100 Years of Farmall tractors

In 1919, Bert Benjamin faced a massive challenge.

Cyrus and Harold McCormick wanted a new tractor to combat the growing dominance of Henry Ford’s Fordson.

At that time, International Harvester led the tractor market with a triple crown of horsepower that included the Titan 10-20, International 8-16, and McCormick 15-30. Ford knocked down all three of those kingpins with one roll in 1918 by introducing the affordable Fordson. Within five years, the Fordson had claimed 76% of the horsepower market.

Benjamin, the superintendent of IH’s experimental division, knew the only way to compete with the Fordson was to create the “killer app” of a tractor for its time.

Triple power plan

The company had been experimenting with a number of tractor designs, particularly a motor cultivator, which was all the craze in the late 1910s and early 1920s. But Benjamin had a different vision of a combined tractor truck with a triple power plan — horsepower being fed to the belt pulley, PTO, and drawbar — which was not only light on its feet, but also stood tall in the field to clear crops being cultivated.

After much argument and hand-wringing among IH management over the cost of an entirely new tractor, this combination machine was launched in 1923 and production began in 1924, bearing a name that would become as famous as Kleenex and Hoover.

Dubbed the Farmall, it originally sold for $825, a price that could do battle against the Fordson.

In its first year, sales climbed to 838, then hit 4,430 in 1926, and 9,502 in 1927. This swell continued so rapidly that by April 1930, the 100,000th Farmall left the Farmall Works in Rock Island, Illinois, a plant built for the sole purpose of manufacturing Benjamin’s vision.

First successful multipurpose tractor

The Farmall wasn’t the first lightweight, multipurpose tractor with the ability to plow, cultivate, and power stationary equipment.

However, the Farmall was the first “successful” multipurpose machine, in that it was built at a price farmers could afford and was sold and supported by an extensive dealership line.

Sales of the Farmall, later called the Regular, continued despite the assault of the Great Depression. Benjamin’s group of talented engineers expanded the Farmall’s power to appeal to a broader group of farmers, introducing in the early 1930s a three-plow F-30 (the new model naming I scheme), two-plow F-20 (a direct replacement for the Farmall Regular), and one-plow F-12 (another new model).

This expanded line represented refined versions of the Regular although the basic design remained the same. The models offered more reliable engines, four-speed transmissions, rubber tires, and advances such as the International Harvester power lift device. The F Series was expanded again in 1938 with the addition of the F-14, which was slightly more powerful than the F-12.

Stylized looks with more power

The F Series acquitted itself well in the marketplace, gaining IH market share, but IH executives hankered for a facelift of their Farmalls to match the smooth styling becoming popular on other tractor makes in the late 1930s. Additionally, IH marketing gurus sensed that the end of the Great Depression would put the spurs to tractor purchases.

In 1935, work began on a new generation of Farmalls. The results of advanced engineering dressed up with a highly stylized look — contributed by industrial designer Raymond Loewy — emerged in 1939 with the famed Farmall Letter Series tractors.

That line included the smaller models A and B that featured a unique “Culti-Vision” design that provided outstanding views of row crops from the driver’s seat when cultivating.

This Farmall small-farm line was enhanced with the introduction of the Cub. The popularity of the Cub was longstanding, as it remained in production for 32 years with more than 250,000 tractors sold — the longest production run of any tractor in the United States.

At the top of the ticket were the models H and M, which were not only more powerful but also were loaded with a wealth of options such as lights, starter, belt pulley, PTO, and hydraulics. Farmers could order the M with a diesel engine (tabbed the MD), advancing IH into this power platform.

The Letter Series enjoyed huge success in sales, so much so that the H and M were the most popular models built in IH history. An amazing 325,000 Model Hs headed to fields between 1939 and 1952.

Tractors in the series underwent numerous improvements, such as the introduction of a torque amplifier to the transmission of the Model M, making it the M-TA. Both the Model H and Model M received power increases that changed their designation to “super” models.

Rapid Change in Models

In 1955, IH launched a dizzying pace of model replacements. That year the Letter Series started being replaced with the 100 Series, which included the models 100, 300, 400, and 600 (a standard tread variation).

The next year, these models were replaced with the 130, 230, 350, and 450. Then in 1958 came the Farmall 460, 560, and 660.

All these tractors not only offered more power but came with improved hydraulics, as farmers’ demand for this feature had become an absolute requirement.

The modern Farmalls

The Farmall 100 series grew in 1963 to include Model 706 and Model 806 as IH sought to keep up with the demand for power from farmers. Two years later, the company breached the 100 hp mark for row crop tractors with the 1206. The stablemate to the 1206 was the 656.

IH made history once again in 1968 by introducing the first tractor with a hydrostatic drive transmission in the Farmall 544. The transmission was offered in the 1026 and 826 in 1969.

Barriers continued to be broken when IH offered its first six-cylinder engine in a tractor in 1971 with the introduction of the Model 1468. That 145- hp model was replaced by the 1568 in 1974, which turned out nearly 134 hp.

But tractor sales were lagging for International Harvester. Subsequently, the company sought to gain market traction with a new generation of tractors that wouldn’t sell with the tried-and-true Farmall brand after 1973.

Farmalls today

Case IH (the merged companies of International Harvester and Case) revived the Farmall brand in 2004. Since that time, the Farmall product line has proliferated, growing to 24 models in 10 series ranging in size from 35 to 104 hp.

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Farmall name, the company recently added the Model 90N and Model 120N to its mix of tractors.