Braud is the oldest company of those united today under the blue leaf logo of New Holland. It was in 1875 that the stationary threshers constructed by Alexandre Braud started to earn a reputation throughout the Loire-Atlantique region of western France. A plant was set up at St.Mars-La-Jaille, France in 1898 and later transferred to Coex, France.

Growth continued for over seventy years and the achievements were impressive. But the harvester market entered a crisis period in the 1970s and Braud turned its attention to a new customer with vast potential: the vine grower. Work in vineyards was still done manually as in previous centuries. Introducing machinery into that magical process, full of tradition, which is the grape harvest did not prove easy. Vine growers saw the need but maintained that it was impossible for a machine to gather a fruit as delicate as the grape.

However, with the close co-operation of their customers, Braud introduced the model 1020 in 1975: the first Braud grape harvester. The 1020 was a commercial success, but as a pioneering product left room for improvement. In 1979, Braud unveiled its improved model, the famous Braud 1014, the best-selling grape harvester in the history of the vineyard. The French market rocketed closely followed by the German market. Four years later there were over 2,000 Braud grape harvesters at work in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

In October, 1895, the opening of a one-man repair shop on the edge of New Holland, Pennsylvania drew little attention. But this tiny shop, and its 26-year-old machinist Abe Zimmerman, were the birth of a company that would one day sell its machines on every continent. Zimmerman's New Holland Machine Company would carve its niche in the 20th century as an innovator of agricultural equipment.

Included among the company's early industry firsts are the portable feed mill in 1899, the freeze-proof cylinder tank engine in 1901, and the stone crusher in 1910. These machines and others like them propelled record growth for the company through the 1920's, but then came the Great Depression. Like most companies during these difficult years, New Holland verged on the brink of failure, hammering out an existence with whatever foundry contract work could be found. But even as the company struggled to survive in the spring of 1937, a solution to its problems was being pulled through a field of early cut rye almost within sight of the factory.

In 1940, New Holland introduced the revolutionary Nolt mobile pickup hay baler. This product reestablished the company as a leader in agricultural equipment. What followed was a shift in direction towards hay and forage equipment, with improved forage harvesters, rakes, and spreaders. As the 1950's approached, New Holland was poised to become the industry leader in grassland farming.

Born in 1879, Leon Claeys began his career as a bicycle repairman at the age of 18. Having spent some time in the world of agriculture, Claeys knew how labour intensive the job of harvesting and threshing was, a process then carried out entirely by hand. Setting out to improve upon this process, Claeys founded his own company, "Werkhuizen Leon Claeys", in 1906. Three years later, he built his plant in Zedelgem, Belgium where operations remain today.

His first threshing machine was stationary and powered by a horse in a treadmill. While very successful, Claeys immediately began work on a diesel engine to replace the horse, and in 1947 the stationary thresher was at the height of its success.

Henry Ford had something other than cars on his mind in 1883. A 20-year-old just off the farm, he was thinking about how fieldwork could be better done by machines. After he mastered the assembly line automobile in the early 1900's, Ford returned his attention to tractors with the 1917 formation of Henry Ford and Son. By the end of that year, Fordson tractors were coming off the assembly line, and an order for 7,000 was placed by Great Britain to boost wartime food production.

During the 1920's, 75 percent of U.S. farms used a Fordson tractor. Henry Ford had for a second time in his life now dominated an industry, and he didn't let up. The middle of the 20th century was filled with more tractor innovations, like the three-point hydraulic hitch, and the famous 9N Ford Tractor for only $595.

By 1966, Ford Tractors were number two in sales worldwide, and as more North American land went into production, Ford responded with more models and larger tractors.

The First World War was still raging when a group of influential industrialists and government members met in a field outside Turin with Giovanni Agnelli to see Fiat's very first agricultural tractor. This tractor, the Model 702, was the first agricultural tractor to be produced in Italy, and perhaps the whole of Europe. It went on sale in 1919 and was manufactured alongside cars and trucks in Fiat's original Turin factory. Built for plowing and powering stationary threshing machines, the Model 702 was rated one of the most efficient tractors in the world and enjoyed very strong export sales. It played a major role in the farm mechanization revolution that took place in the early 20th century.