The John Deere Way

The John Deere Way presents timeless business lessons from one of America’s top brands. Even as many American manufacturers struggle with low-cost foreign competition, John Deere has not only prevailed, but increased its market share by offering superior quality products built tough and in accordance with time-tested business values. This book shares the company’s management principles and corporate values and shows how those values guide the company to increasingly greater success. For business owners and leaders who want to know what real long-term success constitutes—and how to achieve it—The John Deere Way is the only way.

Celebrate the history of a beloved American brand that has become familiar to generations of farming families.

Back in the 1830s, who was a young blacksmith from Vermont, about to make his mark on American history? John Deere, that’s who! Who moved to Illinois, where farmers were struggling to plow through the thick, rich soil they called gumbo? Who tinkered and tweaked and tested until he invented a steel plow that sliced into the prairie easy as you please? Long before the first tractor, who changed farming forever? John Deere, that’s who! Beautiful illustrations—including spectacular landscapes—reflect the time period and bring John Deere's remarkable story to life.

Did you know . . . That the first tractors had metal wheels with no tyres? That a tractor can weigh as much as five elephants? That a tractor can pull as much as 500 horses can? Tractors are big and powerful! They can plough, lift, dig, mow and power through the biggest farms, the longest roads and your very own backyard. Find out everything you want to know about these amazing machines in theBig Book of Tractors.

With prodding from her father-in-law, author Kruse, takes a rare look at John Deere memorabilia. Collections are gleaned from Kruse's father-in-law and five of his collector friends. These collections, along with items from Deere archives, are the most extensive and complete examples of John Deere memorabilia you will ever see. This is a good source to evaluate your current collection with expert information and clear color photographs, or as in the author's case, to help you start a collection.

The ultimate encyclopedia of John Deere tractors from around the world, The Big Book of John Deere Tractors is a model-by-model historical reference to John Deere tractors-including European models-and more, from their beginning in 1892 until today. --Publisher.

The Complete Book of Classic John Deere Tractors explores the range of iconic “green tractors” with which Illinois-based John Deere has become one of the world’s most recognizable brands. Part of Motorbooks’ Complete Book series, this fact-packed volume takes you through dozens of John Deere farm models, beginning with the 1892 Waterloo Boy and ending with the game-changing New Generation and Generation II lines. With selected text from The Bigger Book of John Deere by late legendary Deere historian Don Macmillan, this book details year-to-year model changes within each series and offers comprehensive specs charts compiled by Deere authority John Dietz. In addition to the Waterloo Boy, you’ll witness the entire 40-plus years of two-cylinder “Johnny Poppers,” from the 1924 Model D through the 830 Series models in 1960, and the styled tractors of the prewar and postwar years. Also featured heavily are the groundbreaking New Generation tractors launched to much fanfare in 1960 and their successors, the New Generation II lineup with their Sound-Gard cabs. Standard, row-crop, orchard, and even a selection of experimental models…they’re all here. In addition, you'll find coverage of John Deere’s rich international heritage, with tractors produced in Spain, Germany, and Australia. Illustrated with incredible color photography and period advertising, The Complete Book of Classic John Deere Tractors isan essential edition for the library of any Deere fanatic.

"Mr. Dahlstrom...has written a superb history of the tractor and this long-forgotten period of capitalism in U.S. agriculture. We now know the whole story of when farming, business and the free-market economy diverged, divided and conquered." —Wall Street Journal Discover the untold story of the “tractor wars,” the twenty-year period that introduced power farming—the most fundamental change in world agriculture in hundreds of years. Before John Deere, Ford, and International Harvester became icons of American business, they were competitors in a forgotten battle for the farm. From 1908-1928, against the backdrop of a world war and economic depression, these brands were engaged in a race to introduce the tractor and revolutionize farming. By the turn of the twentieth century, four million people had left rural America and moved to cities, leaving the nation’s farms shorthanded for the work of plowing, planting, cultivating, harvesting, and threshing. That’s why the introduction of the tractor is an innovation story as essential as man’s landing on the moon or the advent of the internet—after all, with the tractor, a shrinking farm population could still feed a growing world. But getting the tractor from the boardroom to the drafting table, then from factory and the farm, was a technological and competitive battle that until now, has never been fully told. A researcher, historian, and writer, Neil Dahlstrom has spent decades in the corporate archives at John Deere. In Tractor Wars, Dahlstrom offers an insider’s view of a story that entwines a myriad of brands and characters, stakes and plots: the Reverend Daniel Hartsough, a pastor turned tractor designer; Alexander Legge, the eventual president of International Harvester, a former cowboy who took on Henry Ford; William Butterworth and the oft-at-odds leadership team at John Deere that partnered with the enigmatic Ford but planned for his ultimate failure. With all the bitterness and drama of the race between Ford, Dodge, and General Motors, Tractor Wars is the untold story of industry stalwarts and disruptors, inventors, and administrators racing to invent modern agriculture—a power farming revolution that would usher in a whole new world.

"Discusses the invention of the John Deere plow and the man behind it, including the idea, the obstacles, and the eventual success"--