Michael - that reminds me of the scene from "Shane", and the big old tree stump on his farmstead that Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) has been trying unsuccessfully to uproot for years. But then, with his loving wife (played by the wonderful Jean Arthur) looking on, Shane (Alan Ladd) comes to lend a hand and together the two men, with nothing more than sweat and muscle and sheer determination, finally manage to rip that old stump from the ground.
All of which is to say: Joe makes for a passable Van Heflin, but what he needed was not machines or Mike Devries, but Alan Ladd! (He already has Trixie, played by the wonderful Trixie)...
Btw, the cattlemen who are trying (with evil gunslinger Jack Palance) to get all the farmers off their land mockingly use a pejorative nickname for Joe Starrett and his ilk, i.e. "sodbusters".
I think that should be on his business card: Joe Hancock - Designer, Builder, Shaper, Renovator, and Sodbuster!