A Custom Farming Fleet Featuring the Massey Ferguson 8730S

Arriving in Central Ontario, we first meet with Robert Jantzi’s friend and AGCO dealer, Willem Van De Camp, with Connect Equipment in Innerkip. “(Robert)’s been going non-stop,” says Van De Camp. That means Jantzi could be anywhere within some 30-mile radius of his own farm, where his non-mechanized Mennonite and Amish clients hire him for custom farming. “But we’re gonna go find him,” Van De Camp promises.

When we do, Robert is climbing out of the cab of a Massey Ferguson 8730S. It’s the latest purchase for Robert, whose connection to Massey Ferguson equipment goes back generations. “My father had it, my grandfather had it,” he says. “I’ve stayed with Massey for the service, and the dependability.”

The new tractor is part of a long list of AGCO equipment in the Jantzi fleet, which includes a MF2250 large square baler, an 1840 small square baler, a Massey Ferguson triple mower, two other recent MF row crop tractors, a 16-row White Planter, a Sunflower cultivator and a Fendt 718 tractor. This year, though, Robert and son Randell are sharing time in the cab of the new 8730S.

“It’s just a smoother ride,” says Robert, thanks to the OptiRide Plus cab suspension, important for a guy who might spend 18-20 hours in the cab. In their short time with the tractor, Robert and Randell have already noticed the ease of use, too, from the Multipad joystick that makes baler controls more accessible, to the larger Datatronic 5 touch screen, that Randell says makes ISOBUS assignment of joystick controls easier. Robert says comfort and ease of use were selling points for adding the 8730S to the family’s fleet.

His long connection to the brand meant other Massey Ferguson hallmarks were no surprise to him. The 8.4 liter AGCO Power engine offers the horsepower to make quick work of a hay field or to pull a trailer full of corn sileage with trademark efficiency. “For fuel usage on my Masseys, I’ve been very impressed,” says Robert. “They use very little.”

Dependability closes the deal for Robert, who, like any farmer, cannot afford downtime. In his case, though, even minutes can cause him to miss days of potential work. “How I get work is word of mouth. Uptime in machinery is very important because if you’re broken down, if you can’t go, you miss out on an opportunity.”

“The biggest thing is the demand for customers to get their field work done in a short period of time,” says Van De Camp. “The Massey fit his (Robert’s) needs. It’s got a wide range of horsepower and it fit what he was looking for.”