Quad trailer is a piece of kit for all seasons

IT might not be the Winter Olympics, but there are medals awarded for innovative pieces of farm machinery, some of which are pretty amazing looking contraptions.

Sometimes it’s difficult to fathom their purpose.

I’ve always felt there should be an award for designs that have stood the test of time, those under-appreciated pieces of kit.

We had a new nomination in this category when someone pointed out that the quad trailer — which is in use most of the year — is well on its way to being 18 years old.

Now, there are probably plenty of other pieces of equipment close to this age, but few have been used — or abused — as much as this one.

It’s a simple wee trailer, with tin sides, big balloon tyres and a removable back door. I guess its real claim to fame is the number of different tasks it gets used for.

At lambing time it takes the grub up the hill to the sheep in the morning — and often two or three lambing students and a brace or two of dogs too.

The return journey often sees it bringing ewes and new-born lambs back down to the hospital pens in the shed. And if we get one of those horrendously wet days it’s the transport of choice to gather up as many lambs and ewes as we possibly can to bring them to shelter.

It’s called into duty at grain-sowing time as well — again its get-anywhere ability allows it to get across the field regardless of whether it’s freshly ploughed or harrowed down, sown and rolled. It does this without making too much of a mess or getting stuck in order to gather the crop of stones which appear year after year.

In the winter time it gets filled up with the freshly chain-sawed logs from the trees which get blown down in the storms — inevitably across a stretch of good fencing.

And, of course, it gets loaded up with fence posts, staples, wire and all the fencing tools required to patch up the fence.

During harvest the trailer is brought into play again to carry fuel, lubricants and tools out to the combine when it’s far from the steading.

Another summer job is serving as a giant wheelbarrow for grass-clippings on the rare occasions when I actually get round to cutting the stretches of lawn that surround the farmhouse.

One of the more lively tasks can be its role in tagging calves. Now, to meet regulations, new-born calves must have their ear tags applied within a few days of birth. However, the mothers can be incredibly protective.

So, if we do have any born outside, the quad and the trailer are sometimes used and, with a bit of clever driving, the calf can be temporarily ‘kidnapped’ by hoiking it into the trailer and then driving off across the field, away from the herd.

This can give us a short, but often nervous, few minutes to apply the tags and then take the calf back to its mother.

Get it wrong and sometimes she tries to join the tagging session which is never good news — but so far the trailer has survived.