Massey Ferguson: “Top-Quality Equipment”
Two farmers devise a plan to run the best equipment on their land and that of their customers.
By Richard Banks | Photos By Yvonne Duivenvoorden
In addition to operating a dairy, Murray and Todd Schnarr run a custom hay cutting, raking and baling business. Farming a total of 550 acres, some of which is planted in cash crops, Todd says he and his dad don’t farm enough land for many new equipment purchases “to make financial sense. So we do custom work.”
The Schnarrs’ MF8660
That way, he says, he and his dad can spread the cost over multiple uses and “we can get top-quality equipment for our farm. I like helping neighbors, and this way it’s a win-win for us and for them.”
The “top-quality equipment” to which Todd refers is AGCO, including a Massey Ferguson® 8660 tractor, and a 2150 large square baler and 9770 windrower, both of which are Hesston® by Massey Ferguson. Todd says the fuel economy is excellent on the 9770 and MF8660, and the CVT transmission on the tractor makes “the equipment more efficient to run. You can get that exact mile per hour that you’re looking for. Half a mile an hour might not seem like much, but through a whole day or a week, you know you can get a lot of extra work done with that.”
He also lauds the durability of the 2150 and the double-crimping Twin-Max advanced conditioning system on the 9770. “The weather here is somewhat catchy at times, and that [Twin-Max] helps us produce high-quality hay for our animals. It speeds up drying, Todd says, “and to save that extra day … that’s a 10-times benefit for us.”
Todd notes, too, that the dealership with which he works, Shantz Farm Equipment in nearby, Alma, Ontario, is a critical piece of his operational puzzle. “They have exceptional salespeople. If the numbers don’t quite fit right, they’ll try to find you maybe last year’s model that might be a few thousand dollars cheaper.”
And the service, says Todd, “has been really good. You call them up, and they know you’ve had a bad day when things aren’t going quite right. They just try to bend over backwards to make sure that you’re up and going in the field again.”
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