DAIRY NEWS APRIL 15, 2014
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS // 59
Kent Walmsley and his MF7615.
Big red tractor powers through 100mm cuttings KENT WALMSLEY is a Massey
Ferguson man, not for the paint job, but for their performance. Kent and Diane Walmsley run K and D Mulching out of Tauranga. He needs enough tractor power to mulch 100mm cuttings, robustness enough to cope with knee-deep prunings and a crawl speed of 1km/h. His MF 7615 has a 150hp 6-cyl engine and a Dyna-6 transmission. His first MF was a 6470 and it came when he bought the contracting operation business in 2006. “This one is a big step up. It’s only 20hp more but nearly double the torque, and that’s what we were chasing. We didn’t get a creeper box because it is slow enough without it and we still get a 40km/h gearbox.” The road speed is also important as Walmsley travels up to Waihi, across to the Kaimai Range and down to Welcome Bay cleaning up shelterbelt cuttings and avocado prunings. The work is year-round other Kent Walmsley has beefed up his MF 7615 with steel guards and a belly plate to stand up to the rigours of mulching.
than wet winter days and over the few weeks when bees are pollinating. That means he spends a lot of his life in the cab. He opted for the ‘essential’ cab because he did not want a lot of electronics. “It’s a quiet comfortable cab. It’s on springs and it has an air-suspension seat. I’m a lot less fatigued at the end of the day.” To suit his mulching business he did some modifications to the MF 7615. He put on narrower wheels to make the tractor narrow enough to fit around the headlands in kiwifruit orchards. He also added steel guards to the back and sides, and a belly plate to protect the fuel tank, air filter, electrics and hoses. The MF 7615 has a forestry mulcher on the PTO that cuts soft wood up to 100mm. On the first cut in heavy stuff it crawls along at 1.1 km/h and on the second or third cuts goes up to 2.0km/h. He follows three independent con-
tractors who do the hedge cutting and pruning. “The MF 7615 is a nimble tractor and manoeuvres around rows. We get in some tight spots, especially with kiwifruit but it’s got sharp turning especially with the narrow tyres. “Maintenance is not a problem. It’s easy to access the filters, especially the air filter, and the radiator is spaced out so you can get the air gun in. The grease nipples are on the side for the front axle so you don’t have to crawl underneath.” The engine is a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) Tier 4 common rail. This means it has low emissions and requires a urea product to bind with the nitrogen oxide in the exhaust stream. Walmsley says the additional tank (for the urea), once set up was not a problem. “And the engine is super quiet. It doesn’t smoke when it’s under load; it’s smooth, quiet power. “People are saying ‘flip, that’s a nice tractor’, and if you turn up looking efficient it does help.” It also help that it’s a Massey Ferguson. “Everyone identifies with Massey, I get a big smile when I arrive with a big red tractor; everyone tells me stories of the old 24s that broke in New Zealand.” Kent bought his MF 7615 from Waikato Tractors’ salesman Glenn Greay, who is ‘plain speaking’ – “information without rubbish”. “It was the same with the service guys. Everyone bent over backwards. We had a few teething problems and they talked us through it over the phone. Nothing’s a problem.” www.agco.com.au