I bought my first tractor in 1963. The best I can remember, I’ve owned 21 work tractors over the years. My first tractor was a Case DC, purchased at a farm auction for $50. Then came a Massey-Harris 30, a Ford 960, Minneapolis-Moline Z, Ford 5000, John Deere G, Ford 6000, Farmall C, Ford 7600, John Deere 620, Case 611B, Ford 8600, Ford 9600, Oliver 1600, Farmall Cub Lo-Boy, Minneapolis-Moline M5, Minneapolis-Moline 670 Super, another Farmall C, Oliver 1755, Massey Ferguson 1533 with loader, and another Ford 960.
Some of them I used long and hard, some I used mostly as chore tractors and some wouldn’t hardly hold together long enough at a time to use at all. Several were really good tractors, and a few of them should’ve been melted down for scrap the day they came off the assembly line, but they all served their purpose at the time.
The two best tractors I ever owned were the 8600 and 9600 Fords. I sold them at my farm auction in 1994 and they were high-hour tractors then, but 29 years later, in 2023, they are both still being used by the same people who bought them at my auction.
The Case DC looked really awkward but as long as I didn’t get pinned in too small of an area, it actually didn’t handle too badly. A lot of people swore by the two-cylinder John Deere tractors, but to me, those two John Deeres I owned were the most awkward, obnoxious tractors I was ever around. I still don’t know why I bought the second one. The Farmall Cub Lo-Boy was the sorriest piece of equipment I ever owned. It didn’t matter how small the job was, some part of that tractor would break before I was finished. When it did hold together, it couldn’t accomplish much.
Besides the tractors mentioned above, I’ve also owned (or had an interest in) several pulling tractors; tractors that were bought, tweaked a little and resold; and numerous “parts” and salvage tractors. It was fun at the time, but it finally turned into hard work. The last tractor my son Greg and I salvaged was a Ford 960 that I’ve had for three years and it still isn’t finished. Hopefully I have enough sense not to try another one, but you never know for sure. I guess we’ll see what happens.
I found a few photos, but photos of the tractors I owned early on are pretty scarce. Money was short, film was expensive and tractors were just a tool to work with. It was many years before I finally realized that it was fun to restore and collect tractors. Now I wish I still owned most of the ones on that list. FC
Alan Easley lives in Columbia, Missouri.
Originally published as “Twenty-One Tractors” in the June 2023 issue of Farm Collector magazine.
