Harvesting Equipment

From the Factory to Your Fields: Where Farm Equipment Is Made

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 18:55:14 GMT

The global agriculture equipment market is currently valued at $181 billion (USD) and is expected to grow by 4% over the next eight years. That’s according to a recent analysis from global consulting firm IMARC Group.

While IMARC Group pegs Asia-Pacific as the leading region for farm equipment manufacturing market share, it would stand to reason most of those machines are being sold to farmers in that region. The farm equipment U.S. farmers use is most commonly built in Europe, North America and South America.

Brand Breakdown
For example, John Deere’s manufacturing footprint is mainly based in North America. Of the 60 John Deere machines relevant to row-crop producers, 50 of them (83%) are manufactured in North America. Drilling down further, the three states with the largest John Deere manufacturing presence are:

Iowa at 61%
North Dakota at 17%
Illinois at 15%

Case IH builds 66% of its row-crop machines throughout North America, while 24% of them are manufactured in Europe.

Fellow CNH brand New Holland maintains a fairly balanced manufacturing presence between Europe (30%) and North America (43%).

AGCO’s Germany-based brand, Fendt, builds 57% of its row-crop machines in the European Union (EU) with North America hosting roughly 43% of its manufacturing. Claas has a large manufacturing presence in Europe, but it also manufactures its LEXION combine in Omaha, Neb., and has facilities in Columbus, Ind., and Regina, Saskatchewan.

McCormick and Landini machines are built entirely in EU factories. In contrast, Buhler Industries’ manufacturing footprint is fully based in North America.

Check out the data to see where your favorite tractor, planter, sprayer, combine and other farm machines are built in 2025.

Click here to download a printable version of the table above.

Your Next Read: Casey Seymour and Machinery Pete Join Forces on the Moving Iron Podcast

Top Lessons to Help You Avoid Machinery Fires

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 19:57:50 GMT

Drought conditions across the Corn Belt and really the entire U.S. set the table for combine and equipment fires. Some things I’ve learned too late about machinery fires:

1. Warning lights and grain cart drivers should never be ignored. If multiple warning lights in a combine’s cab starting flickering, or engine and slow shaft speed warning systems all come on at once, there’s a good chance a main wiring harness has melted back in the engine compartment due to engine fire. Perhaps the best early warning system for combine fires is an attentive grain cart driver who always scans the machine as they approach it.

2. Carry nothing less than two of the biggest fire extinguishers available, whether they are chemically-charged or water-charged. Make sure they’re both accessible from ground level. I’ve seen more than a few charred fire extinguishers still clamped in the engine compartment of burned-out combines.

3. Strong tailwinds can whip chaff and debris into the engine compartment and against exhaust manifolds on older combines. Newer combines have “enclosed” engines to reduce but don’t eliminate that risk.

4. Never assume a combine fire is out. Big, corrugated plastic wiring harnesses in the engine compartment often get packed with super-dry crop dust. That dust can smolder like a fuse inside those harnesses for dozens of feet from the actual fire. It’s tough to get water inside those plastic harness protectors, but a fire isn’t out until all of those protectors are cool to the touch.

5 Feats for the Record Book

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 03:52:35 GMT

Downtime is scarce this time of year, but if you need to pass the minutes while waiting at the elevator or wind down after a long day, check out these videos. Former competitive swimmer and record-holder Mark Spitz once said: “Life is true to form; records are meant to be broken.” That’s exactly what these feats accomplished.

A new Guinness World Record was set near Winkler, Manitoba, Canada, on Aug. 4, when 303 combines harvested the same crop of winter wheat continuously for five minutes. The Children’s Camps International event raised close to $5 million, enough to send 1 million kids to camp in developing countries. The new record far surpasses the 2012 total of 244 combines set in Dalmeny, Saskatchewan.

A Colorado farmer teamed up with Claas to set a new Guinness World Record for most hay cut in eight hours. While attending Agritechnica in Germany, Tate Mesbergen learned a Polish company had set a record by mowing 243 acres of alfalfa in eight hours. He knew he could beat it. Mesbergen cut 35' wide passes at 19 mph for a new record of 348.67 acres in eight hours using a Class Disco 1100 RC.

Forgetting the traditional limits, Nokian Tyres and Valtra have set the world record for snow removal with an autonomous tractor. The speed record was set in March 2018 using an unmanned Valtra T254 Versu tractor equipped with Nokian Hakkapeliitta TRI tyres. Operated without a driver, the tractor plowed snow on a closed road in southern Finland at 45.466 mph.

