Dairy farmers are not generally lauded for their fastidious approach to machinery maintenance.

But that’s certainly not the case for Paul and Andrew Gould, who keep their six-strong fleet of well-worked New Holland and Ford tractors in fine mechanical fettle.

Each example has the engine oil changed dutifully every 250 hours and back-end oil once a year, with genuine filters used across the board.

And, come winter, precious hours between milking their 180 British Friesians are devoted to more ambitious spannering projects.

See also: Case and New Holland tractors: How to fix common problems

This legwork pays dividends in peak season, when these modern classics are working flat-out bringing in six cuts of silage and spreading muck, slurry and fertiliser over the 90ha they farm near Gillingham, Dorset.

Despite hour counters reading well over 10,000 on most machines, their policy of nipping problems in the bud means serious breakdowns are a fairly rare occurrence.

Added to that, the huge cost savings of running older tractors and carrying out most of their own maintenance means they can afford to have extra capacity should one have a meltdown.

During four generations of tractor ownership at Townsend Farm no brands other than Fordson, Ford and New Holland have got a look in.

A Standard Fordson was the first to make its mark, followed by Power and Super Majors, 4000s, 7600s and a 7710.

That brings us up to the current crop, full details of which you can read over the coming pages.

There are no plans to change any of these incumbents, regardless of how high the numbers tally on the dash; the only caveat being if they have a catastrophic mechanical failure that makes them uneconomical to repair.

1994 Ford 7840 SL Dual Power – 17,000 hours

Longest serving of the Goulds’ tractor fleet, and a perennial favourite among drivers, is a Ford 7840 SL Dual Power, bought brand new in 1994 for £32,000.

Tasked in its early years with pulling a Claas Jaguar 75 trailed forager, the naturally aspirated 6.6-litre six pot was found to be wanting.

However, after a retrofit turbo was bolted in place, output shot up from 90hp to 125hp, transforming it into a compact powerhouse.

It’s still one of the farm’s front-line tractors today, carrying out a range of duties from hauling a 12t silage trailer and running a four-rotor rake to fertiliser spreading and spraying.

“It’s Dad’s tractor really, but everyone loves driving it, so he’s got a bit of competition for seat time,” says Andrew.

Lightweight and fitted with chunky Michelin 600 rear and 540 front tyres, it’s particularly handy for early season field work when the ground is still soft.

It gets pushed hard as a result and has 17,000 hours on the clock, most of which have been trouble-free.

However, last season these were starting to take their toll, with the engine developing a knocking sound and becoming liable to overheating.

This winter, Paul and Andrew hauled it into the workshop, stripped it down and found that a couple of misshaped pistons were the culprits.

After fitting a new set and having the head skimmed, it was fighting fit again.

While they were at it, they replaced the Dual Power clutch packs that had recently begun to slip and redid the brakes.

Only genuine or quality aftermarket parts were used for the refurb, but by putting the time in to shop around, the total bill was only about £800.

“Almost all the bits came from MDE Agri Parts and MJ Robinson Tractors Spares and they were about two-thirds the price of New Holland main dealers,” says Andrew.

“Most of the parts came in New Holland branded boxes, too.”

1995 New Holland 6640 – 13,700 hours

Another dependable classic is a 6640 that spends most of its time shackled to a Shelbourne Reynolds Powermix 19 mixer wagon.

Purchased new in 1995 for about £30,000, it spent its formative years as the farm’s main loader tractor, before handing the reins over to a T6040.

Despite clocking thousands of hours in this role, it’s had little noteworthy mechanical attention other than a refresh of the Dual Power clutch packs a few years ago.

No tweakments have been made to the engine, which puts out a modest 90hp. However, this has proved ample for the tractor’s largely yard-based career.

The paintwork might not look as fresh as its contemporary, the 7840, but that tractor was treated to a respray about five years ago.

2009 New Holland T7040 – 10,000 hours

Top dog, in the power stakes at least, is a New Holland T7040 that was bought second hand for £43,000 in 2018 when it was on 3,000 hours.

