Fendt Tractors: For Any Job on the Farm
Fuel efficiency, ease of use and cost of operation all helped make Fendt tractors become the backbone of a state’s largest dairy.
By Boyce Upholt | Photos By Greg M. Cooper
When Oakridge Dairy embarked on a major update—including a 350,000 square foot dairy and an expansion of its acreage—efficiency was key. Which is why crop manager Johnny Hoffman was looking for cutting-edge machines. When Hoffman called M.M. Weaver in Leona, Pennsylvania, to price a new mower for a soon-to-be-purchased John Deere tractor, salesman Derek Weaver asked him to consider Fendt.
Hoffman now runs two Fendt 930s, a Fendt 824, and a Fendt 828. “The tractors add so much value and efficiency to our dairy,” he says. When Hoffman traded in his first Fendt, he divided the cost of the tractor by is hours of use. “That came out to just over $10 per hour,” he says—well under his goal of $12, and easily beating his previous equipment.
While Leona is a five-hour drive from Oakridge Dairy, the distance is worth it service that Hoffman calls “second to none.” M.M. Weaver always has knowledgeable technicians available by phone and is happy to meet in the middle on deliveries.
“With these tractors, you can mow, you can merge hay, you can haul manure,” Hoffman says. “We have a snow plow [that we put on the Fendt]. It can do any job on the farm.” It helps, too, that the Fendts “are sipping fuel [even] when they’re hauling 6,300 gallons of manure up the road,” Hoffman says. The Varioterminal saves time, he notes, by storing tractor settings for each ISOBUS-capable implement, so that when the tractor is switched to a new task, it’s up and running with the press of a button. “We’re getting little surprises at all of the value.”