White Farm Equipment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
White Farm Equipment is a brand of agricultural machinery, currently manufactured by AGCO.
[edit] History
In 1960, the White Motor Company entered the agriculture market with the purchase of the Oliver Farm Equipment Company. In 1962, White acquired the Cockshutt Farm Equipment Company of Canada. White increased its agricultural interests in 1963 with the acquisition of Minneapolis-Moline.
In 1969, Oliver, Minneapolis-Moline and Cockshutt were merged to form White Farm Equipment with headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois; White Motor Corporation's headquarters remained in Cleveland, Ohio. Six years later, Oliver, Minneapolis-Moline and Cockshutt were folded into the White brand. The green of Oliver, red of Cockshutt and yellow of Minneapolis-Moline tractors was replaced by the silver tractors of White's "Field Boss" line.
White produced tractors, combines, outdoor equipment such as lawn tractors, corn planters, tillage equipment such as plows, disks and field cultivators.
In 1979 White Motors spun off its agriculture division to a Texas firm called TIC. The White line was branded WFE (White Farm Equipment). The agriculture market hit a severe recession in the early 1980s, and TIC sold WFE to Allied Products. The White combines were sold to Massey Ferguson around 1985. Allied owned the New Idea farm equipment brand and formed a new division called White-New Idea.
As it happened, Massey Ferguson later spun off the combine division into Massey Combines, then later re-absorbed the company after various lawsuits. After White and White-New Idea were sold to AGCO, AGCO also purchased Massey Ferguson, in effect, re-uniting the former White combines with the former White tractor company.
Today White is an AGCO brand. AGCO was formed in 1990 by former Allis-Chalmers executives. The executives took over Deutz-Allis and then purchased the White tractor line and Hesston Corporation brands in 1991. The remaining White-New Idea Company was purchased by AGCO in 1991 from Allied.
The White tractor line was produced by AGCO from 1991 through 2001 when the White line was merged with AGCO-Allis to create the AGCO brand. The White name continues on under AGCO with the White Planter division.
The White Outdoor Equipment portion that built Lawn & Garden equipment was sold to MTD.
