Full Time Farming With Massey Ferguson

Anyone back in the day farm full time with a Massey Ferguson 35, 65, 135, 165, 175 or 180 tractor as the main horse? I've read a lot of posts about full time farming with Farmall H, and M's, along with their Oliver and IH equivalents - and the Ford 8N tractors.

What about the Massey Ferguson tractors listed above - anyone farm full time with one as their main tractor? What were the crops, was it a dairy or something else and how many acres?

Just curious to hear your experiences from smaller farming years ago and Massey Ferguson tractors.

Thanks!
Bill

We farmed full time in the 1970s. I was a child. We had an 1130 Massey as our plow tractor. 600 acres. 200 devoted to cattle and 300 in beans , milo and wheat. The neighbor however farmed about 240 and his 65 Massey was his cultivating tractor. Two row cultivator. We have a 165 Massey gas now and use it as our number two tractor for farm maintenance , post holes , mowing and pulling stuff. I dont know anyone that had a Massey 165 as their big tractor. I got the 806 stuck a few years ago. The 165 Massey gas pulled it out without straining itself. Its my favorite tractor.

I knew a fellow in the early 50s who farmed 800 acres with two 8n Fords. His soil was sandy and he could plow soon after a rain. He grew beans, Cotton and wheat.

Lots of small mixed farms here that had one tractor, if they were MF customers a 35 or 135 was typical, with bigger farms having a 165.

Can think of a couple farms that were 135 & 165 only in the 80s

Dad's big tractor for awhile was a 180 diesel until the 1100 diesel was bought in early 70s. Both are still working on my brother's farm.

The farm next to ours is an all Massey farm. They have 3 -1100s, an 1135, and a 3545 mfwd. Have a Massey combine. Mostly all Massey implements too. They have a New Holland self propelled chopper, a kinze planter, brillion cultipacker, and colby forage wagons. Everything else is Massey !

A 1100, a 175 and a 35 raised me. 410 gas combine. The 35 was on LP wish I had it back.

Ferguson 40 and a Farmall H was used on dairy farm in fifties and sixties. Raised corn for silage, some ear and hay crops.

Back in the late 1950's there were lots of full time farmers in Southern Indiana that relied on a MF65 as their main tractor. Although they raised some row crops, these hilly farms were mainly beef or dairy operations. Many of the tractors were gasoline. The move to bigger diesel tractors came as farmers consolidated and farmed much more acreage...especially in the flat lands.

Had a friend who was a young dairy farmer that bought brand new M f 180 a new set of 880 four bottoms and a 13 foot disc , while the rest of us were usen old junk . The tractor and implements arrived just in time to start spring plowing , we all had to go see his new toy at the same time another guy got a new 175 and a 150 just down the road . The massey dealer was selling them like hot cakes . Well Ernie was just heading to the first field when myself and another friend arrived . Ernie set in to plowing and we all stood back and watched . On the fifth round in a 15 acre field we all heard the BANG and the Massey stopped dead in it's tracks . It was unhooked from the plow while still in the furrow and pulled back to the barn with the OLD 560 FARMALL The call was made to the dealer that it BROKE and about and hour later the truck was there to pick it up . A week goes by and his tractor was still at the dealer . He got it back the next week and went out to where he dropped the plow and hooked back up and went back to plowing already loosen a week and a half . The truck had not made it back to the dealer just some 8-10 miles away when it went down once again , this time the hyd. went out . Now two weeks behind he goes looking for a set of fast hitch plows as he traded his for the 560 on the 880' and the dealer sold them off first thing . Ernie came down to see myself and my buddy to see if we could come up and help get the plowing done So mike and i took our OLD 450 D's up with our two sets of four bottoms and started then another friend showed up with his 504 and another friend showed up with his 560 . Then the massey comes back and it lasted three days before it trashed out the Multipower once again then it was hyd problems again and back and forth . The guy with the 175 was not fairing much better . That was like back in 69 and before the next season the Massey was GONE and a 870 Case was setting at his farm . We spiced the 870 up a bit with a turbo off a case loader and turned up the wick . He had no problems with the Case and bought another Case a couple years later stepping up to a 1070. the other guy with the two new masseys he did get most of his problems worked out and was DEEP into Massey with two new tractor implement and a new 300 Massey combine . He was tryen to steal some of my buddy's custom combining as he also ran a 300 . INHO from the flywheel back were good for a BOAT ANCHOR

An elderly neighbor tells about how his first tractor was a beat up M. When it gave out, he bought a new MF 65 with a three bottom mounted plow. That was his working tractor on his small dairy farm until he got the newer, bigger MF 175 diesel. He still has the 65. It caught on fire while he was plowing snow a few years ago, but not bad enough to keep him from refurbishing it.

