Twitter is a great means of farmers sharing ideas and tips with each other from breeding to blue barrel uses. Below are some useful hacks that farmers have shared on Twitter.

Latching three gates without a pillar

In loose-bedded accommodation, being able to open up the area for cleaning out and rebedding with a loader cuts down on manual labour and reduces the time spent at the task.

While some people opt for removable pillars that can be lifted out of the ground, a user has come up with the idea of welding a bar a few centimetres out from one gate.

Special latches have been made up that lock around this bar, offering stability whether one or both of the gates are latched.

Cheap paper towel holder

One thing a farm is rarely short of are buckets. Twitter user Philip Dwyer has crafted a cheap paper towel holder for inside the parlour by running a bar through a bucket and suspending it overhead.

The bucket is sealed with a lid, keeping the towel perfectly dry. A slot on the underside acts as the outlet, with the paper towel roll rotating on the bar through the middle.

Chain hinge

With welders landing under the tree in some farmhouses this Christmas, knocking up some new hinges using old chain might be a new year’s challenge.

Below are two cases where an old drive chain, similar to that used on a muck spreader, was cut and repurposed to create hinges; one for a door on the side of a steel barrel, while the second is working as a gate hinge.

While the hinge would have limited uses regarding strength, it could work well for lighter tasks on farm.

Tractor mirror for front weight block

Cameras have become more popular with tractor and machinery drivers operating front-mounted equipment to allow them to view oncoming traffic without having to stick the nose of their machine out on to the road.

A more rudimentary option is to fix an old car mirror to the front of the tractor, with the mirror angled to view traffic coming from the right.