Deere & Company

History

19th century

In 1836 Deere & Company began when John Deere, born in Rutland, Vermont, United States, on February 7, 1804, moved to Grand Detour, Illinois to escape bankruptcy in Vermont. Already an established blacksmith, Deere opened a 1,378-square-foot (128 m2) shop in Grand Detour in 1837, which allowed him to serve as a general repairman in the village, and a manufacturer of tools such as pitchforks and shovels. An item that set him apart was the self-scouring steel plow, which was pioneered in 1837 when John Deere fashioned a Scottish steel saw blade into a plow.

Prior to Deere's steel plow, most farmers used iron or wooden plows to which the rich Midwestern soil stuck, so they had to be cleaned frequently. Deere created a highly polished steel surface that allowed the soil to slide easily. This tool addressed the difficulty of tilling the Prairie State's soil and greatly aided migration into the American Great Plains in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In early 1843, Deere entered a business partnership with Leonard Andrus and purchased land for the construction of a new, two-story factory along the Rock River in Illinois. It used water power to operate machineries. This factory, named the "L. Andrus Plough Manufacturer", produced about 100 plows in 1842, and around 400 plows during the next year. Deere's partnership with Andrus ended in 1848, and Deere relocated to Moline, Illinois, to have access to the railroad and the Mississippi River. There, Deere formed a partnership with Robert Tate and built a 1,440-square-foot (134 m2) factory the same year. John Gould was later brought in to manage the accounts. Production rose quickly, and by 1849, the Deere, Tate & Gould Company was producing over 200 plows a month. A two-story addition to the plant was built, allowing further production.

Deere bought out Tate and Gould's interests in the company in 1853, and was joined in the business by his son Charles Deere. At that time, the company was manufacturing a variety of farm equipment products in addition to plows, including wagons, corn planters, and cultivators. In 1857, the company's production totals reached almost 1,120 implements per month. In 1858, a nationwide financial recession took a toll on the company. During this period, the company announced its work on a steam engine that will pull its plow but the product did not materialize. To prevent bankruptcy, the company was reorganized and Deere turned over his interests in the business to his son-in-law, Christopher Webber, and his son, Charles Deere, who would take on most of his father's managerial roles. John Deere served as president of the company until his retirement in April 1886, but died one month later in May 1886 in Moline, Illinois. The company was reorganized again in 1868 when it was incorporated as Deere & Company. While the company's original stockholders were Charles Deere, Stephen Velie, George Vinton, and John Deere, Charles effectively ran the company. In 1869, Charles began to introduce marketing centers and independent retail dealers to advance the company's sales nationwide. This same year, Deere & Company won "Best and Greatest Display of Plows in Variety" at the 17th Annual Illinois State Fair, for which it won $10 and a silver medal.

20th century

Increased competition during the early 1900s from the new International Harvester Company led the company to expand its offerings in the implement business, but the production of gasoline tractors came to define Deere & Company's operations during the 20th century.

In 1912, Deere & Company president William Butterworth (Charles' son-in-law), who had replaced Charles Deere after his death in 1907, began the company's expansion into the tractor business. Deere & Company briefly experimented with its own tractor models, the most successful of which was the Dain All-Wheel-Drive, but in the end decided to continue its foray into the tractor business by purchasing the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in 1918, which manufactured the popular Waterloo Boy tractor at its facilities in Waterloo, Iowa. Deere & Company continued to sell tractors under the Waterloo Boy name until 1923, when the John Deere Model D was introduced. The company continues to manufacture a large percentage of its tractors in Waterloo, Iowa, namely the 7R, 8R, and 9R series.

The company produced its first combine harvester, the John Deere No. 2, in 1927. This featured improvements and modifications to Model D such as higher power level due to increased cylinder bore. A year later, this innovation was followed up by the introduction of John Deere No. 1, a smaller machine that was more popular with customers. By 1929, the No. 1 and No. 2 were replaced by newer, lighter-weight harvesters. In the 1930s, John Deere and other farm equipment manufacturers began developing hillside harvesting technology. Harvesters now had the ability to effectively use their combines to harvest grain on hillsides with up to a 50% slope gradient.