At one time during a majority of the 70s, we farmed with a with an almost all Massey lineup consisting 1800 and 1150 as our two main tractors. Combines were a couple of 510s and later on a 760. Swather was a 665. Then we wised up and traded the 1800 for a Versatile 950, the 1150 for a JD 4640, 760 for a JD 8820, and the 665 for a IH 4000.

I grew up on a small dairy farm in northern N.Y. When I was born in 1952, my father had 2 teams of horses and a 1927 Fordson. He bought a 1952 8N in 1955 then a new M.F. 65 high arch gas in 1960. That was our big tractor for years. The Fordson got replaced by a 1944 M.H. 101 Jr. standard in 1968, mainly for belt power. The next tractor was a 1968 M.F. 165 high arch diesel with a loader in 1971. Those were the 4 tractors I started with when I took over in 1974.

The dairy farmer I worked for while going to high school had a 135MF gas with a loader and a MF 165 diesel. Farming about 300 acres, we spread manure, ploughed and cultivated, cut and baled hay with these two tractors. A custom operator planted and chopped the silage corn, but I did pull wagons with the 165. Later the 135 was traded on another 165 with a industrial MF loader. As the dairy herd grew, and a manure tanker was needed, they added a MF 1100 to pull the manure tank, and plough and disc . I spent a lot of hours on these tractors, the 165 was a great tractor, and the 1100 was what seemed at the time huge.

The couple that I lived with more than at home( they didn't have kids and I liked the livestock) farmed with a MH444 and a 65 MF,by the time I was in high school the 444 was gone and replaced with a Case 830 gas. A 165 diesel pulling an 80 4 bottom plow was added to the fleat,the 65 was a full time chore tractor by then.Hls brother had a 175 gas and it wouldn't pull that semi mount plow,Vernon hooked it to that 165D and wrote a check for the plow. 200 row crop,100 ac pasture and hay,300 sows,sheep steers and a few milk cows. Lots and lots of AC round bales that were hauled 5 miles to the home place. That's where I learned to enjoy a platform tractor over a straddle mount.(heat)

My uncle went from the Farmall H to M to Massey44 to Massey 85 to Massey 175. Then he added a 4020. I did a lot of chopping with the 85.

A side note The Massey 85 would chop circles around my dads JD720. But the 720 would plow circles around the 85.

Dad bought a new 1974 MF 235 gas. Though he only hobby farmed in retirement, it was his main tractor. I still have/use it to this day, but not as my main tractor. Now with some age and wear on it, it needs a little mechanic time once in awhile. I'd use more because it is so handy, but I hate wrenching on it, so I try to keep the hours of run time on something else.
Dad done mainly hay, and beef cattle.

Oddly enough MH/MF was very rare here despite having a dealer in the nearest town. Might be the reason as to why that dealer picked up Oliver during the late 1950's. The local JD dealer was popular enough so there were plenty of A's and B' then 60, then 620, etc.. A couple of farms down from us was a neighbor with an A, 60, and 620 all at the same time. Allis Chalmers was a very large factor here with lots of WD's and WD 45's being sold. If I had to rank I would say nominally IH then JD then AC then the rest. The very small farms or 10 acre landowner who wanted a garden did own a N series tractor.

We never had Massey's, but my Uncle did. He bought a new Ferguson 35 Deluxe in 1954 and that was his only tractor till fall of 57. Then he bought a new 65 Massey Ferguson. I do know he had a 180 Massey after that. He always kept the 35. He milked cow all them years.

Daddy had a MF 165 for several years. Small cattle and hay operation. Then added a DB 990 for a second tractor.