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Oldest agriculture machinery manufacture today

K

Kow Farmer

Well-known Member
I was wondering if anyone knows who is the oldest agriculture equipment maunfacture still in business today in the world? Are they still under the same name also? Just an early morning thought I had laying in bed this morning. I know my own farm has multiple maufacturers of machinery that are no longer in business. Just in case these questions were posted earlier, I apologize in advance. Thank you everyone.
Kow Farmer Kurt
 
Way to open to interpretation. Agco owns the rights to some old names for sure,Nichols and Shepard,Advance Rumley,things like that. The parent company goes on even though the actual brands as they were don't exist anymore.
 
I agree with your comment "way open to interpretation",rr.

I would guess that Deere would be the oldest major manufacture that has come thru from the beginning without being bought or merged.
 
I know it will hurt some but. John Deere has to be
the winner. This will hurt too. But what country has
the oldest Government? In other words hasn't changed
its name, or been overthrown. Vic
 
Getting a little, no, WAY off topic here, but I believe Beretta, the gun manufacturer has been around since the 1500s. Now I know Beretta doesn't make farm or ag equipment, but I'm sure there are a few readers here that own a Beretta firearm. Of course, they didn't make guns back then.
 
If you mean a company in the world that has never changed ownership since the beginning it's probably a European company. Deere has been around since 1837, like was said before and the company is still under the same ownership and same name. It's kinda hard to beat that here in the US.

Now to stray off-topic a bit, the Oliver folks claim their 'chilled steel' plow, invented by a company Oliver bought out, was introduced before Deere's steel plow. Back in those days when communication was by stage coach or steam boat someone's invention might not have been known about until several years after it was introduced to the small local community it was invented in. Jim
 
Thing is,Oliver was a real metallurgist who invented a process,not a blacksmith who was tired of listening to customers b1tch til he hammered a broken piece of saw blade in a curve and said "try this,now get out of my shop and leave me alone". Oliver never tried to stop anybody who used his process,which was what the Syracuse Chilled Plow Company did. Deere eventually bought Syracuse so they'd have an actual plow to sell. They wouldn't have lasted long just bending saw blades.
 
Cat would have ben way late to the game. They were a merger of Holt and Best in the late teens,early 20s. 19 twenties.
 
John Deere started making plows in 1837 In 1849 he turned out 2,000 plows. THE Syrcuse chilled plow Company didn't start true production until 1879.
 
That would most likely be Deere. They're certainly the oldest of the major's... Claas also has a fair amount of years behind them.

In terms of oldest business... Stora is generally considered to have weathered more years than any other form of limited company having received it's charter in the late thirteenth century (1294 IIRC).

Rod
 
Grand Detour was bought out by J.I.Case and was in business years before Deere invented his plow. Fact is...Deere was an employee of Grand Detour at the time of his invention. Deere historians always gloss over that tidbit of info for some reason.
 
IMHO, the current use of the McCormick name is a renewal of a defunct, abandoned name.
McCormick as an independent company ended when it merged with Deering in 1902 to form International Harvester. They used the old names on equipment for many years to trace their heritage & keep the former Deering & McCormick dealer networks happy. That name useage might have been part of the merger agreement.
Similar name useage-
In about 1985 Tenneco, who owned Case, bought International farm equip division. Part of the agreement was to use both names for a few years. International trucks changed to Navistar, but still uses the International name on vehicles.
Oliver carried the Hart Parr name along with its own name for a while. The Oliver name, along with Minneapolis Moline ended when they were taken over by White.
Freightliner Trucks carried the White name for a while during a marketing merger with Peterbuilt, Western Star, & Autocar, then dropped it. When they bought Ford heavy trucks in about 1995 they dropped Ford & Picked up the Sterling name, which had been abandoned around 1950. The Freightliner name survived ownership by Mercedes & Chrysler, don't know the current ownership.
Volvo Trucks bought GMC heavy around 1980, & Autocar around the same time. Don't remember if White & GMC had merged earlier or if it was one big transaction, but they carried both the GMC & White logos until about 1986. They recently bought Mack from Renault, but still maintain Mack as a seperate line.
More than you really wanted to know.
Willie
 
As far as a company that has retained its name, ownership and identity, I don't think you can argue with John Deere.

McCormick deserves honorable mention, since the International Harvester company lives on as Navistar and CNH. The contributions of McCormick to American agriculture are at least as significant as Deere's.
 
Yes,that's what I'm saying. It was the Oliver Chilled Plow Company. He invented and patented the process. He never sued anybody for using the patented process though. He produced them in South Bend and for 20-25 years,there was actually another company that sprang right there called the South Bend Chilled Plow Company that used his patent without permission. He said he would let his plows sell themselves.
 
Aermotor Windmills are still made in Texas and under another name in Brazil. The design hasn't changed much if any in over 100 years.
 
There's a LOT of revisionist history where that old dead beat is concerned. But then telling the truth about somebody who fled New England under cover of darkness to avoid going to debtors prison isn't real flattering is it?
 
(quoted from post at 17:23:41 09/23/13) China??????
Click to expand...
Chinas last major overthrow was by the Commies right after WW2. If you wanted to talk longest surviving culture, then yes, parts of China would probably be in the top 5 along with parts of what is India today. Nothing west of the Caucus mts would likely be in the group.
 
(quoted from post at 08:23:37 09/23/13) I would make a WAG that The Vatican has the oldest gov"t title and I don"t think it"s ever been overthrown
Click to expand...

I think as far as a gov't/nation/city-state you'd probably be right!

As far as surviving agricultural companies I was unable to find anything solid, but I'm certain it would be a British or European company. And as far as companies themselves go, there's a construction company in Japan that has not only been in existence, but held by the same family since 578AD! And no, I didn't mean 1578, I meant five seventy eight AD. Pretty hard to beat that!
 
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