8. Farming 1977/79

On Sheriffs Court Farm during this time, Norman Holden, Tom Cully and Ron Fuller were the senior work force, with Bob Hood, Percy Huckstep and Fred Kulzer the main work force, with me at the bottom.

As I said in my previous edition, Norman, Tom and Ron were of an age where working long hours no longer appealed to them and they were quite content just working a forty hour week, mainly working close to the farmyard. Norman retired during this period, after working there for fifty years. Percy, Bob and Fred did all the field work. In the 1970’s, 9 months of the year were spent doing something in the fields.

The ground on Sheriffs Court is not the easiest to work on, two thirds of the acreage is on the marshes. Although the marshes are very good for growing wheat, they are very difficult when growing root crops, potatoes and onions in our case. Once the marshes are saturated in the autumn, they rarely dry out again until April the following year. In contrast the upland ground can often be worked on for 10 months of the year (some of the best ground in the country, rapidly disappearing under concrete).

With machinery a fraction of the size it is today, planting, harvesting and ground preparation would take six to eight weeks each. A round of spraying or applying a round fertilizer, could take two weeks. Most corn drills were only 3 metres wide, as were power harrows and sets of discs. Ploughs 3 or 4 furrows. Sprayers and fertilizers spreaders only 12 meters wide. With corn drills only holding 5 cwt and corn, being planted at 1.5 cwt an acre. Sprayers only holding 200 gallons and then applying 30 gallons of water an acre. Fertilizer spreaders only holding a ton at the most, applying 2-3 cwt an acre. Drills travelling at 2 mph, sprayers and applicators at 5 mph, it was easy to see why with these capacities, it took so long to do things.

During this time, because I was the only one who wanted to drive the new John Deere, I was being given field work that I had never done before, ploughing and corn drilling. Ploughing was not too difficult to learn as in regard to setting up the plough, keeping a straight furrow, turning in all the surface rubbish and the ground looking all even when turned over. I got better at it the more I did. Planting wheat for the first time was a bit daunting. Using a combination drill, a relatively new way of sowing, a power harrow with a corn drill mounted on top. The fear in doing this for the first time was not knowing if I had done a good job until 3 or 4 weeks later, and if I did make a mess of things, it would be there for the next 6 months for everyone to see!

Terry Marsh

Originally published in the Monkton News (April 2025).