A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commonly, the term is used to describe a farm vehicle that provides the power and traction to mechanize agricultural tasks, especially tillage, and now many more. Agricultural implements may be towed behind or mounted on the tractor, and the tractor may also provide a source of power if the implement is mechanised.
The modern combine harvester, simply combine, is a machine designed to harvest a variety of cultivated seeds. Combine harvesters are one of the most economically important labour-saving inventions, significantly reducing the fraction of the population engaged in agriculture. Among the crops harvested with a combine are wheat, rice, oats, rye, barley, corn (maize), sorghum, millet, soybeans, flax (linseed), sunflowers and rapeseed. The separated straw is then either chopped onto the field and ploughed back in, or laid out in rows, ready to be baled and used for bedding and cattle feed.
Deere & Company, doing business as John Deere, is an American corporation that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drivetrains used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment. It also provides financial services and other related activities.
A traction engine is a steam-powered tractor used to move heavy loads on roads, plough ground or to provide power at a chosen location. The name derives from the Latin tractus, meaning 'drawn', since the prime function of any traction engine is to draw a load behind it. They are sometimes called road locomotives to distinguish them from railway locomotives – that is, steam engines that run on rails.
The International Harvester Company was an American manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks, lawn and garden products, household equipment, and more. It was formed from the 1902 merger of McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and Deering Harvester Company and three smaller manufacturers: Milwaukee; Plano; and Warder, Bushnell, and Glessner. Its brands included McCormick, Deering, and later McCormick-Deering, as well as International. Along with the Farmall and Cub Cadet tractors, International was also known for the Scout and Travelall vehicle nameplates. In the 1980s all divisions were sold off except for International Trucks, which changed its parent company name to Navistar International.
Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. It was used on a range of mass-produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son Inc from 1917 to 1920, by Ford Motor Company (U.S.) and Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1920 to 1928, and by Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1929 to 1964. The latter also later built trucks and vans under the Fordson brand.
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.
Truck and tractor pulling, also known as power pulling, is a form of a motorsport competition in which antique or modified tractors pull a heavy drag or sled along an 11-meter-wide (35 ft), 100-meter-long (330 ft) track, with the winner being the tractor that pulls the drag the farthest. Tractor pulling is popular in certain areas of the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Vietnam, India and New Zealand. The sport is known as the world's most powerful motorsport, due to the multi-engined modified tractor pullers.
Farmall was a model name and later a brand name for tractors manufactured by International Harvester (IH), an American truck, tractor, and construction equipment company. The Farmall name was usually presented as McCormick-Deering Farmall and later McCormick Farmall in the evolving brand architecture of IH.
Tractors in India are a major industry and significant contributor to its agriculture output gains.
The Lanz Bulldog was a series of tractors manufactured by Heinrich Lanz AG in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Production started in 1921 with the Lanz HL, and various versions of the Bulldog were produced up to 1960, one of them being the Lanz Bulldog D 9506. John Deere purchased Lanz in 1956 and started using the name "John Deere Lanz" for the Lanz product line. A few years after the Bulldog was discontinued the Lanz name fell into disuse. The Lanz Bulldog was one of the most popular German tractors, with over 220,000 of them produced in its long production life. The name "Bulldog" is widely used in Germany as a synonym for tractors even today, especially in Bavaria.
The Allis-Chalmers D series is a line of tractors made by the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company from 1957 to 1969.
The John Deere 4020 was an agricultural tractor model made by John Deere from 1964 to 1972. It replaced the nearly identical 4010 that had been introduced with Deere's New Generation series in 1960 and offered a number of improvements over the previous model including more horsepower, heavier rear axles, and a differential lock. The 4020 was produced with three engine options: diesel, petrol, and LPG. The 4020 Diesel has a six-cylinder engine tested at 84 drawbar and 91 PTO horsepower. John Deere's Syncro Range transmission with 8 forward speeds and two reverse speeds was standard, a power shift transmission was optional. Other options included dual rear wheels and an enclosed cab with heat and air conditioning. The 4020 is significant for its great popularity; over 184,000 units were built. It was the most popular tractor of its time.
The John Deere 4010 was an American farm tractor in production by the John Deere Company from 1960 to 1963. The 4010 was the primary attraction of the new “10” series known as the “New Generation” or “New Generation of Power” which consisted of four and six-cylinder tractors first introduced in 1959 to replace the two-cylinder tractors which led to the great success of John Deere as a tractor manufacturer until that time. The "10" series tractors were introduced to John Deere dealers in dramatic fashion on August 30, 1960 when dealers from around the world were invited to Dallas, Texas where the entire new series was debuted at the Dallas Memorial Auditorium.
The Farmall 06 series tractors are a family of row-crop tractors with six-cylinder engines, providing greater horsepower than the parallel product line of four-cylinder Farmall 04 series tractors. Until the late 1950s, Farmall and parent company International Harvester tractors used four-cylinder engines for general-purpose and row-crop tractors. Demands for higher performance and greater horsepower led to broader use of six-cylinder engines, with the bulk of International's production moving to the larger engines. The Farmall 806 and 706 were introduced in 1963, with production running to 1967. The Farmall 1206 was introduced in 1965 as the most powerful tractor of its time, using a turbocharged diesel engine. Production of the 1206 also ran until 1967. The 06 series sold well and was regarded as extremely successful.
The John Deere Model B tractor was a two-plow row-crop tractor produced by John Deere from 1935 to 1952, with direct successors produced until 1960. The B was a scaled-down, less expensive version of the John Deere Model A. It was followed by the updated 50, 520 and 530 models.
The John Deere Model G tractor was a large three-plow row-crop tractor produced by John Deere from 1937 to 1953, with successor models produced until 1961. It was followed by the 70, 720, and 730.
The John Deere Model M tractor was a two-cylinder row-crop tractor produced by John Deere from 1947 to 1952, with successor models produced until 1960. It was succeeded by the updated 40, 420 and 430 models, as well as the 320 and 330 models that occupied the market positions left vacant by the more powerful 400 series models.
The John Deere Model R tractor was John Deere's first diesel tractor. A large, heavy tractor, it had fixed wheel widths and was not produced as a row-crop tractor with adjustable axles. The R was followed in the John Deere numbered model series by the John Deere 80, 820 and 830 tractors, which represented evolutionary upgrades to the basic R.