On an episode of the Travel Channel series Made in America that profiled Deere & Company, host John Ratzenberger stated that the company never repossessed any equipment from American farmers during the Great Depression.

During World War II, the great-grandson of John Deere, Charles Deere Wiman, was president of the company, but he accepted a commission as a colonel in the U.S. Army. Burton F. Peek was hired as president during this period. Before Wiman returned to work at the company in late 1944, he directed the farm machinery and equipment division of the War Production Board. In addition to farm machinery, John Deere manufactured military tractors, and transmissions for the M3 tank. They also made aircraft parts, ammunition, and mobile laundry units to support the war effort.

21st century

In 2014, the Smithsonian Museum named John Deere's original plough design as one of the objects that changed American history.

As of 2018, Deere & Company employed about 67,000 people worldwide, of which half are in the United States and Canada, and is the largest agriculture machinery company in the world. In August 2014, the company announced it was indefinitely laying off 600 of its workers at plants in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas due to less demand for its products. Inside the United States, the company's primary locations are its World Headquarters in Moline, Illinois, and manufacturing factories in central and southeastern United States. As of 2016, the company experiments with an electric farm tractor.

The logo of the leaping deer has been used by this company for over 155 years. Over the years, the logo has had minor changes and pieces removed. The "John Deere Moline, Ill." trademark (USPTO Serial No. 71055630), covering plows and a range of farm implements, was filed on April 8, 1911, and registered on September 10, 1912. Some of the older style logos have the deer leaping over a log. The company uses different logo colors for agricultural vs. construction products. The company's agricultural products are identifiable by a distinctive shade of green paint, with the inside border being yellow. By contrast, the construction products are identifiable by a shade of black with the deer being yellow, and the inside border also being yellow.

In September 2017, Deere & Company signed a definitive agreement to acquire Blue River Technology, which is based in Sunnyvale, California, and is applying machine learning to agriculture. Blue River has designed and integrated computer vision and machine learning technology that will enable growers to reduce the use of herbicides by spraying only where weeds are present.

In 2018, Deere and 90 Fortune 500 companies "paid an effective federal tax rate of 0% or less" as a result of Donald Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

In August 2019, it was announced that Samuel R. Allen would step down as CEO and president of John Deere. John May, president of the Worldwide Agriculture and Turf and Integrated Solutions divisions replaced him in November 2019.

Non-serviceability by owners or third parties

Late model John Deere farm equipment has been criticized for being impossible to be serviced or repaired by owners or third parties. Only John Deere has access to computer code required for this and to accept non-John-Deere replacement parts. Remote locking by the manufacturer may also be possible. This effectively makes the equipment unusable without the continued involvement of John Deere. It was reported that during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops stole Ukrainian farm equipment and took it back to Russia, but that the dealers who owned the equipment locked it remotely.

John Deere's license covering the internal software on tractor control computers does not allow users or independent mechanics to modify the software. This prevents repairs by farmers and creates a monopoly for John Deere dealerships. John Deere claims user repair is forbidden by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, through bypassing of digital rights management. Groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation have criticised this activity, being contrary to the right to repair. Some farmers use Ukrainian versions of John Deere software to circumvent restrictions on repair. In February 2022, the US Senate introduced a bill to allow farmers to perform their own repairs. As of April 2022, right-to-repair bills had been introduced in 26 states.

In January 2023, John Deere signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) in which the company agreed to allow farmers and independent repair shops to purchase access to John Deere software, manuals, and other information needed to fix John Deere equipment. Walter Schweitzer, President of the Montana Farmers Union, expressed skepticism about the agreement, pointing out that the private-sector MOU lacks a legal enforcement mechanism and allows the company to pull out of the MOU if any right-to-repair legislation is enacted. As part of the MOU, the AFBF agreed to encourage state farm bureaus to "refrain from introducing, promoting, or supporting federal or state 'Right to Repair' legislation that imposes obligations beyond the commitments in this MOU."

