Knee Deep in Chickens and Mud

Mitch Keet, in the MF7485 cab.

Last summer, huge portions of western and central Canada experienced some of the worst flooding in history. And Derick Keet’s poultry farm was located right in the middle of the deluge.

He had some 100,000 chickens that needed to be transported to the processing plant from his poultry farm near Grandora, Saskatchewan. Yet, between the barns and road, “there was water and mud absolutely everywhere,” recalls Derick.

“Those birds had to go to the plant that day. The processing plant is fully booked every single day so you can’t [wait],” he says.

Sixteen semi trucks were parked at the road, but couldn’t get down his 1,000-foot-long driveway to the chickens. The mud was too deep.

Without missing a beat, Derick hooked a chain to his Massey Ferguson 7485 4 x 4 with front and back dually wheels. He hauled each trailer to his barns, loaded them with chickens, then pulled them back to the road through mud as much as a foot deep.

Derick says he couldn’t have done the work without his MF7485. “We wouldn’t have gotten through the night, and that was a half a million dollars worth of chickens going out.”

He gives much of the credit to the tractor’s AGCO-exclusive continuously variable transmission, or CVT. “It allows you to pull at an extremely low speed and high torque. In a situation where you’re pulling out a semi, that tractor was perfect for that situation.”

He also notes the MF7485 has “very good fuel economy compared to the rest. When I’m pulling a heavy load, the engine speed actually slows down on lighter ground when it’s easier to pull. If you get into a soft spot where it’s harder to pull, the engine speeds up. It’s all based on fuel economy.”

Derick, who also owns an MF5475 and MF1652, and works with Massey Ferguson dealer Full Line in Saskatoon, bases his equipment purchases in part on worst-case scenarios. “I have to take care of myself. If something goes wrong, I have to be ready,” he says.

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