AGCO Equipment: Tried and True

Like his grandfather, Cody Waters buys Massey Ferguson^® tractors and serves in the military. These days, Waters, who farms near his current home in Missouri and where he was raised in southern Illinois, owns an MF235, an MF275 and an MF285, in addition to two Gleaner^™ F2 combines and an N6 combine.

Cody Waters

“They’re standardized. They’re tough and they’re easy to work on,” Waters says of his AGCO equipment. “They’re nimble, easy to handle and easy on fuel.”

According to Waters, his older equipment does not come without headaches. Breakdowns can be all the more troublesome for someone who works a full-time job, serves in the National Guard, farms in two states and has a young family. Yet the staff at his dealership, Lauf Equipment Co. Inc., in Jefferson City, Mo., has been a port in the storm when repairs are needed, he says, with high praise for their ability to respond quickly to his requests.

He buys parts and gets advice from Lauf’s knowledgeable staff. “They usually have the part on hand, and they have a good service department,” he says.

Waters admits that safer, more modern technology might make farming easier and less stressful. He finds the trade-off of new versus old to be a delicate dance. For now, he chooses the security of equipment that is familiar and debt-free, until he can expand his operation.

Waters, who’s been deployed overseas two times in his 15-year career with the Army National Guard, has helped Afghan farmers improve their farming operations when he served as part of an Agribusiness Development Team. While in that war-torn country, he witnessed an ingenuity similar to farmers back home. He also saw much of the durability and versatility in Massey Ferguson tractors while there.

USAID donated 40-plus-HP tractors, including MF240 models, to help the Afghan farmers. According to Waters, they were a good fit for the Afghan operations because of their “small size, simplicity [and] power.” The Massey Ferguson machines also got points for durability and fuel efficiency in a country where fuel is expensive and trained mechanics are almost impossible to find.

<< See the full story, “Veteran Farmers: Coming Home”