Deep in rural Tasman, the Fry family’s John Deere collection is a green-hued love letter to Kiwi farming history, featuring more than 50 vintage tractors
Tasman District ag contractors, Kevin and Andrew Fry, are ‘Deere men’ through and through. You only need to open the door on their new display shed at their base of operations near Tapawera to have that proven to you in glorious green detail.
Deals on Wheels paid the Frys a visit primarily to check out their new Alpine Buildings shed for an issue of sister mag Farm Trader, but we decided to take a deeper dive on what Kevin and Andrew have in their extensive collection while we were there.
Getting the bug
Andrew says John Deere collectors are a particularly passionate lot. Collecting heritage machinery from the iconic American brand isn’t something that’s simply stumbled across.
“Guys that collect John Deere equipment don’t just pick it up as a hobby – they’ll normally have a connection with the brand through farming or contracting,” he says. “For me, it’s something I was pretty much born into, and I reckon that’s the story for a lot of other collectors too.”
Andrew started collecting young – he purchased his first JD40 combine at the age of 17. It’s something he’s always loved to do. And having an enthusiast father in Kevin certainly helped get further purchases across the line.
“Mum died when I was really small, so it’s kind of always been me and Dad,” Andrew explains. “He always had a real appreciation for John Deere, which was something he got from his dad, and so I immediately cottoned onto that.
“Now we’ve got over 50 tractors, including our modern contracting fleet and plenty of vintage implements as well. All the machines we have in the main shed run, which is a point of pride for us. Well, the sooner you get them restored and running, the easier they are to move around the place.” he laughs.
Kiwi Proven
along with another. By pure chance the two tractors featured sequential build numbers, so both will be staying in the collection
There is one specific parameter for the collection that has been in place since the start – the Frys only collect ‘New Zealand-new’ machines.
Opening up the collection to overseas-sourced tractors would, naturally, double their stocks of interesting machinery in no time at all. But, argues Andrew, where would the fun be in that?
“It definitely means the collection has grown at a slower pace, but the history of these machines in New Zealand is really what has interested us,” he says. “There’s also the thrill of the chase. Doing a bit of detective work and finding out about machines that have been used here and are sitting on people’s properties – that’s the fun part.”
Andrew points to the 1953 R model as a prime example – John Deere’s first diesel model, it was a machine that alluded him for years and one that he’s very proud to have in the collection today. Similarly, the collection features plenty of iron that even American collectors would love to get their hands on, like the Fry’s 1960s-era 4020, of which only 21 are thought to have been imported into New Zealand.
Keep it in the family
Like local history, family history is also very important to the duo.
Kevin’s father, Lex, a tobacco farmer in the province in the 1960s and ‘70s, was an early convert to John Deere. While his fleet didn’t remain exclusively JD green in colour as his business interests grew, it fostered an admiration of the brand in son Kevin (and latterly in grandson Andrew), and a deep appreciation of the important part those early machines played in the Fry family history.
As a result, plenty of Lex’s own machines feature in the collection, including a 1951 MT with its original mower still attached (a rare implement to find these days), and a fastidiously restored Nuffield 460. Over in the sheds housing tractors yet to receive the spit and polish of restoration, more ex-Lex machines reside, including a Massey Harris featuring all the patina, dust and rust of a well-used farm machine.
“We do like to have the tractors looking nice and tidy,” says Kevin. “But we don’t mind a bit of rust. They’ve all had a good working life after all, so it’s important to show that.”
All go, on show
While it’s all hands to the pump for the busy summer contracting season (a chief reason why Andrew and Kevin’s prized new 15m x 36m storage shed, built by Alpine Buildings for the collection, still needs finishing work completed), there’s another deadline on their minds as we go to print.
Late March 2025 saw John Deere brand aficionados descend by the hay trailer load on Higgins Heritage Park at Pigeon Valley, south of Richmond, for the Nelson Vintage Engine & Machinery Club Show. This year a special Deere display was planned and, naturally, Andrew and Kevin were there with plenty of hardware.
“We took up a lot of gear to the Pigeon Valley show, so yeah, it was a big weekend,” continues Andrew. “The beauty of this new building is that the tractors stay nice and clean. We don’t do any mechanical work inside the building at all – it’s purely to store and display them. It’s a massive turnaround from what we had before, with all the tractors crowded into smaller sheds. You couldn’t work on them or even get to them easily.”
While the new display space for the collection has all the hallmarks of a fantastic museum in the making, the Frys aren’t interested in opening up a commercial enterprise.
“It just seems like we’d be creating headaches for ourselves with all the red tape associated with that,” says Andrew. “It’s not about the money at all. In fact, I think that would put a bit of a dampener on what it is that Dad and I enjoy about collecting.
“But if people are interested in having a look, we’re always happy showing them around. Every tractor has plenty of history in it, and it’s great to be able to look after them for others to see.”
Images by Cameron Officer