American Dream Part One: Following the Yellow Trail, The (DVD) - (Tractor Barn)

Norfolk (England)  farming brothers and contractors Steven and Kevin Clarke share with  us their fascination for harvesting in North America and in  particular for custom cutter Dale Starks. Dale was the contractor who  starred with his team of MF 760 combines in the 1976 BBC film Yellow  Trail from Texas.

After seeing the  Clarkes at work on their own East Anglian farm with big MF equipment  we go on a road tour through the American cornbelt, as recorded by  them in 2007. They introduce us to farmers and contractors and show  classic and modern combines at work, including a superb MF 750, and  the delivery of grain to the stores at the start of a wet season with  the promise of violent storms.

In Oklahoma, when they  drive into the Starks’ yard they find out the back the very truck  that featured in Yellow Trail. Made welcome by Dale’s son, Larry,  they join in the harvest with grandson Garritt pulling the chaser  bin.

Further south they  finally catch up with 83-year-old Dale himself who records his  thoughts about the past. ‘If I was a young man,’ he says, ‘I’d  do the same all over again.’ The interview has great poignancy  because Dale died a few months later,