The issue addressed by the MOU is still a problem for users of John Deere farm equipment in other countries such as Australia, where agricultural machinery is not covered by Australia's first right to repair law, a federal statute providing for mandatory data sharing in the automotive sector. In Australia, agricultural industry bodies have been and are lobbying for right to repair laws covering agricultural machinery. In November 2024, Australia's federal and state treasurers entered into a 10-year intergovernmental agreement on national competition policy that the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has said was "an important first step towards delivering broader 'right to repair' reforms ... especially in agriculture and farming".

Legal issues concerning repair policies

In June 2022, 13 lawsuits from farms and farmers, alleging that John Deere and its affiliated dealerships had unlawfully conspired to monopolize and restrain the market for repair and maintenance services of John Deere equipment, were consolidated in federal court in Illinois. In February 2023, the United States Department of Justice filed a "statement of interest" in the case opposing a motion by John Deere to dismiss the case, arguing that restrictions on repair can harm both consumers and the public. In November 2023, U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston denied John Deere's motion to dismiss the case, finding that the plaintiffs' complaint "is chock-full of factual allegations to support" the conclusion that "Deere has the ultimate control of the repair services market" for John Deere equipment. In April 2026, John Deere agreed to settle the class action lawsuit; while admitting no wrongdoing, Deere agreed to pay $99 million into a fund that would allow farms and individuals who paid John Deere dealers for equipment repairs to recoup between 26% and 53% of overcharge damages, with Deere also agreeing to provide "the digital tools required for the maintenance, diagnosis, and repair" of John Deere farm equipment for 10 years.

In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Deere over the company's restrictive repair policies. In its lawsuit, the FTC argued that Deere inflated repair costs for farmers by preventing independent shops from repairing Deere equipment. The FTC was joined in its lawsuit by five US states including Michigan and Wisconsin.

In July 2026, the FTC lawsuit concluded with a settlement, and requires Deere to make repair services available to independent repair shops and owners of Deere equipment. Deere was required to pay $1 million in legal fees to the involved states, and is subject to compliance oversight for the next 10 years. Deere is required to make available "on fair and reasonable terms" any resources it currently makes available to its dealers, and any future materials distributed to over 50% of its dealers, including fault code diagnosis and removal, technical manuals and troubleshooting information, and previously software-locked features like pairing new components and restarting a machine after emissions-related shutdowns. The "fair and reasonable terms" are more clearly defined than the $99 million lawsuit filed in 2022, which now defines pricing by what authorized Deere dealers pay for tools and repair components. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) senior right to repair campaign director Nathan Proctor stated that the FTC's settlement was "much better than the deal secured in [the Illinois] class action lawsuit".

Products

John Deere manufactures a wide range of products, often with several models of each.

Agricultural equipment

Agricultural products include, including tractors, combine harvesters, cotton harvesters, balers, planters/seeders, silage machines, sprayers, spreaders, dry machines, and grain carts.

Construction equipment

Construction equipment includes (but is not limited to):

Forestry equipment

John Deere manufactures a range of forestry machinery, among others, harvesters, forwarders, skidders, feller bunchers and log loaders. Timberjack was a subsidiary of John Deere from 2000 to 2006.

Other products

Other products the company manufactures include consumer and commercial equipment such as lawn mowers, compact utility tractors, snow throwers, snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, and StarFire (a wide-area differential GPS). It is also a supplier of diesel engines and powertrains (axles, transmissions, etc.) used especially in heavy equipment.

John Deere leasing has expanded to non-equipment loans. As of 2017, this is the leading division of John Deere. With a loan portfolio of $2 billion, it accounts for a third of John Deere's income.

