AGCO

Reading in the American Agriculturalist magazine here in New York that AGCO is/has been shifting labeling its products so that Massey Ferguson and Challenger will be the identities in that company outside of combines (Gleanor). Probably good for them as this will emphasize the company as being close to full line as opposed to segmented. Will also help surviving dealers with more exclusiveness on various implements/tractors. Gone will be the AGCO line which would have contained Hesston, New Idea, and White among other labels (which products will carry only the MF or Challenger labels).
I guess it makes me feel old that names like Allis Chalmers, Oliver, Minneapolis Moline, etc. are being slid further back in the closet of history. I can remember when all these brands had their own lots at the farm shows and the sales people bristled at the notion they might not be there in the future.

Just hope that doesn't cause problems with their dealer network. The one nearest to me used to be an Oliver dealer,they handle mostly the red Masseys now. There is another dealer a dozen or so miles on east of them that handled Duetz/Allis. They have been handling the orange Agco branded tractors and the Gleaner combines. I'd just hate like heck to loose the one closest to me that handled Oliver and White since that's what I run mostly.

Guess Deere's pretty much the only one that's never been bought out,or merged with anyone.

I'm thinking there will be be two casualties within 100 miles of me. So as not to start any rumors I will not allude to what lines they are handling now. For one it will be too bad as they have gone beyond what a typical dealer provides in terms of parts support. One of the survivors will be surprising because I have never seen much activity there but some how I got the feeling the cards will fall in their favor.

NY986, you know when you first look at it the situation looks scary and for those of us who have covered several decades and seen as many changes in the ag industry as we have and think it is unparalleled but I remembered some of dad"s (born in 1900) conversations with my uncles talking about the the old Rumley Oil Pulls and different steam engines and threshing machines, Raydex plows, Superior drills, McCormick reapers and binders and on and on. Who would have thought the leaders in Grassland Farming would be the owners also of a tractor and combine company. One thing for sure just like night and day is change it"s how we adapt to it. I see two options either resist or embrace it and both are going to cost money that"s the American way! Didn"t say I like it in fact I"m an early victim as one old dealer told us when we went belly up you"re better to go early than late, like he told us when I go I"m giving up a whole lifetime of investment and family involvement and I"m too old to do anything else.:-< CT

Their first buy was Waterloo, I think.

That is a mis truth....

van brunt
kilfer

That chart I used to see about the unbroken long green line at the jd dealer used to crack me up.

Think of Deere as the Union Pacific RR...it wouldn"t still be here if didn"t eat the smaller fishes and i"d bore you with that topic

Christos

They don"t own "em, but Yan Mar builds all their under 80HP tractors.

Did Deere close its factory at Mannhiem ,Germany.? They used to make mid size 50 to80 HP tractors there.

This Farm Journal list of who makes what where may contain some disinformation. It does not show any YanMar made John deeres. Are they being shipped in as CKD (completely knocked down) and them being reassembled in the US in Georgia?
Farm Journal who Makes what Where

I use both Oliver and White Tractors. So far we
have not had any problems getting parts. I do not
know how longer AGCO will support them. Does anybody how anything about this?

The article did not mention anything relative to parts. I would assume if a part can be made and sold at a reasonable profit it will continue to be available. The philosophy has changed from what it was years ago to drive farmers into new equipment purchases.
The bigger issue in my mind will be disruption of the dealer network. As I stated below I am expecting two dealers to close and my estimate is probably on the low side. The place I like to deal with if closed will also mean losing access to the personnel working there. I would like to think the survivors would scoop up some of these experienced people but there are no assurances on this. Sometimes the books can't tell you enough on doing a repair or making sure you order all the correct parts. My fear is the older established dealer will be replaced by someone who will address the more immediate need of AGCO to put new product on the lot. The dealers are just too close to each other here in Western NY to expect them all to survive. Some in spite of being good to the customer have had to rely a lot on shortlines and other means to keep the doors open. I'm thinking the ones that will sign for the most equipment initially will stay while everybody else is eliminated.

