It is well over 40 years since a cereal crop was grown on the farm of Noel Larkin, who is based near Killavullen, Co. Cork, but government fears of a grain shortage last year encouraged him to plant 9ac of spring barley.
All went well with that first crop, encouraging a repeat of the plan this season.
Unfortunately the weather has been a little less helpful and the harvest has turned into something of a salvage operation with a late wet crop that is severely lodged in much of the field.
Contractor or DIY?
However, the crop had been grown nonetheless, and it would need to be recovered from the field, so the cutting would go ahead when conditions permitted, utilising a mixed fleet of classic machines to bring it in.
Noel runs a suckler herd so was not equipped for a tillage operation. He was therefore faced with the choice of either calling in contractors or purchasing the machinery to do it himself, he took the latter route.
The major item required was a combine harvester; there was already a sprayer, drill and round baler on the farm for use with the grassland and these were pressed into service for the barley crop, just leaving the harvesting to be arranged.
Noel, along with his son Fergal, knew of a combine that was awaiting restoration by Michael Ford, a well known Massey Ferguson enthusiast living not so far away. This was brought over to Killavullen and put back into working condition.
Hunting down parts
Fergal points out that this is by no means a full restoration of the MF525, which dates from either 1971 or 1972, the exact date being uncertain, although the model was manufactured from 1970 to 1977.
Instead, it was a question of patching up the badly corroded bodywork and replacing the belts and bearings which were more obviously in need of attention.
Standard parts such as these were generally available off the shelf, but items such as the rasp bars were harder to come by.
Eventually a set was tracked down by Cork Farm Machinery in Poland, where there is a pool of similar combines still in use.
The engine, a Perkins six-cylinder unit of 104hp, was left untouched and purrs away beautifully on the right-hand side, while on the left, the clatter of belts and pulleys reminds us that combines of this age lack the refinement of today’s models.
The Larkin family Fords
The farm is not a large enterprise and the Larkin family is of a practical nature, so it is no surprise to find a trio of older Fords out on the field.
There were two Ford 5000s, one on the grain trailer and the other on a rake, while the third is a nicely refurbished 3000 which was not taking part in the actual harvest.
The older 5000 had been purchased new by Noel and had not been allowed an idle life, at one point it was even matched to a five-furrow plough for use on on some lighter land.
Quite how many times the engine has been replaced is lost to the memory, but it has soldiered on over the decades and is still giving valuable service today.
The other 5000 is from 1975, right at the end of the model’s production run.
It is fitted with both dual power and an assister ram; these were usually factory fitted options but whether they were included at the request of the customer, or simply to make an outgoing model more appealing, is not known.
Towards self sufficiency
Harvesting the field was not a straightforward operation this year, yet the family turned out on the day to watch it being gathered in, the next generation being refreshingly keen to be involved in the event.
Last year the field yielded just over 29t in total, at 16% moisture.
This season the situation is looking decidedly different with a much higher moisture content and grain lost on the ground, yet there will still be a return and sufficient straw should be available for the winter.
When the government announced the scheme to encourage farmers to grow more grain last year, it was reasonably asked as to how stock farmers without the equipment were to manage it.
The Larkin family has provided one answer, and although it is always a delight to see classic machinery out in the field earning its keep, pressing a 50-year-old combine into work to fill a gap was probably not what the department envisaged.