Among vintage and classic tractor enthusiasts there are many with large collections dedicated to a single brand.
John Deere and International Harvester undoubtedly have the largest followings, but those with a passion for the now-extinct White Farm Equipment brand seem few and far between.
That is exactly the focus of Manitoba farmer Craig Rubeniuk’s passion. His collection includes a large number of White tractors and some examples from brands that eventually merged to form WFE. Those include Oliver, Cockshutt and Minneapolis Moline.
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The walls of the farm workshop and two rooms in the family home are filled with signs and other brand-related collectibles.
“I guess you want to go back to my roots as a young kid driving around with my grandpa, Peter Rubeniuk,” he says about why he collects WFE equipment. “He’d buy these tractors next to new, the 1855 and 1850s, the 2150. Just riding around with him, I just got the love for White.”
White, which manufactured trucks and other products, jumped into the farm equipment business in 1960. For a while, it had a strong manufacturing presence in Brantford, Ont., until a series of financial problems and corporate changes led to the later-named White Farm Equipment brand being acquired by Agco in 1993. Eventually WFE manufacturing moved away from the region.
Some of the tractors in Rubeniuk’s collection still see regular duty on the family farm, particularly the higher-horsepower models.
“The four-wheel drives (are used most), just because we can pull the bigger footage with more horsepower,” says Rubeniuk. “The little ones we use occasionally for harrowing, mostly for stone picking, stuff like that.
“They all run. I think being a licensed mechanic got me into this. I can fix them myself and not pay somebody big bucks to do it. I think it wouldn’t happen if I had to pay someone to do everything I’ve done.”
Aside from the machines, the Rubeniuks have an impressive collection of signs and memorabilia, some of it sourced from former dealerships. Finding all the pieces for the collection required a lot of looking and travelling.
“Now with the internet, it’s handier,” says Rubeniuk. “Just calling old dealerships, word of mouth, contacting them seeing if they had anything left, getting a little bit here and there. It starts adding up.”
Like any dedicated collector, he is keeping his eyes open for other interesting pieces.
“Whatever comes up. To finish off the White line I’m kind of grabbing the last of them from ’85 to ’87 before they merged with Allied. Probably one I’d look forward to is getting an AGCOStar, the 8425. Agco’s version of the White. It’s not a true White tractor but it’s the last (of the line).”
