Now that I had livestock on my farm, cattle and then horses, I discovered that at certain times of the year there wasn’t enough food on the ground. In winter and in the dry months of summer the pasture would not grow or dry off.

I had studied Agriculture. I should have known this.

This meant buying hay. In bulk. By the semi-trailer load.

Initially I kept the hay in a small yard. Covered it with a large tarp. Kept the rain off it.

Unfortunately it didn’t keep the cattle out.

One day they broke into the yard and absolutely decimated the neat piles of hay, ruining it. It was an expensive mistake on my part. The cattle were very happy, for a while.

I realized that I had to be smarter about it. And this meant investing in infrastructure. I had a large hay shed built. Perfect. Did the trick. The big round bales could be stored three high. Nice and dry and no access for the cattle.

Of course, moving one of these large round bales is a difficult task without the proper equipment. They weigh a tonne. Literally.

In the days before I had a tractor I would tie a rope around a hay bale and drag it into the paddock with my car. It kind of worked. And it kind of bent the bumper of the car.

I needed a tractor. A friend of mine advised me of a place where a fellow would buy older tractors, do them up and then sell them fairly cheaply. The first tractor I bought was a Czechoslovakian tractor called a Zetor. It think it was manufactured just after WW2.

The tractor dealer told me that it was “a nice little lady’s tractor”. A comment that has amused me ever since. He meant that it had some creature comforts - an enclosed cabin and a comfortable cushion seat and a cooling fan. It had more than enough horsepower to do what I needed done.

It was perfect for me as a beginner.