Tractors rolled on to improve living standards

Canadian manufacturer Massey-Harris was a major player in the “tractor wars” that heated up during the post-World War II economic boom.

With little fanfare, Massey-Harris eventually climbed into third place in the race to become the world’s largest agricultural manufacturer by the 1960s, trailing only giants International Harvester and John Deere.

Credit visionaries Daniel Massey and Alanson Harris. Massey founded his company in Newcastle, Ontario, in 1847. It became known as Massey Manufacturing Company in 1879 when operations were moved to Toronto, Ontario. Harris started a foundry in Beamsville, Ontario, in 1857.

The two entrepreneurs merged their operations in 1891, creating the Massey-Harris Company, based in Toronto.

Massey-Harris quickly made inroads into the U.S. market. For the most part, Massey-Harris tractors were distinguished by their bright red bodies with yellow accent colors and wheels.

Another post-World War II development, in 1946, was the split between Henry Ford II and Irishman Harry Ferguson, a bloke of an engineer who was labeled by his countrymen as the “mad mechanic.” 

This falling out between Ford (grandson of Ford founder Henry Ford) and Ferguson rippled like amber waves of grain all across America’s rural fruited plain, and the farming landscape began to change quite dramatically. 

In 1948, Ferguson built his own tractor factory in Detroit, Mich., to go head-to-head with Ford-built tractors.

In 1953, Ferguson agreed to a merger with Massey-Harris to form Massey-Harris-Ferguson, with headquarters in Brantford, Ontario.

The company name was shortened to Massey-Ferguson in 1958. The hyphen was officially dropped in 1970, and red became the primary Massey Ferguson color.

Agricultural historian John Iwen wrote: “When the agricultural machinery market collapsed in 1979, Massey Ferguson was caught unaware and was nearly destroyed by rising interest rates on an accumulated debt of $1.6 billion.”

Henry Ford II (above)

Harry Ferguson

Iwen said The Wall Street Journal described the situation as “one of Canada’s worst corporate financial disasters.”

Iwen reported that a company named Varity was created in Toronto in 1986 to essentially “pick up the remains of Massey Ferguson.” 

In 1990, AGCO rescued the Massey Ferguson brand, saving it from the graveyard. AGCO’s roots back date back to the Allis-Chalmers and Minneapolis-Moline tractor companies. Today, AGCO continues to market Massey Ferguson as its flagship brand. 

Alas, the contemporary tractor world remains topsy-turvy, reported Jennifer Reibel of Farm Equipment magazine, based in Brookfield, Wis. 

In a nutshell, a century of consolidation has been occurring in the farm equipment industry. “As farming became increasingly mechanized, farms grew larger in size and smaller in number,” she said. 

More than 160 U.S. tractor companies were eventually whittled down to seven full-line farm equipment companies. Of those, only John Deere remains intact today as an independent company. 

“Today, the total number of U.S. farms is about 2.2 million, down from 6.8 million in 1935,” Reibel noted. Hence, farming has a totally different complexion. Fewer people farm more acreage. To meet the changing needs of growers, farm equipment is getting bigger and more productive, but the market overall is shrinking.

She quoted Curt Blades of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers as saying: “As the farm population continues to age that continues to drive consolidation among farmers. Farms are growing in size, with fewer family members to operate them.”

The plot thickens with global competition. Kubota (orange) of Osaka, Japan, and Mahindra (red) of Mumbai, India, are vying to gain bigger pieces of that shrinking American pie.