OXFORD—As Michael Ross of Windham got ready to pull 7,500 pounds with his green 1955 John Deere Model 70 at the Oxford County Fair on Saturday, he said the trick to a successful tractor pull is in the traction.

“Coming out through the gate, you just want to go as far as you can go,” Ross said. “You look at the track to see the best approach through the mud.” 

The goal of a pull is obvious. Whoever pulls the weight the farthest wins. Hooking up to a weight set in a moving sled, different classes of antique tractors pull from 2,000 to 8,500 pounds. Tractors in the pull can’t be newer than 1960.

Operating and maintaining the tractor is the easy part. Ross said he puts enough elbow grease into his machines to have confidence that they will work. Most of the strategy and skill comes in as pullers plot a path through the mud.

“Every track is different,” he said. “You can plan and do good on one track, and the next track, you’ll do terrible. It’s just how it goes.”

Ross said he maintains six antique tractors. He bought his 1955 John Deere from an elderly farmer in Connecticut. According to Ross, that model is hard to find in Maine. Though he doesn’t live on a farm anymore, Ross said he still harbors a soft spot for tractors.

“I grew up on a farm,” Ross said. “It was in my blood, and I couldn’t let go of it. A lot of these guys are that way.” 

Ross said pretty much every competitor at the pull was a member of the Maine Antique Tractors Association, an organization of tractor enthusiasts that organizes pulls and keeps rankings of competitors.

“We’re mostly here for the fun of it, and the camaraderie. Just being around all these guys, that’s what makes it all worth it,” Ross said. 

Later in the afternoon, armed with a burlap sack, Mikey Doze, 6, of Oxford, managed to bag a piglet at the pig scramble with the help of his father.

Doze said he was going to name his new pig “Bacon.” 

“I let go of him a few times, but then the other time I kept holding onto him. And they bagged him,” Doze said.

Bacon will live with the Dozes’ four dogs. One day, Bacon may live up to his name.