Pearson Farm in Fort Valley, Ga., harvested a 1.8-lb. peach, surpassing the former record of 1.75 lb. One of the farm’s workers is always on the lookout for large peaches, which typically weigh from one-third to half a pound. Pearson Farm’s massive peach grew naturally, but the particular tree didn’t have a full crop. Owner Al Pearson says he plans to make a mold of the peach to display.

Weighing in at 4,437 lb. and 63 oz., the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin set a new Guinness World Record for the largest cheeseboard. Featuring 145 varieties and styles of Wisconsin’s cheeses, more than 60 people worked to accomplish the feat. A 2,000-lb. cheddar wheel accounted for nearly half the board’s weight. The custom-made 35’x7' board was digitally fabricated to represent a barn.

Strong Machinery Sales Start 2018, AEM Concerned On Pending Tariffs

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 03:52:35 GMT

In its monthly sales report, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) reports year-over-year increases in high-capacity equipment for new equipment sales in the U.S.

Total sales of self-propelled combines in February grew 34% compared to last year and sales of 4-wheel drive tractors increased 9%.

“We’ve been cautiously optimistic for some growth in 2018, following a somewhat bumpy 2017 and positive overall numbers in January,” says AEM Senior VP for AG Services Curt Blades.

Some categories in the report declined. Total farm tractor sales declined 9.8% compared February 2018 to 2017. That was driven by an 11.7% decrease in sales of under 40 hp tractors and a 20.3% decline in 100+hp tractors.

Blades says while there are some positive sales results so far in 2018, it’s too early to declare any year-long trends. One issue AEM is watching closely, are the pending “Trump Tariffs.”

“A major issue is pending U.S. steel tariffs and their implications on agriculture beyond the equipment sector. Past trade wars resulting from U.S. tariffs have targeted commodities, so this is a real concern. AEM and our manufacturers will be carefully monitoring their impact on tractor and combine sales in the coming months,” Blades says.

Perfecting Platform Performance

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 05:04:09 GMT

Many combine operators hope to harvest soybeans at 6 miles an hour with less than 1 bushel per acre of grain loss. Achieving that goal requires careful adjustment and operation of both draper and auger-style grain small grain platforms.

Cutterbars are the starting point for optimum performance of both auger and draper platforms. Not only must sickle knives be sharp enough to snag a leather glove, but the rock guards and all wear points must be factory-fresh. Dull sickle sections, or rock guards with rounded edges where the sickle slides back and forth, gnaw rather than slice bean stems. Any vibration to a bean stem during its harvest can shake loose or shatter bean pods.
The angle of the cutterbar should be parallel to the ground or slightly downhill by 1 to 3 degrees. That angle is determined on older platforms by mechanical adjusters on the bottom, rear of the platform. Newer platforms adjust cutterbar angle by mechanically or hydraulically tilting the entire head. If the angle is too steep the cutterbar is prone to pick up rocks or gouge the soil. If the angle is such that the platform runs on the rear of its skid shoes, the cutterbar tends to cuts stubble higher, and drag stems and leaves under damp conditions.
Cutterbars must be straight so automatic header height control systems work properly.
“Bent cutterbar supports can create high spots (in a cutterbar) that make it more difficult for the cutterbar to flex and follow ground contours,” says Matt Badding, John Deere tactical marketing manager for harvest equipment. “Bends in a cutterbar also increases wear to the knife.”
Check cutterbars by raising a platform 5 to 6 feet off the ground. Sight across the cutterbar from one end of the platform. High spots in the cutterbar suggest bent supports or brackets. Diagnosis can be tricky because small irregularities among cutterbar supporting components are magnified by the geometry of those components. A 2” hump in a cutterbar can be the result of only a ¼” bend in a support frame or related component.
Older platforms with broad, wide skid shoes flex and follow the ground surface better if last year’s crop debris and dirt is cleaned from the tops of the skid shoes. Use compressed air to blow from behind the sickle toward the rear of the skid shoes. Material packed into that pivot point inhibits the ability of the skid shoes to flex and follow the soil surface, decreasing the sensitivity of the automatic header height control system.
Newer platforms incorporate an adjustable hydraulic system to control pressure of the cutterbar against the ground during operation.

Brent Kvasnicka, senior marketing product specialist for combines at Agco North America, says if operators increase pressure in cutterbar pressure systems, more of the weight of the cutterbar is carried by small hydraulic cylinders under the header frame, making the cutterbar less “heavy” and therefore less likely to “push” under damp or soft soil conditions.

