Arguably the greatest endorsement any product might earn is a customer’s decision to purchase another one the same.

New South Wales farmer Tom Pearce has done exactly that, opting to add a second tractor from McCormick’s X7 series when it came time to grow his range.

It was a combination of a positive previous experience, value for money and service from McCormick distributor Clark Equipment that led to him adding an X7.690 to the X7.660 which had already been getting the job done.

Tom farms alongside his father Norman under the name Western Farm Enterprises and is based at Bega in New South Wales.

Their family dairy farm is around 380 hectares, and they run about 270 dairy cows, with all stock being located on the one property.

Primarily, the Pearces need their tractors to be versatile – and the pair of McCormick X7s are certainly that.

“They do everything,” Tom says. “Just today, the older X7.660 has been on a power harrow and the rest of the time it’s either topping, running a mixer, pulling a trailer or moving bales. The newer X7.690 is our main workhorse. It’s set up on the baler and set up on a boom with auto steer and auto rate control, plus we run a seeder, slurry tank, and front mower.”

Pearce family’s

In many ways, the Pearce family’s story mirrors that of the average Aussie farmer – pick a trusted brand which has been relied upon in the past, upgrade to the newer model as needs evolve and develop a good relationship with the distributor and its local branch to the point of adding other machines from the same source.

“We’ve had McCormick’s in the past and we’ve still got an old CX85 in the shed, an old open cab tractor,” Tom says. Dad had a thing for McCormick from years back, and we came across the newer X7s at a field day. We liked the updates they had made, and the price point they were at compared to some of the other big players. Coming out of the Clark stable, they’ve got a bit of industry presence with Bobcat and all the other brands they do, so it wasn’t just a small company backing them.”

The McCormick tractors are not the only purchase which the Pearces have made from Clark Equipment, also investing in a Bobcat telehandler to complete some of the only jobs which the tractors cannot.

“Clark have been good to us and they’re pretty easy to get in contact with,” Tom says.

The Pearces’ nearest Clark Equipment branch is in Fyshwick, and Tom is thankful for both the skill of the mechanics and speed of work when they have been called upon.

“The mechanics have been useful, and they have got some pretty tech savvy people within the network,” he says. It’s handy that Clark is a larger company, and they can probably draw from different branches if they need to. These days, it’s hard to have a dealer or a network in every little town like it once did, but least for us there’s a fairly big branch in Fyshwick. You can usually get someone quickly because it’s not relying on one small business and one mechanic.”

McCormick’s X7 range comes with five different models, including the X7.660 and X7.690 which the Pearces own.

All X7 models are manufactured in Italy and are equipped with 6.7L, six-cylinder engines.

The top-end X7.690 P6-Drive delivers a maximum of 225hp (166kW) when equipped with McCormick’s Power Plus, while the X7.660 P6-Drive offers a maximum of 181hp (133kW).

They offer a maximum torque of 897Nm and 738Nm respectively when boosted by Power Plus, while also weighing 13 tonnes and 11.5 tonnes respectively.

These tractors are rugged, solid workhorses capable of handling all jobs, as Tom’s usage can attest to.

A rugged chassis helps to ensure their durability while reducing noise and vibration levels inside the cabin

It is far from the only step which McCormick has taken to ensure operator comfort while inside an X7.

The Premiere Cab is designed to ensure a clean and dust-free environment with a sound insulation system that McCormick says maintains an in-cab noise level of only 70dB.

Premiere Cab is also “a new-concept four-post design with rear hinged doors that provides unobstructed visibility in all directions, giving the driver full view of blind spots without the need to change position”.

A swivel seat and height adjustment, backrest heating and ventilation helps to ensure operators will be comfortable during long days inside the tractor.

A bottle holder, 12V charging sockets, automatic climate control and an opening transparent roof hatch are all standard features that further enhance the user experience, along with a 12-inch touch screen monitor in the armrest and P6-EasyPilot controller.

McCormick’s P6-Drive transmission offers five ranges and a six-speed on-the go powershift.

It incorporates a robotised range shifting and an electrohydraulic steering-column power shuttle that provides 30 forward and 15 reverse speeds.

A creep speed option with 54 speeds forward and 27 in reverse is also available if desired. For Tom, it was a combination of factors that make up McCormick’s identity which influenced his final decision – and the call has so far been justified.

“In terms of the engine, they have been very reliable, and we haven’t had any issues engine wise,” he says. The new X7.690 with the front suspension is extremely comfortable to drive and its semi-basic inside with no AdBlue. The decision came down to price point and the fact that in Europe they’re a mainstream tractor and there’s a lot of heritage behind the McCormick brand around the world. For a mainstream tractor, it represents pretty significant value, and I think people just need to jump in and take one for a drive.”