| 89 nzdairy DAIRY SERVICES » Barry Bishop Barry has 33 items of John Deere machinery in the museum and his collection covers tractor models from 1930 to 1960. Russell Fredric Love of John Deere leads to museum The visible evidence of Barry Bishop’s love of green and yellow tractors can be seen at Maketawa John Deere Museum, just south of Inglewood. “I’ve always had a passion for John Deere tractors, including when we were farming,” Barry says. “We were doing a lot of contracting in the early days we’ve always had John Deere, right through there. The passion just grew from there.” He also attributes his interest to their build quality. The rst vintage tractor he purchased was a 1948, 18 horsepower, two cylinder model A from the South Island, bought off Trademe six years ago. The tractor was imported from Canada, purely to fully ll a container of irrigation equipment. Barry regards the condition of the tractor as “eight out of ten” while most of the tractors and bulldozers in the museum are in 10/10 condition with one exception. “I’ve got a bulldozer model 40C in the workshop pulled apart, but all the other tractors that are in the collection at the moment, that’s how they’ve come in, probably somewhere around 10 out of 10 condition.” “When it came to New Zealand, he just sold it on Trademe; he didn’t want it. I’ve actually bought two tractors off him like that.” Barry now has about 33 items of John Deere machinery in his collection which mainly comprises two cylinder tractors, but also includes four two cylinder bulldozers. “We’ll see you right” 75Warwick Rd Stratford enquiries@itmstratford.co.nz 06 765 7800 CALF SHEDS • HAY BARNS • COVERED YARDS IMPLEMENT SHEDS • WORKSHOPS FARM BUILDINGS B.J. Bishop Transport For Metal, Fert and Palm Kernel Contact: Barry Bishop Owner / Operator 1914 Mountain Road, Inglewood P. 06 756 7354 | M. 027 447 9232 “It was supposed to be just a passion to have couple of John Deere two cylinder tractors.” His collection covers tractor models from 1930 to 1960 with the purchase prices ranging from $10,000 to $30,000. After his rst purchase, Barry bought two more tractors from the estate of a Matamata collector who had passed away. Barry had previously been a dairy farmer all his adult life, but sold the farm in 2017. He kept a block of land that he and his partner Lynise Megaw now live on which is where the museum is located, a short distance south of Inglewood. “We do bulk palm kernel, fertiliser and metal [aggregate] for farmers around here. I just love communicating with people more than anything.” The machinery is housed in a shed that was originally built in 2017 for his truck, but with the purchase of Barry’s rst model A, it never made it into the shed which has subsequently had three extensions to accommodate the collection. “We’ve been lucky that we’ve been able to add on to the wall each time.” The largest tractor in the collection is a John Deere 830 with about 78 horsepower. Barry would like to be turning over the engine in each machine once every two months, but with his work and museum commitments he does not have much spare time, and this has not been possible. The museum is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 5pm, or at other times by appointment and is also available for events.
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