9. Farming 1979/85

On Sheriffs Court Farm during this period, as with most farms in the country, big changes were coming into effect from being in the Common Market. Subsidies for growing most crops led to a time in farming history when hedges and trees were pulled out to make bigger fields, dykes were filled in and grassland was ploughed in to grow more acreage of crops. In many cases, the new ground did not produce much, but the farmers were able to claim their subsidies for growing and planting a crop. Milk and meat production grew to excess. Many of a certain age will remember the ‘Butter Mountain’, when more butter was produced than could ever be consumed within the Common Market.

The rules on grain storage changed at this time. The moisture content of the harvested grain was reduced from 17% to 15%. Like a lot of smaller farms at that time, Sherrifs Court had very limited space for drying and storing grain. The barley was taken straight from the field to Grain Harvesters at Wingham, which had huge storage and milling facilities. Some of the wheat was taken directly there, but most was dumped on a barn floor then transported to various mills by Whites Transport. The lowering of the moisture content meant that a larger percentage of the grain had to be dried to get it down to 15%. When most of your grain was dried off farm it took a larger toll on any profit.

Percy Huckstep was the combine driver on Sherrifs Court but unfortunately Percy had a serious heart attack in 1979. The boss, Fred Fuller, asked if I would drive the combine. I agreed, but only if it had a cab put on it, which he did. The cab was a glass box with a window on one side and a door on the other – when both were shut it was like sitting in a greenhouse. My previous experience of using a combine was of driving it for one lap of a field the year before. I knew very little about how to set up and use the machine. I was sent on a one day course run by Invicta Motors, who then sold and maintained Ford tractors and New Holland combines. My first real experience in driving the combine was not in the field, but on the road. I had to go and cut our field of barley which was along Crispe Road at Acol, a strange feeling driving a 10ft wide machine with rear steering, driving in and out of parked cars and hoping the on-coming vehicles would pull over and let me pass. This was the start of a thirty year love/hate relationship of operating combine harvesters.

Terry Marsh

Originally published in the Monkton News (May 2025).