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Yes, 2009, when it all began. Just the same as it is today, but without the rocks.
Note how well the drum is turning, the workers are just guiding the duct a little. The grass is longer than usual, a farmer might not always let you plough at this time.
(The shape of the drum is so that it fitted in a car)
Tony Middleton Dentdale 2018
Version 20 of his machine. Even with three drums on the front he has a dozen extra weights added to counterbalance the plough end. Liam is keeping some slack on the duct, laying from a single 7 drum that is not turning smoothly.
Dentdale 2016
Tony Swidenbank and Graham Knowles
This is going very well, so Graham has little to do, but he is alert looking ahead of the machine and at the ploughing line.
Note how slowly the machine is going. With a vibratory plough it can sort of shuffle round rocks in the ground at this speed rather than rip them up to the surface. It is quicker to go slower.
Inglewhite January 2018
It is not always perfect weather - on a muddy day, it can look wonderfully messy. The grass is very short here and the ground is sodden. Many farmers will not allow their fields to be worked on in these conditions.
Frank at Tunstall
Nobody in their right mind is going to pick on the way Frank does things, Frank is B4RN’s top outdoor volunteer by a country mile.
- But why is he pushing on the ducting?
- Duct is nicely laid out on decent grass.
- Note the weights that have been added to the back of the tractor to stop the plough rising up.
Nottinghamshire
An interesting piece of kit. An off-set plough on the back of a tractor. This enables it to be used on roadside verges and at the edge of fields. The extra gubbins that sticks out to the side of the tractor, seems to be stopping the plough actually being very off-set. Possibly the whole set-up is a neatly cobbled up apparatus that is used for something else as well.
Nottinghamshire
Too many people.
And even then the ducting is getting out of sync – the guy in the red is unaware that the ducts behind him are of different lengths.
This demonstrates grass build up. Often it sorts itself out. You could strike down occasionally alongside the blade with a sharp spade. You could just hope it manages. You could try the stomping with your foot method. No telling which would be the best technique. It depends.
Cowgill 2018
This happens to be an off-set moleplough, with a vibrator unit and a removable backplate - all mod cons. However it is dealing with a single 7mm spur, so well within its operational capability. There is no cutting wheel, so it tends to rip a bit rather than cut. Note the way turves occasionally build up in front of the blade and the way the plough rides them. Sometimes the turves build up too much and the machine will have to halt while they are manually removed.
John here, is not particularly concerned about the duct (which is likely to guide itself), he is watching for build up of grass.
To help remove the build up, it is possible to stamp down at the side of the blade from time to time. This is not dangerous if you have done it before....
We have some debate about the usefulness of the skid pads either side of the blade. Do they just get in the way?
And could the intermittent foot stamping next to the blade be automated? Possibly that's why the pads were invented...
This is an attempt to show the foot stomping technique. A view vertically down to the cutting blade.
2016 Bleasdale
Perfect ground in a flat newly-cut field and it looks so simple.
Green duct is unusual to us newcomers they seem to have used a lot more different ducts and multi-cores back in the day.
Tony Swidenbank dealing with a rock Barbondale 2016
If you take out a large rock and dispose of it elsewhere then you have the problem of a large hole to fill in. If you can get the rock back in the ground, without damaging the duct then the problem is solved. You see Graham using bits of turf to line the hole before Tony puts the rock back.
This is normal speed, Tony doing a bit of tracking in.
Dent 2016
Sam and James with Tony Middleton ploughing
It can get messy. Standard old school plough doing great stuff.
A large stream barred our way. A digger was used to destroy the banks of the stream (farmer's own land) mainly so the tractor could cross it, but also with the hope that the plough would do its work. As it happened it wasn't perfect we had to leave a foot of slack in the river bed to be dug down lower with the digger.
And it's Swiddy's gang in Longsleddale
A good demonstration of the action of the helpers stopping grass accumulating in front of the plough, before it causes a problem. Not that that grass looks a problem, and it is pretty flat - but it will make a very neat job.
Do the side plates do much? Tony Middleton took one off to gain a couple of inches when he did some very narrow roadside verge with us. That still left the bracket for the plate in the way, if you sawed that off you could do some very tight work.
Neat stuff from Tony Middleton. Duct isn't very well organised, plenty of helpers but not really involved. Nice and slow, it.s a bit of a pull up there.
(The guy walking up the hill is a bit confusing, he happens to be dragging two bits of scrap duct up the hill)
Casterton
Seems to be ripping its way through rather than cutting. It looks perfect for ploughing flat with short grass.
Frostrow 2018 Volunteer attacking at the side of the plough blade with a spade and a tentative foot
Over Kellet
An interesting bit of improvisation as they add a bit of mass and push to the backend of the moleplough.
In non rocky ground this works, as you can see. It's not their usual method, it was necessary at the time.
It actually appears as though the duct is being fed in behind the plough tube, (which does work, you can use this method to feed an extra duct in when the downtube is too crowded. In this case they would be trying to keep it clear of the digger bucket.
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