Farmer, digger fleet owner and budding YouTuber Tom Lamb gives us the lowdown on his business.

See also: Owner rates Massey Ferguson 8S.265 tractor with Dyna E-Power transmission

What’s your business setup?

I’m the fourth generation on the family farm. We’ve got about 220ha of arable crops and grass, plus 100 cattle. The latter is very much dad’s department.

Having a relatively small acreage leaves me plenty of time to do other things.

After four years studying ag engineering at Bishop Burton College, Beverley, I planned to return home and work full-time on the farm – until I realised how dire the pay would be.

I had to do something else, so I farmed by day and spent my nights driving big kit, welding and sweeping up at the local cement works.

My aim was to earn enough money to buy decent machinery of my own and, a few years later, I went down to the bank in Stamford and took out a £7,500 loan for my first digger.

I’ve now got seven of various sizes, which I hire out as self-drives to farmers and construction firms in the Stamford area.

It’s not as profitable as driving them myself, but it frees up my time to work on the farm, manage the 4,000t of grain storage, and make YouTube videos.

I got into the latter through my mate, Colin Furze, who now has 13m subscribers to his channel.

Over the years we’ve completed all sorts of wacky projects, including digging an underground bunker at his house and building a trebuchet to launch old washing machines and cars at a battered caravan.

That job was sponsored by Microsoft as a promo for its Age of Empires game. It took six weeks to build, paint and video.

I started my own channel last year, mainly to document interesting projects around the farm and show people how to do them.

I’ve now got 40,000 subscribers and, though I try not to take it too seriously, the advertising revenue the videos generate comes in handy. It often pays for the cost of a project.

Are you brand loyal?

Very. My family has been buying Masseys for four generations, since the days of the grey Fergie.

In that time, we’ve had about 35 new tractors and 10 combines.

It’s not all been plain sailing, but issues are always sorted and, in my opinion, the Agco warranty is the best around. They’ll even replace a lightbulb.

Our latest Massey, an 8S.305 arrived a month ago. It’s the fifth 8S we’ve had in four years, following a 205, then a 245 that blew a gearbox within 500 hours, and two consecutive 265s.

I keep getting offered great deals – partly because of the success of the YouTube channel – and I’m always after more horsepower.

We’ve also got a 7718 with a loader and a few oldies, including a Massey sprayer – a forward-control 698T (A-reg) with a Knight 2,100-litre/20m spray pack.

Then there are two Massey 30 combines, and I recently bought a Massey twin-rotor rake and tedder to work ahead of the Massey square baler.

On the telehandler front we love JCB Loadalls… except for their black paint.

The JCB 527-58 is probably the most reliable machine we’ve ever had, and the construction-spec 535-12.5 was about half the price of an ag version.

It’s pretty basic – there’s not much in the way of electrics and no aircon – but, with the support legs on the front, it is ideal for erecting sheds, reaching to the top of bale stacks, and lifting scaffolding and roof trusses on construction sites.

Favourite dealer?

Chandlers, even more so since it took on the JCB franchise. It’s only three miles away.

However, not all dealers are equal, as I found out recently.

I bowled up to another local dealership in a Peugeot 107 wearing my usual scruffy combination of hoodie and Etnies trainers.

I gave the sales rep the heads-up – I was after a high-spec 20t flatbed trailer with all the trimmings.

But he obviously thought I was taking the mick and never bothered to send me a quote.

That was his loss. I bought a Bailey one instead.

Favourite piece of kit?

I’ve got a lot of favourites. For sentimental reasons, I’m most fond of the first tractor I ever drove – an old Massey 3065.

Other than that, it’s probably the Cat 980 loading shovel. It’s just cool.

Or the Broughan trailer. You get what you pay for with trailers and for, £25k, that’s a tank. It’s got a 10mm-thick Hardox floor, 8mm sides, and will take absolute abuse.

Least favourite?

A Massey Ferguson 675, mainly because the hydraulics were so poor.

The upshot was that we sold it through Cheffins for £8,500, having paid only £7,800. It’s probably in Zimbabwe or somewhere now.

Latest purchase?

The Massey 8S.305, which I’m loving.

I’ve also just taken delivery of a 20t Bailey flatbed. It’s a recovery-spec model with a winch, container twist-locks and all the bells and whistles.

The old one was just 18 months old and only got the chop because the paint was dropping off.

It’s mainly used for moving diggers, though I occasionally recover tractors for Chandlers, our local MF dealer, too – hence the winch.

Oldest machine still at work?

A Massey Ferguson 565. We got it brand-new in 1970-something and it still does all the bale wrapping and hedgecutting.

I love the old tractors, purely because you can get in and turn the key without seeing error codes.

How long do you keep your machines?

There’s no set policy. It’s a small farm so nothing clocks crazy hours.

We only really change kit if the dealer serves up something that’s too good to turn down.

If they call me, rather than the other way around, and they’re trying to shift stock, then there’s a good chance I’m onto a winner.

Next on your wish list?

The pipe dream is a Claas Lexion 8900 with MacDon header.

