to date. Highly recommended. Plus a superb section on tractors and the prototype Xerions. R Day

Bigbud, You've got me foxed! Reveal all (not literally). R Day

What's in the latest issue of Farm & Site and how many pages is it...? R Day

Udimore I would love to help out but I have more than enough on my plate at present. We are up to 75 pages of editorial stories in CT each month, and trust me, that ain't much fun finding and editing that amount of material.... Regards Rory

Although not a subscriber to Farm & Site, I do have every issue since No.1 (I pick it up from Spalding, etc) and thoroughly enjoy it. I have been a full-time editor since 2001 and was heavily involved in the launch of 'Earthmovers' magazine in 2004. I learned some very valuable lessons when we launched Earthmovers. Essentially, we appointed an editor who turned out to be less than suitable, to the point where, with less than six weeks to go to the official launch, we discovered he had done absolutely zilch work on the contents and as a result he was asked to pack his bags. By this time a definite publication date had been set with the distributors and news-trade. Had we not gone ahead with the launch - or been late by even a few days - we would have lost all our credibility with the trade and it would have severly compromised a re-launch at a later date. In short, we would not be taken seriously, and rightly so. This involved an 80-page, monthly publication. We pulled it together somehow and got the mag out on time, but what a struggle it was. It made it, though, and the mag went on to prosper. It seems to me that F&S, by being so late, is in grave danger of shooting itself in the foot, and from the comments on this forum, a number of subscribers are clearly not happy (and this is before they have seen a finished product). F&S has undergone quite a traumatic period in its life and needs to come out with all guns blazing. I sincerely hope it survives because it's an absolutely cracking little mag and the only thing out there for UK collectors. R Day

Ford4ever, Ask and though shalt be given - and that's what you get, a Deutz buyer's guide. Finding good quality older Deutz tractors is not easy in mainland UK - however, I will accept that the one we did land on, the droop-snout Agrostar 6.38, is probably one of the least common Deutz machines around (but still better than Agrotron MkIs and IIs). Hopefully it will stand up as a bit of a novelty/curio item and an example of an early droop-snout model. Regards Rory

Ford4ever, Glad you got your copy OK; I wish I could put it together in the same way that you read it! Interesting to hear that the Case 2290 in this month's FF lives near your parents. It's a small world. Regarding F&S, for what it's worth I would be absolutely vilified if CT was this late. Plus, I would lose a heck of a lot of readers to other mags. Guess F&S doesn't have this problem as it's the only publication out there, apart from the Euro mags and Toy Farmer. Regards Rory

I am concerned to hear that Dawsons were late delivering Classic Tractor today, especially since there have been no problems with the publication dates (subscribers recieved their copies on Monday, I believe). If there are any further problems please let me know. It could be a busy weekend because TAFT (Tractor & Farming Trader) is out in the shops today I think and subs copies of T&M usually arrive on a Saturday. Regards R Day

Nashmach & James F Some good comments here and very welcome. I didn't want the section to go stale wghile at the same time I wanted to retain the popular names such as Darren Tebbitt, Peter James, etc who have been with us since the start. By changing to the new format I was able to bring in some new faces whlst retaining the old ones. I apprecate that this has meant losing the pictures of writers' own machinery. However, this was often more trouble than it was worth because it put the onus on the contributors to come up with the own pictures, which were often prints, which meant they had to develop a whole film just to get one pictures, which was often of moderate quality. Dispensing with the pictures means less hassle for all involved. I think the new layout works much better and the various observations of the contributors are much more to the point. Regards Rory

A good question. Here goes: The magazine publishes on the last Friday of each month, which can vary between the 24th of the month and the 31st. I do not know what the original thinking was behind publishing five weeks ahead of the actual date on the cover, but once you're in that routine it's very difficult to change. Had we published on say the first day of the preceeding month, or the first Monday for example it might have been very different and common practice in publishing. R Day

Thanks for the kind comments guys, only just picked up on this thread. I didn't realise there was a section for books and magazines on FTF. Glad to hear the December issue is going down well. January issue being put to bed as we speak, due out in the shops on 24 November would you believe. Rory

Tractorman810 A good question, but, unfortunately, I don't get involved with this side of the business so have absolutely no idea! The November issue (with the Ford 4000 on the cover) was mailed out to subscribers on 27 September and went on the shelves on 29 September. The next issue (Dec) will be due out around 21-23 to subscribers I would guess. Thanks for subscribing - I hope you enjoy the next 12 months of CLASSIC TRACTOR. Regards R Day