Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

To a certain extent, yes I do. Most of my machines have the original ploughs with them , but that’s just how I came across them. I really do wish I had the cultivators and other attachments to fit them instead , as I’m a user of my old gear , I (would) spend far more time cultivating than actually ploughing.
My main gripe with ploughing events is the seemingly endless list of rules , I certainly can’t be doing with too many of those for a hobby that I see as relaxation , but each to their own. How many times have we all seen so called grown men arguing and falling out over a furrow being 5mm out of line.

Andy.

A brief history of horticultural ploughing and why there is a separate section for ploughing. In the early days of the VHGMC ploughing with our machines, eg Trusty, Anzani Iron Horse etc, was looked down upon by the tractor ploughmen, often saying we could never do a proper job. However through the hard work and determination of the ploughmen in our club we became recognised as being able to plough as well as any of the other single furrow ploughmen. We established our own section within ploughing matches and the obligatory rules. There is a ploughing section not because it is seen as the main activity of the club but a specialist activity. Many of the club ploughmen only plough, they do not exhibit at shows like so many other members. The club working weekends in Kent and at Weeley are intended to be an opportunity for any member to bring along whatever machine and attachment they want and have a play, no competition, although there is a club match at Weeley.

vegikev, a good idea all it needs is someone to volunteer to run and manage it and members to supply the relevant information.

i have an ral colour chart, not sure if it includes all ral codes, for instance the ral for fern green (old hayter) is not on the list, but i could list the number and the names of the colour as a start, may even be able to scan the colour to add with it, not sure how well that will turn out thou

I think a paint colour guide would be really useful and a great idea. Excellent!

A couple of things:

I have just had trouble with RAL codes with that yellow tractor of mine! I was given a RAL code from an American tractor site, yet it was wildly the wrong shade/colour (found out prior to mixing thankfully). If there was a note to say how the code had been come by i.e. “It was matched from an original piece of 1971 tractor”, or “I used it because someone else had matched it and used it on another machine”, or “This is a match for the factory paint code”, then it would have been incredibly useful.

I also had difficulty with my Cub Cadet tractors a few years back. The colours used are Vapormatic JCB Industrial Yellow, and Halfords Volkswagen Candy White. I couldn’t even guess at RAL (or Pantone) codes but the colours chosen were correct – and it still looks great.

I guess that it doesn’t matter what the paint source (or paint shade name is) as long as it solves the problem. Even better is being able to provide such information to others for future reference.