Oliver began providing tractor for other company’s in the early 1930’s. These tractors would have the Cockshutt name on them and sold by Cockshutt dealers. This would be the only farm equipment manufacturer that Oliver would provide tractors for until 1959 after being approached by Massey Ferguson.

During 1958, the Massey line-up consisted of the Massey 35 and 65. Work had begun on a model MF 85 which came out in 1959. Even with a good selection of small and medium tractors, there was a large gap when it came to a large plow tractor.

The large high-horsepower tractors were new to the scene and were not selling in overwhelming quantities yet. The expense of tooling up for low number production would be costly and have time restrictions. Had Massey worked on designing their own “big tractor”, it would have been rushed through research and development and most likely experienced problems in the field. If they took their time and did it right, the rest of the market was going to pass them by.

The best solution was to find a model already in production, give it a Massey styling, and use that to fill the void in their lineup. In the Canadian market Massey had purchased the Minneapolis-Moline G VI and sold it as the Massey 95 starting in 1958. This model was ONLY available for export and in Canada.

Oliver was approached by Massey in 1959 about building a tractor to fit their needs for the US market. Oliver was already tooling up to build the 1900 and the 990 was going to be an obsolete model soon. Oliver had no problem selling one of their “obsolete” models to a company who wanted it to be their “new” model. So the tractor of choice to add to the Massey line was the Oliver 990. When fitted with a newly styled hood, grill and color scheme, the successful 990 was transformed into the Massey 98.

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