Laverda is a manufacturer of combine harvesters and hay equipment, based in Breganze, Italy. It was founded in 1873 by Pietro Laverda to produce farming implements in the Province of Vicenza. 1956 was the year the first self-propelled Laverda combine, the M 60, was manufactured. Laverda formed a partnership with Fiat in 1981, and would be a part of that company for some 20 years.
Laverda headquarter and production site in Breganze, Italy
1873 Pietro Laverda established “Ditta Pietro Laverda”, the first craftsman’s workshop that produced farming implements, wine-making machines and bell-tower clocks in S.Giorgio di Perlena, in the Province of Vicenza.
1905 Having moved to Breganze, to the place that was to remain the headquarters for more than seventy years, the company took on an industrial character with over 100 employees. The production catered to the needs of agriculture that was just becoming aware of mechanization: manual threshing machines, straw cutters, grain fans, wine presses, corn shellers, etc.
1919 At the end of the First World War and with the arms industry phase having been brought to a close, activities were fully resumed with the collaboration of Pietro Laverda’s sons, Giovanni and Antonio. New models were introduced amongst which the first patented hydraulic press.
1930 The young grandsons of the founder, Pietro Jr and G.Battista took over from Pietro Laverda Sr at the company’s helm.
1934 Laverda presented the first towed mowing machine to be made in Italy, model 48 A.
1938 This was the year that reaper-binder ML6 was presented, the first Italian model, forerunner of a series of machines that was to influence Italian grain cultivation for decades. It was with this machine that Laverda entered the harvesting machine sector.
1947 The first self-propelled mower was produced in the Breganze plant.
1956 Laverda designed and built the first Italian self-propelled combine harvester, the M 60 model.
1963 This was the year in which the M 120 combine harvester was created. By now, the company had over 1000 employees divided amongst three production divisions.
1967 Laverda entered the market of large forage harvesting machines with the AFC 110 self-propelled mower, followed by the even larger AFC 150 model.
1971 Production of the M 100 AL began. This was the first combine harvester in the world to be equipped with a crosswise and longitudinal Self-levelling system.
1973 The company celebrated its hundredth anniversary, emphasized by the significant slogan “Laverda: from the time the hand became machine ”. This was also the year of the TA 150 forage harvester, with heads able to harvest maize, forage and grain crops.
1975 New combine range: models M 92, M 112, M 132 and M 152.
1981 At a time of intensive development, the company built a new plant in Breganze and started a partnership with Fiat group doomed to last 20 years. The modern production lines in this new facility spawned the M 182, the first model to be equipped with electronically controlled functions.
1983 Laverda proceeded by developing new models, beginning with the 3000 Series.
1992 Laverda proposed and developed the “levelling system”, specifically designed for combines working on sloping ground, and the MCS (Multi Crop Separator) system for separating the product. The number of combines produced now exceeded 50,000.
2000-01 The Breganze plant was taken over by Argo SpA, the holding company belonging to the Morra family, owner of Landini Tractors trademark and company. The new owners forcefully relaunched Laverda’s historic trademark on the market with a new range of combines, big balers and round balers.
Laverda M 410 combine model
2002-03 Laverda presented the new LXE Series, M Series and the new Self-levelling combine Series.
2004 Acquisition of the Fella-Werke plant and trademark. Launch of the REV Series for the 2004-2005 sales campaign.
2005 The year got off to a good start with a shareholding agreement with Gallignani SpA, an important manufacturer of pick-up balers.
2006 It was the year of the new LCS Laverda Crop System Series.
2007Argo SpA officially announced the establishment of a 50% joint venture between Laverda SpA and AGCO Corporation, based in Duluth (Georgia), a major worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment. Laverda has been operating since 2004 in close partnership with AGCO supplying the corporation with its combines decaled in the Massey Ferguson, Fendt and Challenger brands.
2011AGCO purchased the remaining 50% of the shares of Laverda and Fella.
The modern combine harvester, or simply combine, is a versatile machine designed to efficiently harvest a variety of grain crops. The name derives from its combining four separate harvesting operations—reaping, threshing, gathering, and winnowing— to a single process. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, rice, oats, rye, barley, corn (maize), sorghum, soybeans, flax (linseed), sunflowers and rapeseed. The separated straw, left lying on the field, comprises the stems and any remaining leaves of the crop with limited nutrients left in it: the straw is then either chopped, spread on the field and ploughed back in or baled for bedding and limited-feed for livestock.
Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in Toronto, then Brantford, Ontario, Canada, until 1988. The company transferred its headquarters in 1991 to Buffalo, New York, U.S. before it was acquired by AGCO, the new owner of its former competitor Allis-Chalmers. Massey Ferguson is among several brands in a portfolio produced and marketed by American industrial agricultural equipment conglomerate AGCO and a major seller in international markets around the world.
Fendt is a German agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in 1930 by Xaver Fendt in Marktoberdorf, Allgäu region, Germany. Fendt manufactures tractors, combine harvesters, balers, telescopic handlers and row crop planters. It was purchased by AGCO Corporation in 1997.
A forage harvester – also known as a silage harvester, forager or chopper – is a farm implement that harvests forage plants to make silage. Silage is grass, corn or hay, which has been chopped into small pieces, and compacted together in a storage silo, silage bunker, or in silage bags. It is then fermented to provide feed for livestock. Haylage is a similar process to silage but using grass which has dried.
