Heritage tractor going strong

Today, it shares shed space with the farm’s newest New Holland tractors, bridging more than half a century of engineering progress.

Fourth-generation dairy farmer Jason Fitzsimmons runs the operation with his brother Sam and father Kevin, milking around 330 cows at peak across roughly 404 hectares of owned, leased and agisted country.

The farm’s roots trace to Jason’s great-grandfather, who moved the family from Charlton to the Goulburn Valley to establish the dairy.

As the herd grew, Jason’s grandfather Bernard bought the Ford 2000 Offset to add more horsepower.

Decades on, the old Ford is no longer the primary workhorse, but still earns its keep.

Ford’s tractor business was merged into New Holland in 1991, and Jason said the family lineage was easy to see in the newer machines.

“The Ford 2000 Offset was the first blue tractor our family bought. We’ve had a heap of old Ford 4000s and 5000s over the years, but for some reason we kept the sentimental one,” he said.

“I suppose it’s so we can see where we’ve come from.”

Day-to-day work is now handled by a New Holland T5.105, bought last October as a feeding tractor, and a T6.180, that took over hay and tillage duties from an ageing machine.

“The T5 is a lot smoother and quieter, and the wet clutch transmission makes it easier when you’re spending a lot of hours in it,” Jason said.

The T6, he said, handles baling, mowing, sowing, discing and deep ripping.

With the Fitzsimmons aiming for self-sufficiency, running costs matter.

“With the old tractor you’d go through a tank a day in the paddock; with the T6, you might only use a third of the litres,” Jason said.