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A Better Tractor

A great experience with a Massey Ferguson® 451—and a great deal—helped the Neales decide they “won’t be going back to John Deere.”

By Jamie Cole | Photos By Jamie Cole

The MF5455 and a baler purchased at Big Boys Toys help make quick work of a hay field across the road from Windmist.

The MF5455 and a baler purchased at Big Boys Toys help make quick work of a hay field across the road from Windmist.

George and Martha Neale’s stunning Windmist Farm, a 40-acre farmstead on Rhode Island’s Conanicut Island, is a livestock operation with a unique view and unusual breed of cattle roaming its pastures (read all about the farm here). Since George works off-site and does much of his work on the farm in the evenings, the Neales were on the lookout for a better tractor option.

“When we first inherited the farm, George was working with this old Leyland tractor—it didn’t have any brakes!” says Martha. “I told him, ‘If something happens to you, I can’t run that tractor.’” They bought a Massey Ferguson® 451 right after they inherited the farm. “It’s so versatile. I can change from the bucket to forks so quickly, just get a lot of work done,” says Martha. “And,” she laughs, “it has brakes!”

George wasn’t sure he could afford another Massey Ferguson when the farm needed a larger tractor a few years later. But the MF5455 was very affordable, he says. A John Deere salesman came around and offered a similarly powered used machine, but it cost more than the MF5455 did new. “Why would I do that?” he asks. “I won’t be going back to John Deere.”

Martha likes how the sloped hood of the MF5455 gives George more visibility around the animals, even in the enclosed cab. Since he works an off-farm job, “he feeds a lot at night,” she says. “He’s out there in the elements at night in the dark, and you can still see. It’s just safer in so many ways.”

The Neales have added more equipment to their arsenal, like a baler and various implements, all purchased at Big Boys Toys in Pomfret Center, Conn. The dealership has the distinction of sitting on a working farm; father-and-son team Dan and Kevin Huff are farmers as well as dealers, making their relationships with farmer-customers easy ones. “I even bought cattle from them,” says Martha, “and not one, but two customers told me it was the best beef they’d ever eaten.”

<< Read the full article, “A Farm With A View”