Dearsley

The Multifarmer was made for this - Prince William Farm

Feb 2007

Prince William Farm, at Wereham near Downham Market, might have been the farm around which Merlo designed their unique Multifarmer. East Anglia conjures up visions of huge arable farms, but there are many smaller farm units where this tractor/telehandler combination has real merit in making a tough job a lot easier.

At least, that’s Rod Dearsley’s opinion after trading in his 100HP tractor and (elderly) telehandler for a spanking new 30.6 Classic 2 Multifarmer. “Although I’ve kept my 120HP tractor for the heavy ploughing, I do absolutely everything else with the Multifarmer” says Rod, “In fact, it was perfectly able to do the ploughing as well but the tractor was fairly new, so I’ve kept it, too.”
Rod’s father came to the 200 acre farm in 1944 and Rod now farms it alone, producing potatoes, beet and grain. He is optimistic, saying that farming is still a wonderful life out of which he gets great satisfaction. He admits, however, that ‘things’ are getting tougher and is obviously delighted with what the Multifarmer has done to relieve his workload.

“It’s basically handled everything I have thrown at it” he says “From drilling 150 acres with a power harrow/drill combination, driving the potato harvester (even I was surprised how well that worked with the potentiometer drive adjustment), using the sprayer and so on. It’s the machine I prefer to use!”
Rod Dearsley estimates that 30% of the Multifarmer jobs utilise the three point linkage - very much in line with general Merlo experience - and rates the towing and road performance as excellent, thanks to the hydrostatic transmission.

His choice was the Classic 2 version of the Multifarmer, with analogue instruments and controls (the alternative Top2 model has Merlo’s MERlin digital control system and full draft control). Opting for the more traditional approach, Rod has found little real need for the draft control on his size of operation, and is more at home with familiar instrumentation. Overall, it would be difficult to find a more satisfied customer than Rod, both with what the Multifarmer has done for him and with the service from local Merlo dealer B.W. Mack at Downham Market.