Seventy-five years ago, the grey Fergie tractor was the backbone of Australian farming. If it stopped running, farmers like Martin Honner – who runs a 1,100ha mixed livestock and cropping farm near Junee in the New South Wales Riverina region – would roll up their sleeves, tinker away, maybe smack it with a hammer and off it would go again.
Like most farmers, Honner is a capable mechanic and his two sons are industry-trained with agricultural machinery from major manufacturers like John Deere and CASE.
