Farming Diaries Volume Two: from the driving seat (Tractor Barn Productions), Stephen Richmond & Jonathan Whitlam. DVD, approx 100 minutes. ISBN 978-1-906853-48-8. In stock at Old Pond at £15.95 inc VAT.
For nearly twenty yearsStephen Richmond has worked for farmer John Raven, near Lowestoft, Suffolk. The farm has grown to well over 500 acres, an arable unit whose main crops are oilseed rape, sugar beet, potatoes, wheat and barley.
Stephen’s DVD diary covers a typical year from January to December to include all the arable operations from seedbed preparation to harvesting. The machinery used is diverse, including Case IH, John Deere and Claas tractors, not to forget an MF 135 still drilling sugar beet. In addition to these there is a feature on the many demonstration models Stephen has been able to try out on the farm, while a second feature looks in detail at the MXM 120 as a ‘Jack of all trades’.
Other machinery includes the unusual Case IH Axial–Flow 2788 combine as well as a number of harvesters, some belonging to the farm and some run by contractors. The move to use contractors is one of the developments Stephen has seen during his working life, as he explains when he talks about recent developments in machinery and farm practice.
Stephen Richmond, along with Jonathan Whitlam, came to prominence in the late 1990s when their first ‘Tractor Boys’ videos were released. They have since been behind many popular DVDs and now run their own list which can be seen on our main website as Tractor Barn Productions.
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