AGCO Photo Contest

I just wasted an hour trying to enter the AGCO Father's Day Photo Contest. It is so frustrating when you decide to do something like that and it won't work. Their website would not accept my photo and caption although it meets their written criteria.

So I will just send it to you. I have several I could choose from but I will use this one for today's blog.

Dad bought his first new tractor in March of 1949. It was an Oliver 77 and changed our lives forever. I was born in December that same year and have been forever Oliver and AGCO since.

He later traded up to a Super 77 with factory 3 point hitch then a 770 with 3 point hitch and Power Booster two speed drive. He bought his last brand new Oliver, a 1265 with front end loader while I was in college at Ohio State.

Since I became an ag teacher I had a little money to spend on my beloved Olivers. My first was a used 70 and I ended up owning many of them, even a 35 Hart Parr 70 on tip toe steel. I won my first pulling tractor trophy with my friend"s Oliver 77 in 1971 and my second with an Oliver 70 in 72. In 73 I bought an 88 from the family who had farmed where King's Island is today near Cincinnati. I won the Ohio State Tractor Puller's 7000 lb Stock Class in 1976-77 beating every John Deere 4000, 4010, 4020 and 4030 I pulled against, sometimes by one inch. Oliver was always at least one inch better!

I farmed 400 acres with my dad and brother while teaching vocational agriculture and FFA and my first big tractor was an 1850 Wheatland which I traded for a 1755 which I traded for my only brand new tractor, a White 2-70. I have owned many Olivers and still have two 1655's and a 77 which I still use on our farm. I have blogged about my farming history many times and they are usually connected to the farm machinery that affected two generations of Winkle's used and that was Oliver.

I got hold of a media person named Rebecca and she was good enough to pass my entry on(not this one) to AGCO so at least I made my point!

Have a great day,

Ed