Thomas Butler, Crabtree Lane

Dear Sir: Well done to members of the recent south Pole expedition with their Massey Ferguson 5610, featured in the Irish Farmers Journal on 20 December 2014.

I can recall, with many of your readers, Ed Hillary and his team completing the same journey on 5 January 1958 with three Ferguson 35s on half-tracks.

Hillary’s expedition was the first effort to travel to the south Pole in almost 50 years. This was serious stuff, in a challenging, hostile environment, with no Bluetooth, mobile phones or GPS in those days.

Hillary, his men and their Ferguson 35s had the world’s media waiting for any fragment of information and news, at a time when expeditions and celebs were few and far between.