[AT] Oliver 550 was Challenger successor to Olive.

[James Peck]

I received a Steiner Tractor catalog in the mail. It had a picture of a vey nice Oliver 550.  This may have been the 3rd oliver mentioned here. Oliver is part of the Agco heritage.

http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/000/6/8/680-oliver-550.html

My grandfathers neighbor to the east got their 3rd Oliver in the mid sixties. This one was green and white with a flat nose, a very Fergusonish 3 point hitch utility tractor,. The man I knew from the school bus, about 11 years older than I am, is undoubtedly retired by now if still alive. He had inherited the place around 1970. He had married a woman from a Canadian immigrant family. I spoke to the woman about 1992. She told me they had bought a replacement part from a salvage yard to cure steering wobble on the rubber tired narrow front Oliver. She said the man regretted staying in farming due to low earnings but felt he was too old to change careers.

They still had a horse team through the late sixties although they were not used. The first narrow front Oliver was on steel. The rear wheels were the narrow skeleton type.

I am very curious as to what model they bought.

Oliver brand transitioned to White. Agco bought the White brand and supplanted it with the Agco brand. The Agco models were being dual or triple branded as equivalent Challenger or Massey Fergusons. Agco dropped the Agco brand and replaced it with your choice of Massey Ferguson or Challenger.  

[ James Peck] I was unfamiliar with the Oliver 1250.  Tractor Data says 35 Hp for the Fiat made gasoline engine.

http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/006/1/1/6112-oliver-1250.html

Fiat was selling in the US auto market in the mid sixties. I remember a little 4 on the column model.