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People driving on Windsor Rd, Inglewood, recently got a rare glimpse of the Butler brothers demonstrating one of their extraordinary World War II vintage farm hedgecutting machines.

This is Owen (aged 82) at the wheel of the ex-Army Ford 4x4, trimming a roadside hedge for the benefit of a few onlookers with cameras.

Owen and Louis (75) worked with their father on these contraptions, which he invented to cut barberry hedges on farms. His early machines were based on tracked Bren gun carriers and later the rubber-tyred Fords. The last one ceased contract work in 2006 and now the Butlers are restoring some of them for permanent display in the Tawhiti Museum, Hawera.

Each machine has two identical Ford flathead V8 engines, one to drive the hedgecutter.


And this is terrifying. What if they grabbed a fence wire or worse still a fence post?

A bit of Kiwi ingenuity in the form of a Bren carrier re-purposed as a boxthorn hedge cutter.

Boxthorn hedges could grow up to six meters high and 15 wide, they took up a lot of valuable farmland. Keeping them under control without machinery is a tough job so in 1941, Lou Butler, a Swiss engineer from Inglewood, started building hedge cutting machines. Lou started by mounting a large revolving blade on a Fordson tractor to create a mechanical hedge-cutter. It wasn't until after World War II that the hedge-cutting business became Butler Bros, with two other brothers. The availability of the war surplus Bren carriers – the Butlers estimate they bought about 60 of them – gave their mechanical creativity full rein as they converted the versatile tracked vehicles to cut boxthorn and barbary hedges.

The pecan nut farm at Pallamallawa near Moree use similar contrivances to keep the trees trimmed, only they are much bigger - twirling blades on the end of a revolving boom.

Back to hayseed’s post, a lot of hobby farms around Beverley, our friend Barry had the local garage. Had a call from a fellow with a Chamberlain Super Seventy that would not start, previous evening it had made a noise and needed to change down a gear to get to home corner.. Problem was con rod had come out and knocked starter off.
David.

167 might explain why there isn't a car in the photo!!!

Personal best

And your problem is?

LOL

cya

I think that shot is from a Bioptic movie about a School Teacher who became a Baseball Professional.