We recently ran a poll to determine what the best ‘starter tractor’ for agricultural contracting is.

While there are almost endless possibilities, for the sake of brevity we outlined four options - some of which might well be regarded as 'modern, working classics'.

We've since closed the poll; almost 2,700 people voted - thanks for your input!

The four options were as follows:

The clear winner was the New Holland TM150; it amassed over 1,000 votes  - or 38% of the total poll. Next up was the John Deere 6910; it attracted 31% of the votes cast.

The Massey Ferguson 6290 came in at 21%; the somewhat specialist Fendt 714 Vario attracted just 9% of the overall tally.

Of course, readers logged many other suggestions - for tractors that you felt should have been included but weren't this time around.

One even suggested a grey Fergie; we're not sure if it would be fit to handle many of today's modern implements - laden as they are with hydraulic and even electronic components.

Tongue-in-cheek 'bog tractor' poll

We also ran an impromptu poll to determine Ireland's first-choice 'bog tractor' over recent days.

Over 2,300 votes were cast; an omnipresent Massey Ferguson came out on top - from a selection of four relatively random options.

The short-listed candidates were:

The ever-popular MF 135 attracted 73% of all votes cast; the others were well behind (Ford 3600 - 14%; Zetor 5211 - 9%; and Leyland 262 - 4%).

Encouragingly, we had plenty of suggestions from readers for what should have been on the list. We'll feed these into our future endeavours.