Blazing a blue trail

Simple, nimble and versatile, Ford's iconic tractors revolutionised their drivers' lives in the 1970s and 1980s: a time when farming was not only profitable but fun

- Charlie Flindt

WE BOOMERS get a lot of stick these days. Being born between 1946 and 1964, we attract the scorn of Generation X and the millennials who feel aggrieved at how lucky we were. We never went to war, we had access to good jobs and plentiful housing, enjoyed long lunches, and are heading for retirement with fabulous property portfolios and – despite growing up on Angel Delight (butterscotch, obviously) and Fanta – good health.

The youngsters do have a point; we have been astonishingly lucky. In fact, we farming boomers can count ourselves even luckier: not only did we farm through the most profitable years in the history of farming, we also had the best tractors. And at the risk of starting a fight in the beer tent at the next agricultural show, I'll stick my neck out and say that Ford produced the best tractors of these fabulous years. I reckon the best of the best arrived in the late 1970s, when Ford put the first civilised cab – the 'Q-cab' – on a simple and well-proven range of tractors that had been working on British farms for decades.

Those of us in our teens and showing moderate enthusiasm for farming suddenly had somewhere to sit in comfort. It was also dry, plus noise levels had been reduced sufficiently to allow Radio 1 to continue being our daylong companion. Previous short-lived 'safety' cabs had been long on strength, short on noise insulation. Who'd have thought that Simon Bates would have such an influence on a young man's career choice?