bluegreen

And then its onto the barley and rapeseed harvests using Claas Lexion 460 or 450 combines that had ousted the New Holland TX68, 66s...…..sadly. All their farms used both 6290s and 8220s with the nice old Marston trailers.

In 2000 Vestys had another fleet of 20 or so MFs and as they had taken more land back in hand from tenancies the three farms were split up into 4000 acre blocks, this saw an increase in tractor power. Each farm now had an 240hp 8270 as flagship, also there were 215hp 8260s and 200hp 8250s in the mix along with 160hp 8220s and 135hp 6290s. They start their season with 100 acres of hay across the three estates, so a few old trailers got hauled by new tractors that were way too big ha ha!.

Nice!! much nicer than that weak light blue currently available.

Now this Valtra looks the mutts nuts!! Hopefully the guys buying black ones will switch to these

And back in June 2000 Vestys new MF6200 /8200 fleet began arriving at dealer Mark Weatherheads premises

I found a few more prints of Vestys 1998 fleet of Masseys, plus a year 2000 pic of one of their old tractors that had just been traded for new 8200s and was working on a 1500 acre farm near Cambridge carting corn. The Vesty 6190 pulling the Vicon 510 was a new combination that year, previously they had an MF3125 coupled up to a MF510 version which imo looked much nicer. Needless to say I never photographed that rig, but I would love to see UH or somebody make an MF 510 air drill.

Not sure where this photo came from...……….Cereals 99 possibly, but it was the first one of a new 8200 series tractor. Given the imminent release of a UH MF8220 this seems rather timely. Vestys had quite a few of these along with other models from the 6200/ 8200 series and they will be up next on the archives

I had one buyer who paid £40 for a JD3640 and then made me wait 5 days for payment, then two weeks later they contacted me asking where their delivery was? I said its been delivered, to which they said I was lying and within 10 minutes I had ebay telling me a case had been opened against me and it would be best if I paid the buyer a refund!! Fortunately I always keep my post office receipts and produced the tracking details which proved the model had been delivered. The lesson I learned here is that there are charlatans operating online and this one probably knew that many people throw away their receipts after a few days and thought they would try their luck to get the model for nothing by leaving contacting me to the last minute in the hope I had no receipt. Beware folks, hold onto those receipts.

I know what you mean Chris I have felt the same doing these archives, I had forgotten just how much I liked the MFs of the late 80s and 90s...……………..For some reason they started losing their magic when they lost the silver radiator grill surround. The 6200/ 8200s that will follow next were better tractors but somehow something was lost. I found a few more pics today, an 8110 and 8150 working in the same field cultivating and drilling beet at Tilbrooks farm near Chippenham, I featured them in the Ford part of the archive before they switched to MF and then in the late 90s sold up to Velcourts. Also another 8110 at Stetchworth estates tipping grain, that was their last MF as they replaced it and a couple of other old tractors with two new Fendt 716s (yawn!) in 2004. Sorry Fendt fans im a uk traditionalist...……...Ford NH, MF, JD & CASE They were the top 4 brands back in the day. I never could see what the difference was between the 8110 and 6190 that replaced it, they looked identical, both were 135hp...………..6190/ 8110 both had the same bigger bonnet than 6180.

Ive got a slightly modified 7810 and a new 7710 in its box which arrived with bits fallen off which I still haven't gotten round to glueing back on! Given the only difference is the 7810 decal, front links and a nicer set of front lights and these 7710s are still available I certainly wouldn't be paying multi hundreds for a 7810.

Thanks for the comments guys, I have a few more MF pics to follow yet...…………………..heres the last of the 6100/ 8100s The 6190/ 8120 were the drilling tractors on two of Vestys farms in 1998.

And here it is the 230hp 8170 which looked huge back in 1998 pulling a 6m simba toptilth and was MFs biggest ever tractor at least until a year later when the 8180 had a years worth of production!! it was the only 8170 they had at Vestys as their next fleet of MFs weren't until 2000 which were all 6200, 8200 machines. My favourite picture was of Chris heading home at lunch time and the tractor looked as big as his house Its worth mentioning too that MF were the first manufacturer to introduce 650/85/ R38 tyres on this 8170 model which of course are now very popular on John Deere 6215Rs. That alone shows how much bigger modern day midstream tractors are these days.

Sad to see those old 4000s in such a state...…………...they were the first tractors I saw regularly as a little boy back in the early 70s.

Vestys TX66 and MF6190 harvesting in 1998, soon after I took this picture I learned that there would be one extra tractor joining the fleet of 20 and because it had only just been released it couldn't be delivered before August...……….one of the first of the then new 8170 models...…………….and my mate Chris would be driving it, I was well pleased.