I am saddened by the loss of brands and separate companies. Now a brand name is just a label. Maybe humans will achieve world governemt after all - it will be a government of multi-national corporations and the nations will just be labels.

Mother Deere builds 6000 and 7000 series tractors in Mannheim Germany.Deere bought the Lance factory in a couple of stage sin the 1950's and 1960's.
It was a culture shock for the mid America bible belt executives. To find the local brewery delivering fresh draft daily to the Lance cafeteria.
It's all on the JD web site where the equipment is build or assembled.
Deere did or does own part of Yanmar. They do or did have a deal going with Hitachi heavy industries as well for excavators too.
The Yanmar built to Deere specs is a different machine than a Yanmar spec tractor.

This link says Yanmar stopped exporting tractors to the US.

"Yanmar continued to build many of the compact tractors for John Deere up until around 2004 or so (exact date not known). So are Deere tractors the same as Yanmar tractors? No. While some models may share a few parts, most of the parts will not interchange. Deere did not want an identical "clone".
YanMar owners link

AGCO Brand
LT Series
85–95 PTO hp)
Beauvais, France
RT Series
110–180 PTO hp)
Beauvais, France
DT Series
205–275 PTO hp)
Beauvais, France

John Deere 4000 Series (32.5–50 PTO hp)
Augusta, Ga.
5D Series and 5E Series
37–45 PTO hp and 37–61 PTO hp)
Pune, India
5M Series (50–90 PTO hp)
Augusta, Ga.
5E Limited Series (83–101 PTO hp)
Augusta, Ga.
6030 Series (75–95 PTO hp)
Mannheim, Germany
6D Series (82–115 PTO hp)
Saltillo, Mexico
7030 Small-Frame Series
100–140 PTO hp)
Mannheim, Germany, and
Waterloo, Iowa
7030 Large-Frame Series
140–180 PTO hp)
Waterloo, Iowa
8R/8RT Series (181–284 PTO hp)
Waterloo, Iowa
9030/9030T Series (325–530 engine hp)
Waterloo, Iowa

This is an interesting antedote that happened during our short tenure as a dealer but we had a very nice older gentleman that used to frequent our dealership and was the father of a close friend that stopped in one day and said I just left the bank of which was the same one we used by the way to apply for his short term seasonal operating capital and in the loan app he had installed an allowance for a new tractor of which he and I already had agreed on a purchase price if the loan passed believe me I bottomed out the price because we were loaded with inventory and had to get it off the interest clock and it was actually over a year old. Anyway the bank officer said I will approve this loan except I need to amend the tractor loan except $5000 because that is too much for that tractor. A side note is the loan officer also farmed and had X brand versus ours so the gentleman went immediately to X brand dealership and checked apples to apples and they were $5000 higher! He went back to the bank and said I want to change my app to include a purchase of an airplane, why said the loan officer? That's to fly to get parts when you run all the dealers out of business. He transferred all of his accounts from that bank we couldn't the good thing is he (loan officer) was removed from his position due to a phone call from an unknown source :->

I don't own a Deere tractor or have any plans to in the future,just what they were advertizing a year or so back the "still john deere" slogan.They even had a chronological scale of all the competetors sell out,mergers over the years and a long green line of how john deere started making ploughs and it was all the same company from there lol.

(quoted from post at 19:30:03 12/29/09) I don't own a Deere tractor or have any plans to in the future,just what they were advertising a year or so back the "still john Deere" slogan.They even had a chronological scale of all the competitors sell out,mergers over the years and a long green line of how john Deere started making ploughs and it was all the same company from there lol.

Click to expand...

To be accurate. Nobody has bought Mother Deere. Deere has purchased other companies such as Waterloo Tractor Co., Van Brunt seed drills and Lance.
That's "Still John Deere".