90 years of the first production Ferguson System tractor arriving in County Tyrone
Historian Stevan Patterson from Castlederg gave a special presentation to mark 90 years since the arrival of the first production Ferguson System tractor and plough in County Tyrone in May, 1936. The presentation was hosted by Bready & District Ulster Scots Development Association and held at the Sollus Hub, Bready, County Tyrone on the 20th May.
At the presentation Stevan explained the development of the Ferguson System in a picture presentation and why County Tyrone is so special to a farming system that revolutionised agriculture on a global scale. A technology from the green fields of Tyrone with tractor and quickly interchangeable implements acting as a single unit that still helps feed the world. The engineers working for Harry Ferguson would often say that Tyrone was without doubt the best place to perfect the Ferguson System technology in tractor and implements because if you can make it work in Tyrone with the different soil types and wet soft land it will work anywhere in the world. The Ferguson System is another example of why it’s so important to have a County Tyrone Museum, perhaps in the unused St. Lucia Barracks site in Omagh, the County town of Tyrone.
The first production Ferguson tractor and plough serial number 1 was made by David Brown in Huddersfield, England for the Ferguson Company in March, 1936 and called the Ferguson-Brown Type A. The tractor and plough would go to Thomas MacGregor Greer at Tullylagan Manor outside Cookstown in County Tyrone as part of an understanding with Harry Ferguson. Thomas MacGregor Greer was a business partner of Harry Ferguson and the main financial backer of the Ferguson tractor and the Ferguson System. Much of its development and testing was undertaken on his lands and which saw the Ferguson System perfected by the autumn of 1935. The little Grey Ferguson that first arrived in County Tyrone 90 years ago is historically significant as it was the world’s first tractor as part of Ferguson Farm machinery that gave farmers the tools to grow more food more cheaply. The tractor and implements were often compared to the outdated method of using horses on the farm. A quarter of the food grown on a small farm was required to feed the horses as they required food every day of the year even when not working. Compared to the tractor that only needed fuel when it was working and this made small acreage farming profitable for the first time in history.
The tractor and plough was used at a number of demonstrations after arriving in Northern Ireland on the 21st April 1936 including at the Balmoral Show that year. After Thomas MacGregor Greer’s death in 1941 the tractor was sold and it would later be obtained by Harry Ferguson after spending its working life in County Tyrone. Harry Ferguson purchased this priceless tractor as part of a trade-in for just a second hand Ford-Ferguson from a farmer in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone.
Today the unique and first in the line of a word changing technology this little Grey Ferguson or Tyrone tractor as Stevan calls it is rightly given pride of place and is on display at the Massey Ferguson Agrispace Museum in France.
The presentation concluded by Stevan Patterson answering questions and thanking Bready & District Ulster Scots Development Association for hosting the event.
Stevan Patterson, Castlederg County Tyrone