AGCO Corporation is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer founded in 1990 and with its headquarters in Duluth, Georgia, United States. AGCO designs, produces and sells tractors, combines, foragers, hay tools, self-propelled sprayers, smart farming technologies, seeding and tillage equipment.
A swather, or windrower, is a farm implement that cuts hay or small grain crops and forms them into a windrow. "Swather" is predominantly the North American term for these machines. In Australia and other parts of the world, they are called "windrowers". They aid harvesting by speeding up the process of drying the crop down to a moisture content suitable for harvesting and storage.
Allis-Chalmers was a U.S. manufacturer of machinery for various industries. Its business lines included agricultural equipment, construction equipment, power generation and power transmission equipment, and machinery for use in industrial settings such as factories, flour mills, sawmills, textile mills, steel mills, refineries, mines, and ore mills.
Case IH is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. It was created in 1985 when Tenneco bought selected assets of the agricultural division from International Harvester and merged it into its J.I. Case Company .Today Case IH is owned by CNH Industrial, an American-Italian corporation.
New Holland is a global full-line agricultural machinery manufacturer. New Holland agricultural products include tractors, combine harvesters, balers, forage harvesters, self-propelled sprayers, haying tools, seeding equipment, hobby tractors, utility vehicles and implements, and grape harvesters.
Laverda was an Italian manufacturer of high performance motorcycles. The motorcycles in their day gained a reputation for being robust and innovative.
CLAAS is an agricultural machinery manufacturer based in Harsewinkel, Germany, in the federal state of North Rhine Westphalia. Founded in 1913 by August Claas, CLAAS is a family business and one of the market and technology leaders in harvesting technology. It is the European market leader in combine harvesters and considered as world market leader in self-propelled forage harvesters. The product range also includes tractors, balers, mowers, rakes, tedders, silage trailers, wheel loaders, telehandlers and other harvesting equipment as well as farming information technology. CLAAS employs around 11,500 employees worldwide and reported a turnover of roughly 3.9 billion euros in the 2019 financial year. About 78.5% of sales are generated outside of Germany.
ARGO SpA is a family-owned Italian holding company owned by the Morra family that manufactures agricultural machinery. Founded by Valerio Morra in 1980, the company is based in Fabbrico, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. ARGO main products are tractors and combine harvesters.
The Gleaner Manufacturing Company is an American manufacturer of combine harvesters. Gleaner has been a popular brand of combine harvester particularly in the Midwestern United States for many decades, first as an independent firm, and later as a division of Allis-Chalmers. The Gleaner brand continues today under the ownership of AGCO.
Valpadana is an Italian agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company is headquartered in Fabbrico in the Province of Reggio Emilia, in the region of Emilia-Romagna, in Italy. The company manufactures tractors for agricultural uses. It was purchased by ARGO SpA in 1995, and operates as part of the ARGO Tractors Group, a division of ARGO SpA. ARGO is also the owner of Landini, McCormick Tractors and formerly Laverda.
Agricultural machinery relates to the mechanical structures and devices used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of such equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors and the countless kinds of farm implements that they tow or operate. Diverse arrays of equipment are used in both organic and nonorganic farming. Especially since the advent of mechanised agriculture, agricultural machinery is an indispensable part of how the world is fed.
AGCO GmbH is a German manufacturer of agricultural equipment based in Feucht, Germany, located just southwest of Nuremberg in Bavaria. It was established in 1918 as a harrow manufacturing company, and its product line has expanded since.
Fiat Trattori S.p.A. was a Fiat group company founded in 1919, and was a constructor of agricultural equipment, tractors in particular. Over its decades of history, it established itself as Italy's leading constructor and one of the biggest in Europe; in 1991, it took over Ford-New Holland and adopted its name to increase its status on the world markets. In 1999, New Holland acquired Case Corporation to create CNH Global, in which Fiat Industrial was the majority shareholder until the two firms merged to create CNH Industrial in 2013.
The Bernard Krone Holding GmbH & Co. KG is a German company; it goes back to the year 1906 when Bernard and Anna Krone founded as a blacksmith's shop. He sold agricultural hardware, ovens and stoves.
Braud was founded in 1870 in St Mars La Jaille in France; at the time Braud was manufacturing threshing machines. In 1908 Braud produced the first power-driven thresher and in 1927 the first thresher made completely with metal. Braud acquired a strong position in the French combine harvester market, reaching 1.600 units sold in 1968; in the European crisis of the ’70 Braud lost 45% and focused production on grape harvesters. In 1975 Braud produced its first grape harvester, model 1020; this was followed by 1040, the best selling grape harvester with over 2000 units sold in 4 years. Braud soon became the leader in self-propelled grape harvester, with 60% of market share in France and 50% worldwide. In 1983 Braud produced 670 grape harvesters. In 1984 Fiatagri acquired 75% of Braud.
CNH Industrial N.V. is a British-American multinational corporation with global headquarters in Basildon, United Kingdom, but controlled and mostly owned by the multinational investment company Exor, which in turn is controlled by the Agnelli family. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and on Borsa Italiana: it is a constituent of the FTSE MIB index. The company is incorporated in the Netherlands. The seat of the company is in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with a principal office in London, England.
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