Old Farm Tractors

The earliest tractors came about in the mid 1800's and were huge, lumbering, steam powered machines that replaced horses and mule teams as the main power source for doing the work of the farm. They were called traction engines and were the main machine for farming well into the 20th century. Many of these fine old traction engines are still around today, restored and prized by collectors.

The first gasoline powered, internal combustion engine tractors came into existence around 1892 but weren't all that reliable and didn't start to gain widespread acceptance until they were made smaller and more affordable. It's not very well known but Henry Ford didn't only mass produce his famous Model T automobile, he also brought the first mass produced tractor to market in 1917. It was called the Fordson. Photo courtesy of photographer Michal Manas.

The Fordson was the predecessor of a line of Ford tractors that evolved over the years and was in production by Ford up until 1991 when they sold the farm tractor division to Fiat who produced tractors under the Ford-New Holland name up to 2001 when the Ford name was dropped. Even though Ford tractors are no longer in production, they are still plentiful and in use all over the U.S. and the world.

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The two tractors I mentioned that I grew up with were a 1953 Ford Jubilee and a Ford 860. I'm not sure of the year of that one but I think it was a 1955 or 1956 model. Here's an old photo of the 860 sitting next to a pole barn building project.

Back in the 1950's and 60's a lot of small family farms used small tractors like these. They were inexpensive to buy and maintain and were well suited to farming on a small scale. These little Fords had around 30 horsepower and were perfect for most light to medium duty, routine jobs on the farm. While we used the two tractors listed above for many years, later on we acquired a larger, heavier tractor with more power to handle some of the more demanding tasks, a Ford 4000.

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Back in my childhood years on the farm, there were many brands of tractor available locally and were in use on farms all around ours. Names like John Deere, Allis Chalmers, FarmAll, Massey Ferguson, Oliver, Case, IH (International Harvester) and of course Ford.

While you could find all of these in use, John Deere was probably the most popular and is still around today. Many of the other manufacturers have gone out of business or have merged with other companies. For instance, IH and Case have merged into one company. Oliver is no longer in production with the last one rolling off the assembly line back in 1976 when they were bought out by White and I believe they ceased production along about 2002.

John Deere is probably the most widely known and popular brand and one of the few American tractors still being made. Today they are competing with imported brands like Kubota and Mahindra which are gaining in popularity.

While the small family farm is not really financially viable anymore, many of the old tractors are still in use on hobby and specialty farms today. Of course, collectors and restorers are keeping them alive as well.

Farming as a business has transformed into large scale commercial operations and the equipment has increased in scale right along with the farm. Most of the tractors in use commercially now are huge 4WD monsters with climate controlled cabs and computer controlled navigation.

I guess that's the way to go for increased production and higher profit margins.

I just kind of miss the old family farm...

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