A great fascination of mine.

[JDog]

A friend started combining outside the village this evening. I can only stand and stare at the magnitude and capabilities of these machines. This one has a 40' cut.

[GingerCat]

I'm looking forward to the field behind my house, not so much the combine but the bailer or as my 4 year old says the "noo noo" machine which was what she called it at the tender age of 2. I prefer her name for it than boring old bailer. 

[billytheghillie]

Yes truly amazing machines, love watching them. The farmer down at work has a recently new one, all the bells and whistles, on the other hand the farmer up next to house has a old " K " reg one and it goes about cutting with thuds and bangs, but still manages to get his fields cut.

[B725]

My favourite job on the farm driving the combine.

[mossy835]

it was mine as well. many years a go.

[clangerman]

daughter tells me every year not to take the grand child on a friends claas to relive my childhood and every year he informs on me the second we get home 

[Walker570]

I go back a fair way and remember riding on the bagging deck of the first combine to come into our area. If I remember it was a 10ft cut, no cab, driver sat out in the open above the bed. It was a Claas if I remember correctly. 1959-60 or thereabouts and eveerybody was facinated with this machine back then.  The corn was shot into 2 1/4 cwt railway sacks which had to be tied correctly and rolled stitched between the 'rabbit ears' before being pushed down a slide and when you had three bags on the slide you pulled a lever and they slid to the ground.   The plan was to leave them all in a line to be picked up by tractor and trailer by hand.  I seriously believe that is what did my back in and now have sciatica. A wet hanky tied round the nose and mouth kept most of the dust at bay.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Walker570

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, on my friends farm they have a new Holland combine this year, ordered last year after harvest finished, took old one in PX, 

Edited August 2, 2021 by oldypigeonpopper

[islandgun]

Great memories, combining, bale carting then ploughing.. probably the best work for a young man !

[Zapp]

This is my sister and I sitting on the bonnet of my grandfather's landrover watching the combine in 1979 or 1980.  It was one of the old open cab Claas machines, and it fed a stream of old cab over engine Bedford lorries taking the wheat back to the dryer.

The tree line in the far distance was an old orchard and the trees had grown through an old prewar pink threshing machine which had been parked long ago.  Grandad farmed from before the war right through to the 1990s.  I still love watching the harvester at work and the smell especially takes me right back.

[mel b3]

That's a cracking photo 👍. 

[islandgun]

I drove one of these as a lad [about 1970,] a  Massey 510, Then ploughed with a Massey 178 and three furrow reversible all autumn, was able to keep a good eye on the pigeon over the 600 acre farm.. fond memories

[Cranfield]

Some really nice pictures, definitely something charismatic about harvesting.
Great memories, especially for those of us that remember fields of stooks (good pigeon shooting) and days spent threshing (rat killing).
We have witnessed a true engineering/technical revolution in farming. 

[Wilts#Dave]

Magnificent machines, it’s little wonder driving them is the cream job on a farm reserved for the highest in the pecking order. 
I worked in agriculture for several years in my early working life and still miss harvest time/tractor work even now…..amazing time of year and the machinery just keeps getting better/bigger and higher tech! 
 

[oldypigeonpopper]

3 minutes ago, Wilts#Dave said:

Magnificent machines, it’s little wonder driving them is the cream job on a farm reserved for the highest in the pecking order. 
I worked in agriculture for several years in my early working life and still miss harvest time/tractor work even now…..amazing time of year and the machinery just keeps getting better/bigger and higher tech! 
 

Hello, and more expensive 🤔

[marsh man]

10 hours ago, Walker570 said:

I go back a fair way and remember riding on the bagging deck of the first combine to come into our area. If I remember it was a 10ft cut, no cab, driver sat out in the open above the bed. It was a Claas if I remember correctly. 1959-60 or thereabouts and eveerybody was facinated with this machine back then.  The corn was shot into 2 1/4 cwt railway sacks which had to be tied correctly and rolled stitched between the 'rabbit ears' before being pushed down a slide and when you had three bags on the slide you pulled a lever and they slid to the ground.   The plan was to leave them all in a line to be picked up by tractor and trailer by hand.  I seriously believe that is what did my back in and now have sciatica. A wet hanky tied round the nose and mouth kept most of the dust at bay.

When you see the advancements lets say over the last 20 years , where will we be over the next 20 years , the combine Mr JDog mentioned have got a 40 cutter on it and one farm I go on have got a old Class with a 15 ft spreader on it and I believe it is now classed as a classic motor  , the modern combines are remarkable machines and the day will come where the smaller farms will have all the combining done by contractors as it will to expensive to maintain a combine for a farm that have only got a small amount of acres , it don't stop with the combines as the bailing machines are also getting bigger .

In the late 60s me and my brother took a tractor and trailer on the marshes and loaded up the trailer with the small oblong bails , we then took them back to the farm and piled them up in the Dutch barn , we got cash in hand which was about a fiver a day which was around a ten hour day , I walked my dog around the same fields this morning and the the land the sons kept on I have still got the shooting rights which now span just over 50 years , well worth spending a few days in my younger days loading up the straw cart . 

[Down South]

The first combine I remember seeing was in the very early 60’s. Towed and propelled by a tractor, Massey Harris I think. 6ft cut  and bagged as you went. A great advancement at the time.

[team tractor]

My mate used to invite me every year to stand on the gantry with my 12g . I had to wear a dust mast from work every time to stop me getting ill. 
so much fun on the bunny tho 

[JohnfromUK]

1 hour ago, islandgun said:

I drove one of these as a lad [about 1970,] a  Massey 510,

Much the same - we had a Massey 515 12 foot cut which was I think the same as 510 to all practical purposes.   From memory, a reliable machine, though it would have already been several years old when we got it.  Perkins 6 cyl engine under that big curved part next to the driver.

[islandgun]

1 hour ago, JohnfromUK said:

Much the same - we had a Massey 515 12 foot cut which was I think the same as 510 to all practical purposes.   From memory, a reliable machine, though it would have already been several years old when we got it.  Perkins 6 cyl engine under that big curved part next to the driver.

Thats it. started on the button, 10-00am to 10-00 pm, no cab and the fantastic aroma of fresh crops....and the dust!

[Benthejockey]

The beauty of agriculture is one farm can be running a brand spanking new £200k combine with 40ft header filling huge trailers behind massive fendts and the old boy down the road can be running a beaten up 30yr old combine with a 15ft header doing exactly the same job. 

[B725]

I had the pleasure of driving this to a farm sale 2 miles away. It had virtually no brakes and you had to pump the clutch 6 or 7 time's rapidly to get it to work.

We decided to drive it through Morton at 9am on a Sunday morning thinking everyone will still be in bed or just getting up, how wrong was I it seemed like everyone had come out to see what the noise was. Rear wheel steer isn't the best getting a large combine around car's but we did manage it. 

[adzyvilla]

My mate still runs his claas dominator 68, bought new for his farm by his grandfather in 1987. This was him last year, and he's just sent me a video of his father combining barley earlier. He managed to get it stuck in a ditch.

[B725]

I went to a farm in Notts a couple of years ago to look around the farm ready for rat shooting, the farmer was showing me around when I saw a New Holland 8030 the next model down from the one in my picture. I asked him who had restored it and to a high level , his reply was its original the old boy who bought it in the 80s rather than pay the tax man had it from new and it only ever cut 60 acres a year.

[Ricko]

I gassed up a MF combine in the late 80s, I've still got the twin fuel filter off it as I thought it would come in handy...

I remember seeing a really small MF combine up in Scotland years ago.