In the summer of 1998 Vestys estate was my favourite farm too visit, as virtually every year they would change all 20 or so tractors as part of a tax benefit. In 98 they once again had a fleet of MF 8160, 8130, 6190s but in 1997 they had shocked everyone by switching from 7 Claas 118sl combines to 4 NH TX68s plus 2 NHTX66s which I was especially pleased by. As ive said before, I do like Claas but there are too many of them to the detriment of other brands, not their fault of course as they have always made great combines, but nice to see some different colour machines get a look in. I took the photos below when the TXs had got a seasons cutting behind them and as luck would have it the last of the new MF fleet had just been delivered. A brand new first day on the job MF8130 with wider tyres than the other 8130s on the fleet too boot I particularly like the pictures of the new red tractor with the blue trailer and the lovely bright yellow combine, colour contrast at its best!

In 1996 Vesty estates had their first fleet of the new 6100 /8100 machines this time they opted for just 3 different models 7 x 8160 200hp/ 7 x 8130 155hp/ 8 x 6190 135hp The 8160s were all coupled up to Dowdeswell 7 furrow ploughs as pictured below and Mark Weatherheads of Steeple Bumpstead were now chosen dealers. I got pretty good at timing my annual June visit to the dealership in anticipation of seeing the Vesty fleets first arrivals

These pictures are a little out of sequence and were taken in 1999, the MFs belonged to Rutterfords of Lakenheath and were mostly delivered as a fleet in the summer of 1996. I did take pictures of them all on TNS forecourt but sadly have lost them somewhere so these pictures of them harvesting onions are all I have left. They originally had a pair of 699s and a 2680 and then went to the 3080s I pictured earlier before trading in for a 8160, 3 x 6170s, 1 x 6150 and retained their older 3060 2wd as seen topping in the last pic. In 1994 MF briefly topped the UK sales league off the back of the excellent 3000 series, but the 6100s weren't as good and by 2000 our local MF dealer was getting trounced left ,right and centre by JD and Rutterfords were one of the scalps. Despite taking an MF6290 in 2000 they were unimpressed and switched to 4x 6910 Deeres plus an 8210 in 2001...…..I wasn't happy...……………...But by 2007 they were changing back to reds and today have several MFs again

Heres a nice pic from the Normac show of 1996 with an 155hp 8130 and one of the first packomat 5 furrow Kvs , just like the Britains one.

I liked to go back in time with these reports, they were really good in the 80s when Oliver was buying lots of John Deere SG2 cabbed tractors, then once it got into the late 90s it lost interest as machinery purchases started to dry up...……………………………………..and now they have completely...…………..0

Resprayed the roof silver and painted the radiator grill surround silver as well, and then both sets of wheels sprayed with Sapphire grey...……………….."that's more like it" Reg plate and tyre dusting to follow when I get a chance, along with the customary 6100 rusty exhaust top

The 8140 was only 5hp more than the smaller 8130, I think it was just much heavier for farmers who needed a mid range ploughing tractor, the 155hp 8130 was now lighter and aimed more at top work operations without the PAVT cast wheel option. Interestingly both machines were still specced on R38 rims with 20.8s or 520/70s. Todays 160hp MF7716 looks smaller but appears to be popular on bigger tyres 650/65 R38s , I think its just that large bonnet on the 8140 that gives the impression its big...……..put a 7716 next to it and there may not be much in it, new tractor cabs appear to be a bit further forward and larger. Mind you the old 8140 has more charisma that's for sure.

After the cereals event in 1995 came the release of the 6100/ 8100 series and their first outing was on the "Power in Action" event on the clay at Otley college near Smithy Just like the Ford 40 series these new MFs set about smoothing off and designing out most of the charismatic features that made their predecessors classics imo. However I didn't like the Ford 40 series but I did like these new MFs. Especially the 6170/ 6180s which looked great, very neat and compact with their sporty new side mounted stacks. Gone were the "cut n shut" drooped bonnet styling of the 3670/ 90s on the bigger machines. I thought the 8120/30s looked good but was disappointed to see the PAVT wheels had gone from this mid range and were now only on the 8140 and above.

My final picture of a 3000 series MF was of this 1995 MF3670 sporting some snazzy Trelleborg wheels and tyres at the 1995 cereals demonstration. I had hoped that maybe I might see one of the first of the forthcoming 6100/ 8100 series but June 95 was an event too soon. Still I find myself wishing I had taken more shots of the last of the outgoing 3000s.

After trying various different wheel specifications I eventually went mostly with the original set up. I just switched the rear tyres over for the nicer ones off a Ford 7810 as both models sport replica 16.9 R38s. Unfortunately the Ford models front tyres don't match with the MF rims so I haven't got another option at present. The wheels and tyres on my new 6170 look good on the 3080 but in reality I would need to rebadge it to a 3120 too justify bigger tyres. And I would need to pinch the front weight and swap that over as well as the 3080 ones would look far to small with bigger boots. So its best left as is I think which to be fair is a very accurate model...………………….very pleased with the sapphire grey spray paint job on the wheels though

A couple of pictures from Otley college cultivations demo 1993...………………...One of the first 3120s which replaced the 3115 and a 190hp 3690 with quite rare wheel weights front and back. Just wished I took more pictures back then.