They standardized their offerings, so that the same tractors were sold in Canada, the U.S. The company name was shortened to Massey-Ferguson, and it began to exploit its historic emphasis on global manufacturing and marketing. They were appalled by the confusion the policy created, and the policy ended in 1958. Eric Phillips, brought in management consultants in 1958. The "Two-Line Policy" continued until a new CEO, Col. Harry Ferguson was a proud and headstrong man, and in just under a year, he left the board in a dispute over the design of the Massey-Harris Model "50." It also produced conflict over future designs. That produced confusion in both the dealers and worse the customers. There was even an entirely separate dealer network for the two brands. The merger had put Harry Ferguson on the new board of directors and the company agreed to continue to market separate lines of tractors one under the Ferguson brand and the other under the Massey-Harris brand. All of the new tractors offered the three-point hitch and that was a major selling point.īut the merger also caused problems for a few years. The merged company became Massey-Harris-Ferguson and, in one fell swoop, became the number two manufacturer in the world behind IH and ahead of Deere. Finally, in 1953, Massey offered to buy out Ferguson's company. Both the British Ferguson and Canadian Massey-Harris firms were chasing their competitors, and the two firms had talked over the years about various possible joint ventures. A linkage between the plow and a high point of the tractor would transfer force from the plow to keep the front end of the tractor down.īy 1946, the handshake agreement between Ford and Ferguson came to an end, and Ferguson began producing his own tractors in England and later the U.S.
#1955 massey ferguson to 35 Patch#
In the previous decades, Harry Ferguson and Henry Ford had partnered to produce the revolutionary Ford-Ferguson Model "9N." Ferguson had developed his three-point hitch mechanism in 1926 as a way of preventing a tractor from rearing up when the plow it was pulling hit a rock or hard patch of ground. Massey-Harris needed an advantage, and they found one by taking on the cantankerous Harry Ferguson as a partner. The tractors had a reputation for being built well, but they lagged behind competitors in power and features. In 1950, Massey's strength was in it self-propelled combines.
#1955 massey ferguson to 35 series#
Massey-Harris would claim industry leadership through a series of mergers during the 50s and 60s. But it was still selling only half of the tractors that John Deere was, and Deere was only number two behind International Harvester. In the post-World War II boom, Massey-Harris had moved ahead of Oliver, Cockshutt, Case and Minneapolis-Moline in ag equipment sales. In this time period, the Canadian manufacturer Massey-Harris became Massey-Ferguson, expanded their international operations and laying claim to the title of largest worldwide agricultural manufacturer. Massey-Harris Becomes Massey-Ferguson during the 1950s