John Deere

Deere & Company began the company's expansion into the tractor business in 1912. Deere Company briefly experimented with its own tractor models, the most successful of which was the Dain All-Wheel-Drive.

Despite the severe farm economy depression, Deere management decided to build a final John Deere D prototype in 1923. The John Deere Model D was produced from March 1, 1923 to July 3, 1953, the longest production span of all the two-cylinder John Deere tractors.

Competition in the form of International Harvester's Farmall John Deere decided there was a need for a smaller tractor that could serve this market and the row-crop farmer's requirements.The John Deere Model GP was built in five distinct versions through the course of its production:

In 1947 John Deere opened a new tractor factory in Dubuque, Iowa, built to produce The John Deere M. The John Deere M tractor was created to address the increasing demand for small tractors and to compete with the increasingly popular Ford and Ferguson Tractors.

After years of testing John Deere released its first diesel tractor in 1949. The John Deere R was also the first Deere tractor with a live independent PTO with its own clutch. During the 1950's the R was upgraded to become the models 80, 820 and 830.

After making more than 1 1/4 million Two-cylinder tractors, John Deere switched to four- and six-cylinder engines. Announcement of the change came after seven years of development and forty million dollars in retooling.

The original New Generation tractors are the 1010, 2010, 3010 and 4010. These were followed by the model 4000 and the -20 series.