The Plough, the Plough. Wherefore art thou…

The Progress

The immense amount of goodwill we have received since Michael announced he wanted to restore his grandfather’s tractors has been very touching. Really it has been lovely hearing people recall their memories of Charlie, of the win, the celebrations and even of the ‘little green tractor’s put-putting around Glencree valley’. Arising from the unexpected media coverage, which has helped enormously to highlight to the general public and the wider farming community what an insurmountable task Michael has set himself, we have now received several offers of sponsorship, which we are hugely grateful for. Michael hopes that some or all of the tractor restoration would be completed by a vintage restoration expert and with sponsorship secured these hopes can now be facilitated. While he would dearly love to do the whole project himself he realises, that he only has two hands and it would be physically impossible given the short timeframe and that his farm work from now until September will be busy, busy with spare time being little or none.

The Plough

Lots of progress has been made with the ‘Tractor Project’ in terms of sourcing parts, talking to vintage experts and he even has found and bought a set of tyres for the D40L. Yet, sometimes it feels like no progress has been made and the clock is galloping along at ninety miles an hour! Since my last blog lambing is now nearly completed with just a few ewes dragging their heels, no rest for the wicked though and Michael is now discussing ‘taking up’ his silage ground. So really with the constant flow of pressing and urgent farm work there has been no time for any physical restoration of the D40L or D15 tractors, however with the D40L tractor on the road to being restored Michael has turned his attention to finding the plough in earnest.

In all the plough matches that Charlie competed in to qualify for the World Ploughing he used a ‘Pierce Plough’ and Michael, to his delight, has been able to locate the exact original Pierce plough that Charlie used in all the qualifying matches. He knows that it is the correct plough because Charlie, being Charlie, made some alterations to it so it would suit his needs exactly. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree in respect to Michael, as he has altered every machine he owns to his ‘exact needs’ for as long as I have known him!!

 

 

 

 

Getting back to the Pierce plough though, Charlie actually welded an extra piece to the boards so they would suit his own specific requirements and the weld mark is still there today!

 

 

 

The Appeal

While the Pierce plough is in fierce rusty condition, it can be (easily?!) restored to its former glory, but the elusive Kverneland Hydrein 2 furrow match plough is another story! That cheeky plough is like a lost jigsaw puzzle piece, hiding somewhere at the back of a shed, or half fallen into a ditch only waiting to be found and given the chance to make the picture complete. The picture below is from a Kverneland advert that Charlie featured in and is the exact plough we are looking for with the SQUARE beam (not a round beam like the later model).

Michael even had the opportunity to talk on the Today FM Ray Darcy Show to appeal to Ray’s listeners to help in the search for the plough. Please have a listen as Michael describes the plough in detail. Thank you so much to Ray and Jenny for their help!

 

So once again it is a Kverneland Hydrein Special 2 Furrow Match Plough we are searching for so please, please, please have a quick look at your old plough and see if it’s our missing jigsaw piece!! You can see a video on Youtube of the plough being used in Norway by clicking here and here.