SPN

The Fendt 818 is the must have fashion accesory for the discerning farmer round these parts. The County 1174 is my all time favourite tractor.

A lot of dairy farmers 'round here are looking strongly at growing maize bacause they are allowed to spread more slurry on maize ground than on grassland. If they decide to grow maize they may consider taking a short crop of grass off the fields first - I remember one of the bigger dairy farmers doing just that two or three years ago. Other than that, I wouldn't expect to see much silage cut until early June. The growth is way back this year because of the lack of rain.

Yep!

There will be a model show in the [url=http://www.carltonmillracehotel.com/index.html]Millrace Hotel, Bunclody, Co. Wexford on Sunday May 27th. On show will be Ag, Construction and Haulage displays and dioramas in 1:32 and 1:50. Diecast Heaven will have a large selection of 1:16, 1:32 and 1:50 scale models for sale, including some newly released models. (more on this closer to the date - like when the delivery arrives and we know what's in it ) There are a couple of scratch builds rumoured to be making their public debut at this show too More L8r.

The plan for a model display at the FFA Show in Cork hasn't worked out. Garret, Michael, Leo, Denis and I are all unavailable for various reasons. I still hope to get there for a few hours on the Sunday, but bringing and setting up models isn't going to be feasible. Apologies to anyone who is travelling. S:

The article was excellent - if anything it was too short. I love those stories from the frontline in the 70s & 80s. Lots of "so that's what that was all about" moments. The JJ Thomas connection didn't come to me until later. A pic would have brought it home immediately. Not a criticism, by the way, more of a thinking out loud thing.

I thought you might have been test driving it 'round the garden!

What did you do to the Scania?

Top notch again Rory! I think you should have had a picture of a Ninety Five 100 to accompany the story about Thomas'. Only us total anoraks will have caught the connection. Keep up the good work!

A couple of years ago. The R/C model was badged 7810, the non R/C model was badged 7410.

ERTL made the John Q. ERTL made the Case 51*0 ERTL (Britains) made some Massey or other. (Who cares - nobody buys them ) Nobody has made the Zetor Crystal in 1:32 (Commercially anyway) If you want to make loads of wonga, get the licence (the management of Zetor are Brits now - ask Rory for the contact details) to make the Zetor Crystal (2wd, 4wd, 4cyl & 6cyl!) and you will be quids in! If you involve Martin Smits, even better.

A God walks among us!

Just when we think things can't get any better, along comes OF with some awesome detailing. By the way, the small tyre on the right. Corgi or Dinky?

The record is for vintage tractors - over 30 years of age. Every Major, Dexta, 2/3/4/5/7000, 35, 65, 135, 148, 165, 168, 175, 178, 185 and 188 that is still in working order will be there. Other models we can expect to see are the 770, 780, 880, 885, 990, 995, 996, 1200, 1210, 1212, 1410, 1412, 384, 270, B414, 454, 574, 674, Zetor, Ursus, Universal, Belarus and - the daddy of them all - the TE20. Lots of TE20s!

I saw a very rough 135 with Lambourn cab and Webb seeder on back pass along the N25 yesterday. Great to see the old'uns out working

Selene 4wd conversion for starters!

Yeah, but while the 716 was the epitomy of cool a couple of years ago, the 820 is the must have fashion accessory for 2007! (I remember a time when you couldn't get 716s, they were so much in demand, but the Dealers used to tweak 714s up to close to 716 horsies - I drove one! Beautiful machine to drive!) Even 818s are considered passe at this stage around here - it's called brilliant marketing!

The last time they did it in Cooley (and I stayed at home that morning - to my shame ), they had 800 tractors registered on the Saturday. They didn't bargain for the 1000 that just happened to turn up on the Sunday morning. This time out it will be properly organised! I have three lowloaders organised already - now all I need are the tractors to fill them with!

The 820 is the new 716

Not only will they get 2140, they will all be pre-1977!

Get it into your diaries NOW!

[url=http://www.fordfordsonassociation.com/cgi-bin/show.cgi?d=cork_show]The Ford & Fordson Association are holding a two day show in Cork City, Ireland, on the (Irish) May Bank Holiday, May 5th and 6th. FNHIR posted some pics from last year's show, but I can't locate them just now. The plan is to have a big display of 1:32 farm models - all BLUE - and a good selection of custom and scratch built machinery models and buildings to show them in all their glory. Roll Call: Who's travelling? Will you be bringing any models/dioramas to show? (need to figure out what space we will need).

Just off the phone to Garret, and he hasn't hit Cookstown yet. He'll post pics tomorrow - he'll be taking to the bed when he hits home in two hours time. Fabulous show by all accounts.

Where have I heard that before?

I got to spend a half hour on a tweaked 714 Vario a couple of years ago. The Vario gearbox is more intuitive than I expected. I had no bother driving it. The other computer functions are a whole different ball game - although you could call up the picture of Mr Fendt's daughter if you knew the right key strokes