KALISPELL — The world’s largest farm tractor -- according to Guinness World Records -- is on display on Monday at the Flathead County Fairgrounds in Kalispell.
Built in Havre in 1977, the tractor weighs in at 95,000 pounds, and stands 14 feet tall, is 28 feet in length, and 25 feet wide.
Robert and his brother Randy Williams primarily farm wheat at their home in Big Sandy. They became the third owners of the tractor back in 1997.
Randy said the tractor was used in full operation until 2009 before certain aspects of their farming methods needed change: “We went to no-till farming, so we weren’t tilling our ground like they used to do and we really didn’t need the big tillage power."
Robert said the tractor put on quite the show in its hay-day (no pun intended): “This tractor actually in its day worked about 1.3 acres a minute, so you know you go out and work 800 to 1,000 acres in a day,” explained Robert.
Howard Farquhar drove up from Polson to get an up-close look at the tractor. He was amazed by the sheer size of the machine. “Just the size, just the width of it, the size of it, the amount of work it can do in a day and when you’re farming that’s a big deal,” said Farquhar.
The Bud 747 tractor has spent the last decade being showcased at farm shows and museums across the Midwest.
Robert hopes to find a permanent home for the tractor to be displayed in Montana soon. "Things would go right if we could find some place to have it over here, you know to show it off to some of the people that come through the park, you know a building or something, you know put it somewhere people can see it if we’re not going to use it you know,” said Robert.
Robert said they took their time hauling the tractor to Kalispell, taking roughly eight hours to transport from Havre.
