The Rise and Fall of Massey-Ferguson: The Company That Fed The World

Massey-Ferguson didn’t just build tractors—it mechanized the world. This film opens with the FE35/MF35 story (1956–57) and the merger that married Massey-Harris’s scale to Harry Ferguson’s game-changing three-point hitch. From that moment, MF set out to make mechanization affordable for ordinary farmers, ultimately producing hundreds of thousands of MF35s across four continents and building an empire that stretched to six, with tens of thousands of employees and a dealer network that could support a harvest anywhere on earth.

At its peak in the 1960s–70s, MF controlled roughly a quarter of the global tractor market and pushed out innovative machines from Banner Lane to São Paulo—MF1100/1130 workhorses, the articulated MF1200, MF300 combines, Perkins-powered everything—backed by serious R&D, field testing on three continents, and thousands of patents. MF didn’t just sell iron; it financed farmers, set up training colleges, and even helped catalyze Brazil’s soybean boom, making the brand synonymous with the Green Revolution from vineyards in France to dusty fields in Africa.

Then the cracks: an oil-shock boom masked overexpansion and complexity (47 MF35 variants, far-flung factories, quality slips), while strikes, currency swings, and soaring debt crushed margins. By 1980 MF’s share and finances collapsed—massive losses, banks circling, governments stepping in—leading to plant closures, the Varity reorganization, and finally AGCO’s 1994 purchase of the tractor business. Today the MF badge lives on under AGCO, assembled from a global supply chain—but the independent engineering culture that once fed the world ended with the breakup.
---------
We do not fully own the material compiled in this video. It belongs to individuals or organizations that deserve respect and consideration.
We use it under the Copyright Disclaimer Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. "Fair use" is allowed for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, and research.
#vintageamericanmachines #vintagefarmequipment #vintageengines