If operators reduce pressure in their cutterbar pressure control system, Kvasnicka says less of the cutterbar’s weight is supported by the small hydraulic cylinders. The cutterbar becomes “heavier” but more flexible and therefore better able to follow surface irregularities, though the increased weight and contact with the soil surface can lead to “pushing” in damp or soft soils.

Once basic settings are made, adjustments specific to auger and draper platforms further optimize performance:

Auger Platforms

On auger platforms, reels should be initially positioned “back and down.” At its lowest position, a variable height reel’s tines should just clear the cutterbar if the center of the cutter bar is flexed to its highest point.

Adjust the reel rearward so its bats just clear the front of the cross-auger’s flighting. The reel should be positioned to continually feed and press crop against the auger so the auger can convey the material to the center of the platform.

Actual height of variable-height reels in the field depends on crop conditions. In down and tangled crops the reel may need to run at its lowest height. In tall crops under good conditions the reel may need to only run in the top inch or two of crop, but always to the rear and close to the auger.

Make sure all retracting fingers on the auger are straight, have smooth edges and that there are no irregularities in the auger’s flighting or main tube.

“Augers, especially full-finger augers, can flail a lot of beans,” says Kelly Kravig, Case IH harvest marketing manager. “A lot of beans we see hitting the windows of the cab that get blamed on reel shatter are actually related to the auger.”

Augers set too high, or too far forward, encourage crop to tumble around the auger, shattering pods. Augers should be set low and back, with 3/8” to ½” clearance between the edges of their flighting and adjustable stripper plates mounted to the floor and backside of platforms.

If a different platform is used on a combine than in previous harvests, match the cross-auger’s flighting to the combine’s feederhouse opening.

“Make sure the auger flighting stops at the outside edges of the opening in the feederhouse,” says Jeff Gray, product coordinator for Claas Lexion. “You want the crop to feed into the full width of the feederhouse. There are extensions you can bolt onto or remove from the auger flighting to match the auger flighting to the opening of the feederhouse.”

Draper Platforms

On draper platforms best results come from running reels “forward and up.”

“We typically run the reel on a draper in good-standing crop with the fingers barely in the top of the crop,” says Jason Strobbe, North American sales manager for MacDon. “The goal is to have just a little pressure on the tops of the stems at the moment they’re cut to gently tip them onto the draper belt.”

Adjust belt speeds on draper platforms so bean stems move sideways toward the feederhouse as soon as they topple onto the belt. Slow belt speeds encourage clumps of stems to build up at each row before the belt moves them sideways, which then feed into the feederhouse in bunches that degrade threshing and separating efficiency of the combine.

Excess belt speed can center-feed the feederhouse. Fast-moving bean stems from each side of the platform collide in the center of the platform and form a narrow windrow that feeds only into the center of the feederhouse. Belt speeds should distribute the material across the full width of the center belt to optimize even feeding into the combine’s threshing system.

Proper adjustment of small grain platforms prior to harvest can minimize grain loss to less than 1 bushel per acre. Understanding where grain losses originate is critical to optimizing the performance of not only grain platforms, but the combines behind them.

“You can adjust your combine’s rotor speed, concave settings, cleaning fan speed and sieves all day long and none of those adjustments will fix grain loss problems at the header,” says Kvasnicka. “It’s necessary to get out of the cab and spend time looking at the ground, from the front of the machine all the way to the back, to see if the loss is from shattering due to a dull knife, because of reel position, or maybe it’s related to the action of the auger.

Don’t blame the combine for problems created at the header.”

11 Ways to Make Sure Your Header Is Doing Its Job

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 05:04:00 GMT

Optimizing combine performance often requires Sherlock Holmes-type detective work. Cracked or chipped kernels in the grain tank might actually originate 10' in front of the driver’s seat, and grain lying on the ground after a pass might have never seen the inside of the machine.

“You can adjust your combine’s rotor speed, concave settings, cleaning fan speed and sieves all day long, and it won’t fix grain damage or grain loss problems at the header,” says Brent Kvasnicka, senior marketing product specialist for combines at AGCO North America.

When it comes to soybeans, many combine operators hope to harvest soybeans at 6 mph with less than 1 bu. per acre of grain loss. Achieving that goal requires careful adjustment and operation of both draper and auger-style grain small grain platforms.

Follow these 11 tips to keep grain loss at a minimum:

Corn Heads

■ The first step to minimize grain loss at the corn head is to match deck plate clearances to stalk size. All deck plates, fixed or variable, should be gapped about ¼" wider at the rear than at the front. Initially set hydraulically adjustable deck plates halfway between their minimum and maximum opening, then let the crop tell you how to fine-tune the setting.

