The Ferguson 20 changed the face of farming

Oh, I am a little Ferguson, built so many years ago

I was bought up in Dublin, at the RDS Spring Show.

I’m a lovely little tractor and I look so very cute.

Not like the tractor of today, that great big ugly brute.

- Richie Kavanagh

Some languish in hidden corners of forgotten gardens, others survive in their old worn out clothes and more are magnificently restored with love and respect as collector’s items, but one thing remains common to them all: the proud heart of the Ferguson 20.

In the 1950s, many small farmers in rural Ireland were operating their farm machinery by horsepower - yes, that’s where the term comes from; when the power was an actual horse. Some farms had two or three horses, smaller farms had one horse or a pony. It was a small holding indeed that only had a donkey as its beast of burden. These animals ploughed lea, carted hay and drew loads of turf from the nearby bog. They had starred in this role for decades and their sickness or loss was a deathblow to any farmer intent on completing his year’s work.

A perfect fit

Through time, however, the rattle of horse-powered machinery was replaced with the purr of tractors, many of them with the pulling power of ten or 20 or even 50 horses. There were many varieties of tractors with various size engines, burning all kinds of fuel; from petrol to paraffin to diesel. Some of the early giants even ran on steam. The size of the tractor was often determined by the size of the farm. In the rural west, something small and handy and light was required. Here, a trusty little grey tractor proved itself to be the perfect fit.

The Ferguson TE20 was designed by Harry Ferguson and was manufactured from 1946 until 1956. It was commonly known as the Little Grey Fergie. It marked a major advance in tractor design, distinguished by lightweight manoeuvrability while at the same time packing a relatively powerful 28-horsepower engine.

The TE20 popularised the hydraulic three-point linkage system around the world. The system quickly became an international standard for tractors of all makes and sizes that have remained to this day. In many parts of the world, the TE20 was the first tractor to be affordable to the average farmer and nowhere was its worth more recognised than in the small farms around the Ox Mountains.

There was no farm task that couldn’t be tackled with a Ferguson 20. It was light enough to take to the bog and yet strong enough to plough a lea field with a two-furrow plough. It was fast enough to take to town yet small enough to store in the old cart house. Men who had never driven a motorised vehicle in their lives now excelled behind the wheel of their new best friend. They mowed meadows, manured fields, hauled spuds and even pulled cows from bog-holes… and all this without ever leaving the comfort of their hay-cushioned seat.

Ballroom or chapel

Come Saturday night, the four-speed could take a young man quite handily to the Ballroom of Romance in Bonniconlon or Crossmolina. A short few hours later, the tractor could convey Romeo to Sunday mass – albeit the one at 12 noon in the neighbouring parish. The Fergie, parked outside either the ballroom or the chapel, was no embarrassment; it was a symbol of status. The man who owned it was up and coming.

“Mass was slow today – yer man goes on a bit”

“He does but he’s a shocking nice priest just the same. He landed into the field to us the other day when we were making cocks out of the flat. He hopped up on the ‘20’ and kept rowing before us the whole evening. He’s from a farm in Carlow originally and loves the hay season. He found the Fergie awful small – he was used to bigger yokes. Still, a lovely man all the same.”

“Were you at Big Tom last night, at the carnival?”

“I was. I tipped in on the ‘20’ and parked her around the side. T’was a great night. There was a bunch of mighty women from Tubbercurry at it. It was breaking day when I was driving home. I was perished; the ould ‘20’ is a cold place in your shirt sleeves at five in the morning.”

Collector’s item

As time passed and farms and tractors got bigger, the fleet of little 20s passed down to the next generation of small farmers. These tractors, manufactured for only a ten-year period after World War II, were often the main form of power on small farms for the following 50 years. They were simple creatures but virtually indestructible. Many TE20s remain in regular use to this day and they are also a very popular collector’s item for tractor enthusiasts everywhere.

One of the first Ferguson 20s ever made was displayed as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations at the Newark Vintage Tractor and Heritage Show in 2021. The tractor was owned by Raymond Browne from Cookstown. He had found the tractor abandoned in an overgrown breaker’s yard a year or so previously. Browne’s story of recovery and restoration is fascinating.

“I noticed a tractor in the bushes and saw tell-tale pointers; like a long air filter housing and the variable stay at the top of the radiator. Those features told me immediately, it was an old one. The engine was in relatively good condition with the crank and pistons still OK, so it hadn’t been worked too hard in its life. It was pretty much all rotten and I needed to replace it with appropriate parts from my stores but the mechanicals were in relatively good shape and mostly repairable.”

Comfort and style

The Little Grey Fergie holds a special place in the history of farm mechanisation. Sure, it sounded the death knell for the magnificent draught horse on many farms but it did so with comfort and it did so with style. Many of these little tractors embedded themselves into family farm histories just as endearingly as any old horse ever did… and in most cases with a more agreeable temperament.

Next week… going to see the Pope in Knock in 1979.