Massey-Harris/Ferguson tractor collection up for auction

An acreage owner just north of Springbank Airport has amassed 91 vintage tractors and is putting them up for auction to share them with others.

Don Ellingson has 91 Massey-Harris and Massey-Ferguson tractors at his Springbank acreage northwest of Calgary that he’s putting up for auction.

It’s the first time he’s had his collection all at one location after he moved 43 home in April that were on loan to Pioneer Acres of Alberta in Irricana.

“It’s time,” he said.

“My health is starting to fail me, being an old mechanic, and it’s time to sell the acreage and move to somewhere where somebody else can cut the grass and shovel the snow.”

He has a passion for fixing things and started collecting the iconic Canadian brand in 1990.

At one time, Ellingson’s collection was up to 107 tractors.

Some have been fully restored, while others are in various stages of disrepair, but they all play a role in Alberta’s farm history.

“I’m a little bit sad that I have to lose them,” he said.

“The hardest tractor for me to sell is the first tractor that I bought from my brother (Darrel) that I still have sitting out in the field.”

Ellingson says the Massey part of the name comes from Vincent Massey, who was the 18th Governor-General of Canada.

The Harris name has ties to the art world and the Group of Seven, something that piqued the interest of Beth Ellingson, Don’s wife, who was an art teacher for 32 years.

“One of the Group of Seven was Lawren Harris,” she said.

“I never realized until many years later that Lawren Harris was a member of the Harris family, who had a farm implements company, and then lo and behold, Don starts collecting Massey-Harris tractors, and so it just kind of seemed like our worlds were converging.”

Beth and Don have travelled all over Western Canada and the northern U.S. attending antique tractor pull events over the years, where they were also tractor shopping.

The couple celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary at the beginning of July, and Beth says she’s received some interesting gifts over the years.

“It was our 15th wedding anniversary, being married in July, you know, holidays and such,” she said.

“We went to an auction that was in Manitoba, and I got a tractor as a gift for our anniversary.”

Don says Massey was a worldwide company in the 1930s, and 50 years later it was bigger than John Deere and Case IH because of that global footprint.

He says even today there are factories in the U.S. and France, and the brand is still popular in Europe.

The auction is attracting interest from all over the world.

“Australia, London, all the tractors will sell worldwide, and the reproduction parts that I sell will sell mostly in Western Canada,” he said.

“Eighty to 85 per cent run, and the other ones, some of them don’t run, but some of them will be lawn art because if they have steel wheels, they look good on the corner of the fence, and the tires don’t go flat.”

Beth says each tractor has a story behind it because they were part of farm families in Western Canada.

“It is a big part of our history here in Alberta and the whole agriculture scene,” she said.

“These monsters were breaking the soil and earning a living for generations of farm families.”

Don says many of the tractors should sell for around $1,500, but some of the restored machines could fetch as much as US$10,000.

“It’s on online auction, and the viewing goes from July 14 to 18,” he said.

“The lots start closing at (8 a.m.) on (July 19) and close one after another, so they figure it’ll be 7 or 8 (p.m.) before they’re all closed.”

You can learn more about the auction at egauctions.com.