The Transition From AGCO to Massey Ferguson
ShareTweetPinShareA lot of things have changed since Bruce Wendt’s father began farming in 1959, not the least of them being farm equipment. “While I was growing up, we were still using a team of horses,” recalls LaVern Wendt. “My first tractor after I started farming on my own was the Allis-Chalmers WD45 that’s still in […]
A lot of things have changed since Bruce Wendt’s father began farming in 1959, not the least of them being farm equipment.
“While I was growing up, we were still using a team of horses,” recalls LaVern Wendt. “My first tractor after I started farming on my own was the Allis-Chalmers WD45 that’s still in the back of the shed.”
In fact, the Wendts never owned anything but orange tractors until the spring of 2011. That’s when Bruce bought a new Massey Ferguson® 8670 from Johnson Farm Equipment, the AGCO dealer in North Bend, Neb.
“People asked me what I was going to do when AGCO discontinued the AGCO tractors and started promoting Massey Ferguson,” says Bruce, who explains the two brands share many innovative technologies, a fact that made the switch all the easier. For instance, Bruce points out that his three newest tractors all feature the same CVT transmission, operate in a similar manner, and are backed by AGCO Corporation and three nearby AGCO/Massey Ferguson dealerships.
“These days, service seems to involve diagnostics as much or more than it does mechanics,” Bruce says. “So it’s important to have a dealer that keeps up on it.”
“Fortunately, the 8670 is virtually identical to my AGCO DT205B, except for the difference in horsepower,” he relates. “They have the same controls, so there wasn’t anything different to adjust to.
“The Dynamic Tractor Management [DTM] system on the newer ones is amazing, too,” he adds. “I very seldom adjust the throttle past 1,800 rpm anymore. If I tell the tractor I want to go 6 miles per hour, I just set it and it adjusts the engine speed and transmission speed accordingly.
Bruce continues to hold on to the WD45, as well as an Allis-Chalmers WC, a D-17 and an 8030 that he still uses on occasion. Massey Ferguson may be the future, but it’s hard to let go of the nostalgic past, especially when it has served the Wendt family for more than a half-century.