Immediately, they packed it off to a remapping firm that cranked it up from the original 180hp to 240hp. This put it on top of the job of powering their 9m Lely triple mower conditioners, as wlel as buckraking, haulage, muckspreading and pulling the farm’s 3,000gal Agrimat Challenger slurry tanker, with 9.2m Mastek dribble bar.

The T7040 is the first of the Goulds’ tractors to feature an Auto Command CVT transmission, which makes it a popular machine to drive.

And all was going well until it had a stint on the slurry pump which inadvertently jammed solid, instantly stalling the tractor.

Such was the force of the impact that it snapped the gearbox input shaft and broke the damper plate.

When local dealer, Francis Bugler, began to investigate, it became clear that the four-wheel drive clutch was also damaged and the clutch plates were starting to show their 10,000 hours’ worth of hard graft.

“Our insurance covered most of the bill for the damage caused by the slurry pump, but while it was apart, we decided to have all the worn clutch plates repaired too,” says Paul.

“The total cost was about £14,000, but we’ve essentially got a new transmission now.”

With costs for spares spiralling over recent years, the pair decided to economise when it came to replacing the front tyres.

Having had a good experience with budget Ozka rubber on the 6640, they decided to try a set of 540/65 R30s, which came in at about £600 each.

Sadly, these have been a disaster, with splits and bulges developing after just 1,500 hours of work.

They submitted a claim with the Turkish manufacturer and managed to get some of their money back.

2002 New Holland TM165 – 15,000 hours

Keen for some extra horsepower to take the pressure off their 7840 and T6040, Paul and Andrew shelled out £17,000 on a TM165 that had already put in 12,500 hours’ worth of work.

Uncharacteristically, they haven’t been tempted to wring more power out of it, but with 165hp as standard, it’s already comfortable with most of the work they put its way.

This includes pulling a Dowdeswell DP7 five-furrow plough, 14t Warwick silage trailer, New Holland D1000 big square baler and 3.6m Claas 3600 mower conditioner.

Bale lugging is another of its fortes, thanks to an MX U414 loader that they bought new when they got the tractor.

This can lift 2.3t and has a max height of 4.5m, making it well suited to heavy work.

No problems have arisen with its 7.5-litre engine or powershift transmission, despite it now sitting on 15,000 hours.

But there have been a couple of minor niggles, such as a failed pto clutch, cracked exhaust manifold studs and noisy brakes.

“The brakes are one of the downsides of the TM tractors and you’ve got to make sure you change them as soon as they lose feel or they start to graunch,” says Paul.

“This time we fitted some new heavy-duty discs, which will hopefully last a bit longer.”

2009 New Holland 6040 – 11,000 hours

Shouldering the bulk of farm’s material handling duties is a New Holland T6040 fitted with a Quicke Q66 loader.

Purchased new for about £64,000 in 2009, this so-called “loader special” sports a low-profile cab and wheel weights, making it ideally suited to the task.

Used twice daily to fill the mixer wagon, plus other ad hoc work, it’s already clocked 11,000 hours, despite being the second newest tractor they’ve got.

When not lifting and loading material, it mucks in hauling silage trailers and carting bales.

In stock 141hp form, it was a little flat for this work.

But after a trip to their local remapping firm, it was soon putting out 160hp, which has “transformed it”, says Andrew.

Reliability hasn’t been a problem, particularly considering how hard it has been pushed.

But they have had to replace the clutch packs in the 16×16 Electro Command transmission, as well as one of the front hubs.

2013 New Holland T4.65 – 6,000 hours

When their old Ford 4600 scraper tractor became too tired and unreliable, Paul and Andrew splashed out on a brand-new replacement.

This came in the form of a 2013, two-wheel drive New Holland T4.65, which they lavished with luxuries such as air conditioning, a Dromone hydraulic push-out hitch and three spools.

One of these is permanently plumbed into the hitch, which gets used daily for picking up the dry cows’ feed trailers, with the other two required to power the bucket and conveyor on their Shelbourne Reynolds bedding machine.

The £25,000 investment has proved to be a prudent one, as they’ve received more than a decade of comfortable and virtually trouble-free operation.

Despite spending 6,000 hours bathed in slurry, the only repair it’s required is a new clutch cable.