A Family’s Fleet of Massey Ferguson Equipment

Jacob Doerksen grew up on red tractors. His grandfather and his father were both devoted Massey Ferguson owners, and Doerksen continues to carry on that tradition.

Today, Doerksen relies on numerous Massey Ferguson tractors on his family’s 1,600-acre farm in Niverville, Manitoba. A 200-HP MF8270 is used for snow removal, moving gravel and dirt, and lifting bins into the air seeder; he uses an MF4880 articulated tractor to pull a land roller over his soybean fields in the spring, haul manure from the chicken house and transport grains; and the MF9420 swather along with MF9560 and MF9790 combines are used for harvest.

“We have seven kids, so we needed a lot of machinery for everyone to drive,” he quips.

But not everyone in the family had their own tractor. In June, Doerksen’s wife, Marina, complained that all the tractors were in use when she needed one for yard work. Doerksen called Notre Dame Motors, his Massey Ferguson dealership, to arrange a test drive for Marina.

The result? She chose an MF1736 as her personal machine—although it’s often still missing when she needs it. The family uses it with the auger to load and unload grain, till around shelterbelts, haul dirt and mulch for the garden, mow the grass, and scrape gravel and fill potholes in the driveway. “It was more comfortable, more user-friendly and had more power than other models we drove,” Doerksen says. “It’s such an incredibly handy little tractor; I’m not sure how we ever did without it.”

Doerksen cites the fuel efficiency, durability and versatility of all his Massey Ferguson equipment for his loyalty to the brand. He is also loyal to Notre Dame Motors. Doerksen has been making the 90-minute trek to the dealership in Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Manitoba, since 2007. The family-owned business is his go-to destination for equipment sales and service.

“I called them at 2 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon after a bearing broke on our combine, and asked them to come out first thing Monday,” Doerksen recalls. “At 5 p.m. on Saturday evening, a Notre Dame truck shows up in our yard with a box of parts; by 6:30 p.m., we were back out on the combine. I told them this kind of service is the reason we’ll be customers for life.”

Read about the Doerksen family fleet, plus more about the family’s Prairie Farms operation in the feature article Something Eggstra.

Written by: Jodi Helmer