“If you see a lot of butt shelling and strings of kernels in the rows right behind the head, the deck plates are likely too wide,” says Matt Badding, John Deere tactical marketing manager for harvest equipment. “If you tighten them too much you might see cut-off stalks and more trash. Balance the deck plate setting to minimize butt shelling without cutting off stalks.”

■ Whole stalks and trash moving into the machine is a sign of extreme gathering chain/stalk roll speed.

“Extra residue makes it harder for the grain to sift down through the trash and risks carrying some of that grain out the back,” says Jeff Gray, Claas Lexion product coordinator. “Minimizing the amount of trash going into the feeder house generally minimizes the amount of grain going out the back.”

■ Damaged grain in the grain tank leads many combine operators to mistakenly adjust concave settings and threshing speed. Adjusting internal combine settings does little to reduce grain damage if that damage originated at the corn head.

“Even if you’re not actually butt shelling at the deck plates, if you’re running the (stalk) rolls too fast, it can slightly crack the kernels when they smack down against those deck plates,” says Kelly Kravig, Case IH harvest marketing manager “Then when the ears get into the combine, those cracked kernels go ahead and shatter in the rotor, even though the rotor isn’t the cause of the damage.”

■ Corn head augers are another potential source of grain damage. The height of the auger off the floor of the corn head is critical. Badding advocates setting augers so their flighting grabs all ears.

“What you don’t want is the auger flighting so high it pinches ears against the trough and scrapes off the tips or cracks kernels,” he says. “If you’re getting tipped kernels in the grain tank, check the auger height before you make adjustments to the concave clearance.”

■ Modern corn heads offer stalk chopping or processing options but there are costs associated.

“Those heads are designed to process stalks, but you have to balance the power requirements of shredding stalks into confetti, along with how it can degrade threshing and separation, if you feed extra material through the machine,” Badding says. “Setting a corn head has a major influence not only on grain quality and grain loss, but on the condition it leaves the stalks and residue.”

Soybean Platforms

■ Cutterbars are the starting point for optimum performance of both auger and draper platforms. Not only must sickle knives be sharp enough to snag a leather glove, but the rock guards and all wear points must be factory-fresh. Dull sickle sections, or rock guards with rounded edges where the sickle slides back and forth, gnaw rather than slice bean stems. Any vibration to a stem during its harvest can shake loose or shatter pods.

■ The angle of the cutterbar should be parallel to the ground or slightly downhill by 1° to 3°. That angle is determined on older platforms by mechanical adjusters on the bottom, rear of the platform. Newer platforms adjust cutterbar angle by mechanically or hydraulically tilting the entire head. If the angle is too steep, the cutterbar is prone to pick up rocks or gouge the soil. If the angle is such that the platform runs on the rear of its skid shoes, the cutterbar tends to cut stubble higher and drag stems and leaves under damp conditions.

■ Cutterbars must be straight so automatic header height control systems work properly.

“Bent cutterbar supports can create high spots [in a cutterbar] that make it more difficult for the cutterbar to flex and follow ground contours,” Badding says. “Bends in a cutterbar also increase wear to the knife.”

■ Check cutterbars by raising a platform 5' to 6' off the ground. Sight across the cutterbar from one end of the platform. High spots in the cutterbar suggest bent supports or brackets. Diagnosis can be tricky because small irregularities among cutterbar supporting components are magnified by the geometry of those components. A 2" hump in a cutterbar can be the result of only a ¼" bend in a support frame or related component.

■ Older platforms with broad, wide skid shoes flex and follow the ground surface better if the previous year’s crop debris and dirt is cleaned from the tops of the skid shoes. Use compressed air to blow from behind the sickle toward the rear of the skid shoes. Material packed into that pivot point hinders the skid shoes from flexing and following the soil surface.

■ Newer platforms feature an adjustable hydraulic system to control the pressure of the cutterbar against the ground.

If operators increase pressure, more of the weight of the cutterbar is carried by small hydraulic cylinders under the header frame, Kvasnicka says. This makes the cutterbar less heavy and less likely to push in damp or soft soil conditions.

If operators reduce cutterbar pressure, Kvasnicka says less of its weight is supported by the small hydraulic cylinders. The cutterbar becomes heavier but more flexible and better able to follow surface irregularities. The increased weight and contact with the soil surface can lead to pushing
in damp or soft soils, though.

Once basic settings are made, adjustments to the specific platform further optimize performance.

Running an auger platform? Read Dan Anderson’s tips on minimizing grain loss .

Using a draper platform? Use these tips to dial in belt speed for even feeding .