I can’t get my head around how so much wheat can be squeezed through such a small hole at the front of the combine.

And it’s only once you’ve seen the MacDon header working that you can appreciate quite how good it is. The engineering is incredible.

But back in the real world, we’ll be sticking with our two Massey Ferguson 30s – one L-reg, the other an M.

They cut less each year – about 140ha last season – as we’ve upped the acreages of sugar beet and grass leys.

For eight years they ran alongside a Massey 865. It was awesome, especially the V8 engine and Powerflow header, but we desperately struggled to get parts for it.

It the end we sold it for £1,800. We’d only paid £2,000.

Biggest machinery mistake?

I was 17 and hauling 12t of sheep feed when I clipped a roundabout curb with the trailer.

By pure luck, a council bloke was passing by with his JCB 3CX just five minutes later, so I flagged him down.

He righted the trailer, scooped up all the feed and I was back on my way within half an hour.

It was a bad day, but it could have been so much worse. I couldn’t believe my luck.

Most expensive repair bill?

No real bad ones, but the most irritating was on a Massey 6480.

It was our first 50kph tractor, which I loved a bit too much.

I caned the brakes, and they were shot after six months. They’re obviously not covered by warranty, so we had to cough up for replacements.

Most overpriced spare part?

What is it with pto shafts? Our local dealer wanted £3,000 for the cheapest Walterscheid wide-angle big square baler shaft.

In the end, I found it for £1,600 through NCE Big Bale Specialists at Holbeach.

I snapped it two weeks later. They’re a pig to repair, so I ended up having to buy another.

Best invention?

I’d say it’s the 28ft flatbed trailer I built as an apprentice. It has been bale carting for 15 years and hasn’t fallen to bits – despite my welding.

We were in the market for a bale trailer at the time, but they were too expensive and, as trailers go, flatbeds are fairly easy to build.

I used new ADR axles and fitted it with hydraulic brakes and mini super-single tyres. In all, it took about a week to make and was a great learning experience.

What couldn’t you live without in the workshop?

I’ve just installed a pit in the workshop floor. Now I wonder how I ever managed without one.

It took less than a week to dig out, build the retaining wall and backfill with concrete.

On top I fitted jacks on rolling rails and, inside, there are recessed strip lights that shine upwards. I also put in ducting to carry an air line, electrics and pipes for oil.

I documented the process on YouTube and the videos have amassed about 450,000 total views since.

In terms of tools, the thing I couldn’t live without is the Lincoln Electric mig welder. I only recently got it and it’s an unbelievable bit of kit, which I suppose you’d expect for £8,000.

The modular design means I can take the little wire box 9m away, giving me 400 amps in the shed roof.

Plus, it’s chipped, so it won’t work if it’s pinched, and the automatic setup means I only have to tell it how thick the steel is and it’ll work out the rest.

Favourite and least favourite jobs?

I love driving big kit. That said, the novelty tends to wear off after about 20mins on repetitive loading shovel work at the cement factory. Time goes quicker on jobs that require a bit of brain power – digging out driveways and the like.

Sweeping up is, unquestionably, my least favourite.

What’s your everyday transport?

My daily runaround is a 2008 Peugeot 107 on 100,000 miles, which I bought for £300 three years ago.

For off-roading and towing I’ve got a mighty Nissan Patrol. I paid a local bloke scrap value for it – £250 – and it has been the most reliable 4×4 I’ve ever owned.

It’s done a return trip to the Isle of Skye and taken an absolute battering, yet it never lets me down. It’s built like a tank.

The big straight-six engine is still in good shape, too, so it’ll be the rot that lets it down.

The metal is falling off in places and the rear wheel arch is held on by wood screws, so I’m not sure how many more years I’ll get out of it.

I’ll replace it with something really cheap. The only time I ever spent proper money on a motor was a Nissan Navara; two weeks later the chassis snapped. I won’t make that mistake again.

Best tractor you’ve had?

I do love the comfort and power of the 8S.305 Dyna-VT. And, looking back, I always remember a 56-plate Massey 6280.

There was nothing particularly stand-out, but it was a good, solid tractor with the bombproof Dyna-4 transmission.

It also happened to be the first tractor I took on the road after passing my test, so maybe that’s clouding my judgement…

And the worst?

It would have to be the 8S.245, purely because it’s the only tractor that’s needed a new gearbox after 500 hours.

That said, it was a manufacturing issue and Massey worked hard to rectify the fault.

Biggest machinery bargain?

The Nissan Patrol – about as cheap and reliable as motoring can get.

Best and worst bits of technology?

The worst are Chinese-made sensors and switches. They’re rubbish.

The sensor in the JCB seat is a classic example – it gave up the ghost and the machine wouldn’t move until we’d replaced it.

The best is probably guidance. We’ve currently got the basic Terrastar system on the big Massey.

Biggest bugbear?

Scruffy yards, and the vermin that goes with them. I can’t stand rats and mice, so we have five cats on patrol, the pest control guy comes out once a month and we wash the sheds every year.

We also keep on top of the pigeons, particularly as we can have nearly 5,000t of grain on site at the end of harvest.