The Massey Ferguson 4610 and 4610LP: Turn, Turn, Turn

When Navi Pooni says his is a Massey Ferguson^® family, he’s not kidding. “My father and grandfather were farmers back in India,” he says. “Whatever they farmed, the first few tractors they bought were Massey Fergusons.”

Those Massey Ferguson 35s his family had didn’t make the trip to the United States when Pooni’s family came here, but their affinity for the machines did. The first tractor Navi’s dad bought in the U.S. was the MF255, which the family used for more than 20 years.

Navi traded in the MF255, along with an MF399 and an MF4270 acquired through the years, for two MF4610s and an MF4610LP, the low-profile model designed for orchard work.

“They’re so versatile,” says Navi. “We do anything from tilling, spraying, pulling trailers, all that stuff.” Versatility is also important for Navi’s custom vineyard equipment, such as a hydraulic vineyard cane cutter that attaches to the front frame of the MF4610. “A lot of the stuff we make, we can’t just go down to the store and buy it,” he says.

“The price point was great, the horsepower was there, and the biggest thing for me is I have a 4-wheel-drive tractor with the turn radius of a 2-wheel drive,” Navi says. With 8- to 12-foot spacings in the vineyards and the vines planted right up to the roadway, “the tighter you can turn, the easier it is to line up and go to your next row,” he adds.

Navi has worked with Quinn Company in Fresno, Calif., not far from his farm, for more than a decade. “If I ever need anything, they’re always there, from the service guys to the sales guys,” he says. Not that he’s needed much help with the MF4610. “Everyone asks me, ‘How do you like them?’ My first response is: ‘I’ve had these 4610s for two years and never had an issue.’”

<< See Navi’s full story, “Raising Raisins”