MyFarmLife.com

Delivering on a Promise

Massey Ferguson and AGCO pledge to help their customers become even more productive by providing innovative, industry-leading farm equipment today, tomorrow and beyond. Here’s the proof.

One evening last October, Mike Anderson says he got a worried look from his wife, Donna. “She keeps the books and pays the bills,” says the custom applicator from Caldwell, Idaho, “and she asked ‘Are we down on acres?’”

“What you have to understand about our business,” Anderson explains, “is that 50% of our annual income is made during a 45- to 60-day window in the fall. And, this year, we’d also just bought a new buggy,” a 2011 TerraGator® 8303.

“She was concerned that we weren’t making any money, because, you know, you buy a brand new machine and the acres go down, and that scares you a little bit.  But that was one of the best falls we’ve ever had.

“We were actually up on acres,” Anderson says he explained to his wife, but she wasn’t quite convinced. “She said, ‘Well, the fuel bill’s down, and the price of fuel has actually gone up.’

“The fuel bill was down probably 10 to 15% at least, so it looked to her like we were doing less business.” But, Anderson says he knew what was happening. “In the fall, the only one of our machines that runs is the TerraGator. It’s thrifty on fuel with the CVT and the Sisu,” he says, referring to the AGCO Power™ engine.

Anderson had bought the 8303 after Larry Lusk at his longtime dealer, Western States Equipment, had sold him on the benefits of the CVT (continuously variable transmission), as well as the AGCO Power engine and the Terragator Management System (TMS), which maintains a link between the engine and transmission. Each of these technologies are AGCO exclusives, and Anderson had an expectation of greater fuel efficiency. But even his lofty expectations were less than how much the 8303 actually saved him. “We’re talking $1,500 to $2,000 a month. You know, that’s money you put in the bank. That’s easy math.

“Between the efficiency of the Sisu motor and the [TerraGator] management system,” continues Anderson, “it’s easy to get that fuel savings. You don’t have to change the way you work. You just let the machine do the job and it will just flat save you some money. This CVT is just the way to go, and the Sisu motor is just super reliable.”