IT was an instinctive move by Harvey beef and hay producers Joe, Peter and Tony Italiano.
In September, the trio bought a new Massey Ferguson 7614 Dyna-4 tractor from Bunbury Machinery to carry on a family tradition of owning Masseys that can be traced back to their late father, Ralph.
In fact they still use two Massey Ferguson 168s for feeding out hay and a MF135 model for general purpose work.
"In the past the 135 did the bulk of the work on the farm," Peter said.
The reason for the new purchase, with Peter as the designated driver, was the need for more horsepower to pull a speed tiller.
But in recent weeks it has been put to work pulling a Kuhn VB2190 round baler, chalking up 166 hours in less than two months, mowing and baling hay.
"It will be used mainly for hay and tillage but it came standard with a bucket (front-end loader) so it will get plenty of other work," Peter said.
"We'll probably get about 800 hours out of it every year."
The model has a power rating of 104 kilowatts (140 horsepower) with the AGCO Power six-cylinder engine linked to a DYNA 4 four-speed powershift transmission with four range changes.
This provides 16 forward and 16 reverse speeds, all available without having to use the clutch.
An optional Supercreep provides an additional 16 gears, enabling forward speeds as low as 160 metres an hour.
In standard operation, transport speed is 40 kilometres an hour and in working conditions, Speedmatching automatically selects the optimum gear to match the tractor's forward speed.
According to AGCO, the Tier 2 AGCO Power engine is designed with Electronic Engine Management (EEM), which enables continuous adjustment of the amount and timing of fuel injected in relation to engine speed and load.
This is the reason why the company claims the MF two-model 7600 Series delivers lower fuel burn across a wide rpm range, enhanced by high power and torque at low rpm.
Surprisingly, the 7600 Massey range comes with a lot of standard features.
Front wheel suspension is delivered via a QuadLink suspended front axle, with a compact design that automatically maintains a constant suspension height, regardless of axle load.
The re-designed suspended cab also includes higher levels of comfort and an instrument panel that displays analogue and digital information.
An Essentials cab package includes a long console with easily accessible controls, while loader operation is controlled through a multi-function joystick.
The three-point linkage also gets a makeover with improvements to depth settings and contour-following.
The result, according to AGCO, is more weight transfer, better traction and less wheel slip,
There's also a standard Active Transport Control to reduce implement bounce in transport mode.
The three-point linkage has a lift capacity of 7.1 tonnes with external linkage control on both rear fenders.
An optional front linkage system provides a lift capacity of 2.8t along with a PTO and two remotes.
Peter admits he is still getting his head around all the features of the tractor but is in no doubt it is value for money, based on its performance and fuel savings.
"It will be a good all rounder for us and we know it will be reliable like our other Masseys.
"The other good thing is that we get very good service back-up from Bunbury Machinery."