Front page News from the Farming Reporter of April 1956.
The Same Model Made in Coventry for Nine Years.
Half a million tractors of the same model have been produced by the Standard Motor Company, in their Coventry factory, during the past nine years. Of this total 318,000 have been exported to 117 countries. Together with their, spare parts, and Ferguson designed implements – with which they form a complete farming system – the value of these tractor exports amounts to more than £120,000,000.
Mr Alick Dick, Managing Director of The Standard Motor Company, seated on the half millionth Coventry-produced tractor. On his right is Mr Eric Young, Vice-President and Managing Director of Massey-Harris-Ferguson, Eastern Hemisphere Division.
British farmers have bought 182,000 Ferguson tractors – an average of more than 20,000 a year, which means that there are Ferguson tractors on at least half of all British farms.
The Ferguson system, which caused such a revolution, began in 1920, when Mr Ferguson designed the three-point linkage for attaching implements to the Ferguson tractor. This linkage, combined with hand-lift plough, had automatic depth.
By 1935, Mr Ferguson had perfected his experiments in combining his linkage with hydraulics thus revolutionising agricultural mechanisation and forming the basic pattern to be followed by the majority of tractor manufacturers all over the world.
A year later, the Ferguson System, incorporating the linkage, automatic depth control, hydraulic lift and a range of implements specially designed for the tract01~ which together formed an integral unit, was launched, and the tractors began to be manufactured in a Huddersfield factory.
The Second World War stopped production in Britain and Mr Ferguson went to the United States, where he concluded an agreement for Ferguson tractors to be manufactured in that country.
Under this agreement, more than 300,000 tractors were marketed. Later, an agreement was made with the Standard Motor Company to manufacture the Ferguson tractor in this country. At that time Harry Ferguson, Coventry, was formed.
So Mr Ferguson was able to supply his American dealers with nearly 15,000 British made tractors until his new Detroit factory began production in 1948.
In September, 1953, Harry Ferguson Limited and Massey-Harris Limited, Canada, amalgamated to form Massey-Harris-Ferguson Limited, with the headquarters of the Western Hemisphere division in Toronto, and the Eastern Hemisphere Division in Coventry.
The production of Massey-Harris-Ferguson equipment, including combines, balers, tractors and a complete range of agricultural machinery, now takes place in some forty factories all over the world.
Submitted by Harold Esson Member 1310
Published in Journal No.39 Winter 2001/02
