Farmer Stories

Nearly 30 years of Case IH ownership

12 Sep 2018

For the Heal family, Case IH tractors are simply part of the landscape. Fred Heal farms with his son, Tom, at Knighton Farm, Stogursey, on heavy clay land that runs down to the Bristol Channel. They’ve farmed this land for the last seven years, running a 600-strong herd of commercial beef sucklers, with all followers kept to finish, as well as a flock of 550 Texel mule ewes and around 325 acres of combinable cropping. And, whilst Fred and Tom run a Case IH fleet at Knighton Farm, their history with the brand goes back much further than that.

“My family bought our first Case IH tractor – a 956 – back in 1989 and we’ve had Case IH ever since,” Fred explained. “We currently run an old Case IH 685, an 844 and an MX 100 as yard tractors and we purchased two new Pumas earlier this year – a Puma 165 with a loader and a Puma 220. These two tractors do all our field work – with the only job we don’t do ourselves being maize harvest.”

The Heals work with local Case IH dealer, James Pryce Tractors at Tiverton, for all servicing and repair work, and they also supplied the latest two Pumas. One was ex-hire and the other was a cancelled order. Since arriving in early 2018, they’ve clocked up around 1,200 hours between them in just a few short months, doing all the arable field work, hauling, trailed foraging, buckraking and baling on the farm, as well as doing around 5,000 round bales on contract for other local farmers.

“We get great service from James Pryce Tractors,” Fred said. “If we ever have a breakdown they will get someone out to the farm quickly and efficiently, and they do our routine servicing on farm to save us travelling. They’ll also offer advice over the phone if we are ever stuck.”

Knighton Farm extends to around 800 acres in total, with around 475 acres of grassland, 200 acres of wheat, 50 acres of barley, 50 acres of maize and around 25 acres of beans. Other than the wheat, all crops are retained on the farm to feed to stock. Land is ploughed before maize or when turning grass, but otherwise the Heals run a Simba Express min-till system.

“With heavy ground with large rocks hiding under the surface, this certainly isn’t a farm for shear bolts, and so we try not to turn ground over unless we have to,” Fred said. Both of the new Pumas are guidance-ready, and this is something that Tom is keen to add in the future to further improve accuracy and efficiency of field operations.

“The thing that I really like about the Pumas is how quiet the cab is,” explained Tom. “Before I came home to work, I worked on other farms, with other brands of tractor, and the Puma is so much more refined – I really like driving them.”

“We’ll aim to keep the new tractors for 3-4 years,” Fred concluded, “and they’ll be replaced with Case IH. We really like Case IH tractors – the cabs are exceptionally comfortable, they are reliable, and everything falls easily to hand which makes them less tiring to use – something that is important on a long day in the cab.”