544 heritage

Posted by Chris in Washington on August 25, 2005 at 14:45:47 from (4.242.6.42):

I just brought my 544 home from its first trip to the fair. I had it on show with a couple of dozen other assorted tractors of all colors, and it won a big beautiful ribbon. I know you guys in the heartland will say "a couple of dozen?", yep that's all we get around here. Anyway, the story here is on the way home I stopped at the farms of two of the past owners. The original owner is now 80 years old and had to sell off his equipment due to health, several years ago. He and his wife almost wept when they saw it. At first they didn't even know it was the same tractor. They had several tractors, but this was their favorite, and the backbone of their farm. The 544 did all of the hay work on their 2000 acres and they thought of the days when they had a thousand head of cattle to feed. When not making hay, it also drove an irrigation pump. They were happy to see that she was back in prime condition, with a new coat of paint, and in the hands of someone who would take care of her. During the course of talkin' tractors they asked what I was going to do with her. I mentioned that my cub and SC could manage most of the field work on my small place but I needed the 544 mainly for blading the road. All I needed was a blade. They told me that they had included a blade with it when they sold it to the next guy. I thanked them and decided to make a stop at the next owners farm. This guy couldn't believe what he was seeing. When he last saw her, she was definitely rode hard. He told me how half of the kids in the county had learned to drive on her, making hay and a little pocket change each summer. He told me of how he had bought her as part of a package deal, and because he already had a 656, he eventually traded her for a front-end loader. I told him that I was looking for a blade for her so I could blade my road, and wondered what happened to the original blade. He said that he thought that the original blade was around somewhere, and sure enough, we found it out back of the barn. He told me that since I did such a beautiful job on the restoration, that I could have the blade for nothing. So there you have it, I got a little history of my 544, a blade for free, and brought back some great memories for a couple of old sodbusters.

Follow Ups:

• Re: 544 heritage Mike Van 17:27:52 08/25/05 (0)
• Re: 544 heritage dave from MN 15:29:11 08/25/05 (0)

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