LOYAL, TO A MAN!
Brand loyalty is a common trait in the tractor world. Many farmers can trace the ancestry of their current tractor back to the early days of powered farming in the 1940s and ‘50s. Reputation is everything. If it does the job, lasts the distance, the dealer provides a good service and it fits the budget, then there’s a very good chance that the next tractor will come from the same stable. Brand identity matters.
Robert Calvin, his father, Daniel and his uncle William farm 60 acres at Lisnagault, near Coleraine, in Northern Ireland. As Daniel and William took the reins from their father, their enterprises included 12 dairy cows, 5-10 acres of potatoes, 10 acres of oats, hay for the livestock and some extra for sale.
Earliest arrival
The first tractor on the farm was a Ferguson TE-A 20, bought new in 1947, as Daniel explains. “It was one of the early Standard petrol-engined models, and it came with a two-furrow plough, a grubber and a drill plough. The potatoes were dropped into the drills by hand at that time but, later on, we bought a potato planter. Then, during the 1950s, that machine was converted to TVO, to make it more economical.
“At that time we decided we could make
