Here in Ireland the bright red livery of Massey Ferguson tractors will forever be associated with Harry Ferguson, who entered a tractor production agreement with David Brown in 1936.
That was 86 years ago, so it may come as something of a surprise to learn that the modern Massey Ferguson company is intending to celebrate its 175th anniversary this year.
This goes back to before Harry Ferguson had even entered this world, so we must turn to the Massey side of the company for an explanation.
The reason then becomes quite clear for it was in 1844 that a gentleman by the name of Daniel Massey passed on his land clearance business to his son, Hart, and focused on developing the workshop that had he had created to service the implements he had been using.
Although 46 at the time, Daniel was no late starter; he had been involved in felling forest and converting it to farmland on his own account since he was 19. His entrepreneurial flame still burned bright for he took to manufacturing mowers, reapers and binders in addition to the repair of these items.
Within three years the workshop was established as a viable business so Daniel handed over the home farm to his son as well. Having done so, he took the next major step in manufacture by establishing a foundry.
The year was 1847, which is the year that Massey Ferguson are now celebrating as the birth of the company.
The venture was a success, so much so that Hart was once again called up for family duty and appointed works manager in 1851, forming an official partnership with his father two years later.
The newly created firm took Hart’s name and was known as H.A. Massey and Company of Newcastle Ontario, and it was at around this time that it really started to flourish. Unfortunately, Daniel did not get to see the extent of its growth, having passed away in November of 1856.
Hart Massey was not one to slumber away in the backwaters and with the help of his son, Charles, he created a company that employed over 700 people by 1896 in its Toronto factory alone.
Machines for the new farmland
The conversion of the prairies and forests to farmland increased the demand for harvesting equipment in the late 19th century as the west and north was opened up by the country’s pioneers.
These years saw the company expand rapidly as mechanisation took a hold of agriculture around the world as well as at home, yet it was not the only one involved in the trade.
Also based in Ontario was another manufacturer of farm equipment who went by the name of Alanson Harris.
This company had been started by Alanson in 1857. Later, he took his son, John, into partnership in a move that paralleled that of Daniel Massey’s inclusion of Hart into the family business.
Canada’s very own binder wars
In 1884, A. Harris, Son and Company sold 1,700 binders into Ontario as opposed to Massey’s 2,500. They were certainly rivals, and not only in the machines themselves, but also the binder twine.
The market for binder twine was probably as lucrative, if not more so, than the market for binders, and competition was fierce. So fierce that, as far as we can see from this distance, further competition was stifled by cartels of which both companies were members.
Tariffs preserve profits
Also keeping the Canadian industry buoyant were tariffs on American equipment, tariffs that Hart Massey took great care to see retained for as long as possible by using his clout within political circles.
Yet, despite these advantages the sales war between the two companies was taking its toll, so in 1899 the Massey Family resolved to sell their business to an English company.
This sale that never went ahead, due, it is said, to the accountant engaged in preparing the sale not being able balance the books, nor did it help that he never got paid for his services.
Massey and Harris unite
Undeterred, they turned to their old rivals and it was suggested that the two companies be merged although it is unclear as to whether it was John Harris or Hart Massey who made the first move.
So it was that in July 1891 the Massey-Harris company was incorporated, a company that continued to grow as it eliminated much of the competition by the simple expedient of buying it up.
Hart Massey, who had done so much with the business that his father had started 40 years earlier died in February 1896, yet the company continued, diversifying into ploughs and steam tractors by the turn of the century.
Ventures into the tractor market
In 1917 it entered the tractor market through an agreement with the Bull Tractor Company, importing the three-wheeled Whiting Bull into Canada, an arrangement that lasted no more than a year.
It then went on to sell a unit made by the Parrett tractor Co. of Chicago before eventually starting to design and build its own models in America in 1928.
By the 1950s, and under the stewardship of James Duncan, Massey Harris had a factory in Scotland making both tractors and combine harvesters, but the tractor and implement side of the business was rapidly falling behind that of its rivals.
Harry Ferguson’s company was, at the time, leading the world in tractor and implement design and manufacture, especially the attachment to each other. There was an obvious fit between the two companies.
The merger was abrupt and took all by surprise, not least James Duncan who could hardly believe his luck in being able to buy out Harry Ferguson with no more negotiation than an after dinner chat.
The management and staff of Ferguson’s company were not quite so impressed but the sale to the Canadian company went ahead with the rather clumsy name of Massey-Harris-Ferguson being used initially.
This was soon shortened to Massey Ferguson and the new company remained as a significant player in the industry, although suffering various turns of fortune, until 1996 when it was finally purchased by AGCO.
Another revolution
Today, the company is still a significant part of the AGCO empire and the name has survived nearly 70 years, ten years longer than any of the companies that had gone into its formation.
To mark the 175th anniversary of Daniel Massey’s first workshop the present Massey Ferguson Company has redesigned its logo to better reflect how it sees its future:
“The three triangles overlap to represent the mutually beneficial relationship and trust between farmers, dealers and the brand”
This is all part of a gradual relaunch of the company as a brand that has a consistent ethos throughout all the markets it serves.
It goes on to explain that:
“Massey Ferguson is now pivoting from being a pure farm machinery manufacturer into a provider of straightforward and dependable experiences that provide the best value for farmers and make their business more profitable and sustainable.”
Farmers looking to simply buy a new tractor may be left a little puzzled as to what this actually means, Yet, whenever we hear this sort of talk the mention of Agriculture 4.0. is rarely far behind.
The digital route forward
Is Massey Ferguson reconfigurating itself towards a future where the tractor is considered just another unit in a digital plan?
Other manufacturers are starting to lean that way as tractors are stacked with ever greater capacity to be monitored, and even controlled, remotely, making the human operator superfluous to requirements.
We should not be surprised at this for history has taught us that the early pioneers of farm mechanisation, including Daniel Massey, were driven by the desire to reduce dependence upon human labour.
Many may now see the elimination of it altogether as an achievable goal. Yet to do so is a hugely complex and expensive task, and the more companies look into it the more the estimated time frame extends into decades rather than years, so it won’t be happening anytime soon.