Hi All,

If you are lucky enough to receive the Agco Farm Life Magazine you would have seen an interesting article about the "Running of the Red". 

It seems there was a challenge in Ireland to break the Guinness World Record for MH/MF/Ferguson tractors in a parade.  There goal was 150 to break the record.  Unfortunately, they had 285 show up!!  To say the least they shattered the record.  They had to drive 2 miles in a continuous, moving line!

You can find the article at:

myFarmLife.com

in the Fall 2018 issue. There is also a nice video of the tractors at

myFarmLife.com/masseyparade

So at least the Irish celebrated the 60th annivserary of the merger!!

Gary

I didn't see any Massey Harris's in the parade, but still would have been equally cool to see that many tractors of the same brand in a row.

Has the MCA ever done something like that in the past here in North America? I would definitely make sure I could go to that.

 Cheers,
           Dakota

As a matter of fact we have! Back right after 9/11 we set the world record for plowing, preparing, and planting over 100 acres of wheat in one day! It was a great day!  The next summer we finished the job using all Massey equipment harvesting the wheat and baling the straw!

maybe some folks can post some pics!!

I think with a little effort, we could claim the parade record as well!!

If I wasn't in first grade then, I would have love to been there. Maybe here in the near future we can do something like that again, think we would get a lot of participants.

Cheers,
           Dakota

Here are some photos that I had scanned in some time ago and have readily available.  Remember we didn't all have I-phones at that time.  Most of the photos I have from the Great Planting are prints...  :-o

Still great photos, love the smell of freshly turned dirt! I like the triple 4 in the last photo, always that they looked sharp with the gold colored engine. Whose running it?

Dakota,

That is yours truly on the M-H 444 pulling the baler for the harvest.  That is also me on my Grandpa's M-H 44 ("Old Sam") plowing in the next to last photo.  I also had my 444 pulling a Massey-Harris 10' wheel disk at the great planting, but unfortunately don't have any good photos of that.

Cool! Looks like you had lots of fun. Didn't know MH made disks, learn something new everyday. What did they do with the grain and bales? Sell/donate?

Gary,

Forgive me but I must insist on a correction of historical fact!

The "60th anniversary" does not commemorate the merger.  The merger was in 1953 when the Massey-Harris-Ferguson company was created.

This 60th anniversary is in fact no more than the celebration of the company's name change from M-H-F to MF which at the time was a very much un-heralded event!  It seems to me that the creation of MHF is far more worthy of celebration but an AGCO employee told me that this "60th anniversary" was simply a sales ploy - I seem to recall that I reported on here that in the UK there was a 60th anniversary road show with an exhibit going to various venues around the country.  I asked this AGCO representative why the 100th anniversary of the first Massey tractor was not being celebrated and he was quite adamant that it was not relevant as Harris was not now in the company name......................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The creation of M-H-F created a truly world leading brand - at least for a while!!

Thanks, John

Hi John!

Maybe Ireland just needed a reason to get together? You are correct on the merger; I was just sharing what was printed in the AGCO magazine. AGCO wrote it. They just needed something to put “60th” on an item!!  Do you know anyone with a birthday in 2019?  Maybe we can get 300+ Massey’s to pull up into their driveway and we circle their house for 3 hours!!

You have to think if they did not care enough to recognize 100 years in the tractor business, they really don’t care about their heritage or their place in agriculture.  So what would make you think they care about a detail like a simple merger that changed Ag history?  They are lost in the world of big business.

it would be fun to break the record however!!!

Tell you lovely her celebration cake looked great!!!

Gary