Factories

Major North American factories include:

Harvester Works (large combine harvesters), East Moline, Illinois

Cylinder Internal Platform (hydraulic cylinders), Moline, Illinois

Seeding Group (planting equipment), Moline, Illinois and Valley City, North Dakota

Davenport Works (wheel loaders, motor graders, articulated dump trucks, wheeled forestry equipment), Davenport, Iowa

Dubuque Works (backhoes, crawlers, skid-steer loaders, tracked forestry equipment), Dubuque, Iowa

Des Moines Works (tillage equipment, cotton harvesters, sprayers, and fertilizer spreaders), Ankeny, Iowa

Ottumwa Works (hay and forage equipment), Ottumwa, Iowa

Thibodaux Works (cane-harvesting equipment, scrapers), Thibodaux, Louisiana

Horicon Works (lawn and garden and turf care), Horicon, Wisconsin

Augusta Works (small commercial and agricultural tractors), Grovetown, Georgia

Turf Care (specialty golf equipment and commercial mowing), Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina

Industrias John Deere (agricultural tractors; construction equipment), (Monterrey, Mexico)

Motores John Deere (power systems; 6- and 4-cylinder engines, heavy-duty axles), Torreon, Mexico

Subsidiaries and affiliates

Current

AGRIS Corporation (John Deere Agri Services)

Bear Flag Robotics – Autonomous agricultural technology & equipment company

John Deere Ag Management Solutions (intelligent mobile equipment technologies), Urbandale, Iowa

John Deere Capital Corporation

John Deere Financial (John Deere Credit and Finance), Johnston, Iowa

Kemper (row tolerant headers for forage harvesters and combines), Stadtlohn, Germany

Waratah Forestry Attachments (forestry harvesting heads), Tokoroa, New Zealand

Agreentech

NavCom Technology, Inc. (precision positioning systems, see also StarFire), Torrance, California

John Deere Electronic Solutions (Ruggedized electronics), Fargo, North Dakota

Ningbo Benye Tractor & Automobile Manufacture Co. Ltd. (low HP tractors), Ningbo, China

Machinefinder (used equipment division and marketplace)

John Deere Technology Innovation Center, Research Park, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

QCFS and Consolidating (attachment distribution center), Davenport, Iowa

Hagie Sprayers (Upfront Sprayers)

Former

John Deere Renewables, LLC, a wind energy plant manufacturing arm which represented John Deere's extension into the renewable energy industry – under which it had successfully completed 36 projects in eight US states – was sold to Exelon Energy in August 2010.

Carbon footprint

John Deere reported total CO2e emissions (direct and indirect) for the twelve months ending 30 September 2020 at 766 Kt (−155/−16.8% y-o-y) and plans to reduce emissions 15% by 2022 from a 2017 base year.

Sponsorships

The John Deere Classic is an American professional golf tournament sponsored by the company.

John Deere sponsored the #23 and #97 cars for NASCAR driver Chad Little in the late 1990s.

John Deere sponsored the #17 car for NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in the late 2010s.

John Deere previously sponsored the Carolina Hurricanes' ice resurfacers from early 2000s to mid 2010s.

Green Magazine

Green Magazine is a publication devoted to John Deere enthusiasts. It was begun in November 1984 by Richard and Carol Hain of Bee, Nebraska.

In early November 1984, the first issue was mailed to 135 paid subscribers. It had 10 black-and-white pages with features on tractors, letters from readers, and advertisements. At the time, the magazine was published bimonthly. It was written in Lincoln, Nebraska, and mailed from the Bee post office.

The magazine grew rapidly, and in 1990, bowing to public demand, it became a monthly. Circulation continued to increase, and currently hovers around 30,000. The magazine now generally contains 88 full-color pages and is perfect bound. It is now printed in Michigan and mailed from several post offices throughout the country.

Leadership

President

John Deere, 1837-1886

Charles Henry Deere, 1886–1907

William Butterworth, 1907–1928

Charles Deere Wiman, 1928–1955

William Alexander Hewitt, 1955–1964

Robert A. Hanson, 1982–1990

Hans Becherer, 1990–2000

Robert Lane, 2000–2009

Samuel Allen, 2009–2019

John C. May, 2020–present

Chairman of the Board

William Butterworth, 1928–1936

William Hewitt, 1964–1982

Robert A. Hanson, 1982–1990

Hans Becherer, 1990–2000

Robert Lane, 2000-2009

Samuel Allen, 2010–2020

John C. May, 2020-present