Massey Combines Corporation Questions

[J.Hasert]

I am working on some articles following the WFE 9720 and 9320 combines into Massey Ferguson and then into AGCO. I have a few questions about the time period of Massey Ferguson combines from 1985 to 1995.

1. In July 1995 Borg Warner sold the rotary technology of the WFE 9320/9720 to Massey Ferguson. Both the White Farm Equipment of Canada combine plant and the Massey Ferguson combine plant were based in Brantford, Ont at this time. The WFE plant shut down and the rotary combine production moved into the Massey Ferguson plant.

It is my understanding Massey Ferguson built combines and the 4000 series 4wds at this plant. At some point after the transfer I believe the Massey Ferguson plant in Brandtford shut down because of Massey Ferguson's finical troubles. I think in 1989 McConnell took over production of the Massey Ferguson 4wd selling it as the Massey Ferguson 5200 through MF dealers and the McConnell-Marc 1000 and 900 through McConnell dealers. The 4wd was built in North Carolina through 1995 when AGCO acquired 5200/1000 design and moved production to the New Idea plant in Coldwater, OH and introduced the AGCO-Star 8425 and 8360 4wd.

Where did the combines move after Brandtford. What year did the plant close?

2. At some point the Massey Combines Corporation was created. The WFE 9720 was sold as the MF WFE 9720 in 1985 and as the MF 9720 in 1986. It seems by 1987 the MF logo came off the combine and a big Massey decal appears. By this time the MF 9720 was the Massey 8590 and the WFE 9320 was re-introduced as the Massey 8560. What year was the Massey Combines Corporation formed? I think the Massey Combines Corporation was aquired by AGCO in 1995 or 1996 and then reunited with Massey Ferguson.

3. I have noticed on the brochures that Massey Combines Corporation is listed with an address in Wichita, KS.

Thank you for any information. I want to get the story right.

[peterbilt]

Combines now come out of Hesston Kansas, Massey, Gleaner and Challenger all come out of that plant. Not sure when they moved though.

[hammerman]

On May 14,1986 Massey Ferguson announced that it was changing its name to Varity Corporation.It is at this time that they spun off the money losing divisions,which consisted of the 800 series combine,4000 series tractors,balers and a foundry business and called it Massey Combines Corporation,they held a 45% stake in this company.Massey Combines Corporation was set up to fail,they held 50% of the debt and only and about 4% of total company sales.On February 8 1988 Massey Combines announced that they were terminating production just before they were about to start manufacturing the 88 model.Massey Ferguson and Claas teamed up to introduce the 8460 and 8450 conventional combine,which were built in Europe.The 8570 combine introduced in 1990 was built in Portage la Praire in Manitoba.In 1993 the MF North American distribution and parts business was sold to Agco and in 1994 the remaining MF world wide manufacturing and distribution business was sold to Agco.Varity retained the Perkins engine division and later sold it to Cat.WFE was bought in 85 and the remaining combines got a MF decal and were called 9720.In 86 the 8560 was introduced but no 9720 were built that year but later,in 87 were introduced as the MASSEY 8590.

[mostlygreen]

In/around 1990, a new "entity" called Western Combine Corporation was established with the financial backing/ownership of Frank Hasenfratz of Linamar Corporation in Guelph, Ontario. He picked-up the "crumbs" of what once was a thriving Combine manufacturing business and moved final assembly/production to Portage la Prairie, though a lot of the machining was done in Guelph and, of all places, Hungary; - Frank's native country. I believe the Massey 220 Swather was also built in Portage, along with a round baler. The 8570's were branded both as "Massey's" and also as "Western Combines", the latter of which were destined for export markets only, no domestic sales. If I were to search my file cabinets, I could find a picture taken in France of a "Western" labeled combine. When AGCO purchased the rotary combine technology, patents and tooling, they purchased it from Linamar.

[redpainter]

From what I know, mostlygreen has pretty much summed it up. i once was shown a letter to a White/MF dealer in Spokane, Wa that Vicon had bought the White design/MF rotary combine after Massey Combines Corp. had to close. One of his salesman also told me that Deere was after it too.
Vicon at that time probably shared ownership with or owned Cereal Implements and were planning on building them for MF. Shortly after that, they decided not to build the combine and got out of manufacturing in North America I think. That is when they sold the design to Linamar who eventually set up basically an assembly factory in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. It seems to me this was around early 1989.
I was there at one time when they were in production. You could see combine processors on rail cars which were probably assembled in another factory. there were some Western Combines sitting along the fence. The front tires were just for shipping and there were not straw choppers on them. I was told they were headed for France. I think for a short time the factory also built swathers for New Noble (along with the 200 MF)- basically the same swather except for the hood and formerly the Cereal Implements swather They were painted a dark green and yellow. The New Noble deal lasted only about 1 year. I assume this was an Alberta company which built blade plows and an air seeder.
I think the Vicon round baler was also built there in the same NNC colors and also Vicon colored ones were still on the lot. These later were called PMI and later went to Buhler and were painted yellow.
Shortly after sale of Western Combines to Agco production moved to Hesston. A dealer in the Texas panhandle told me that in 89 there were supposed to be 50 rotary combines built by hand to see how to produce them. I don't know if this was ever done that year.
It was in 90 that the regular production started in portage as I remember.
Massey Combines did offer select White dealers the big rotary under the White name at the same time as the MF dealers had them.

[mostlygreen]

I stand corrected; - you're right Redpainter, Vicon DID acquire the rotary combine prior to Linamar's involvement, I forgot about that. I thought production of the rotary combine moved to the Gleaner plant in Independence Missouri for a brief time, before being moved (again) to Hesston Kansas; - I might be wrong on that. My uncle came out of retirement (much to my aunts delight) for a few months and worked in Portage la Prairie to help with the plant start-up. From what I remember, he never thought of it to be a high-production facility, but he commented that the workmanship was every bit as good/better than what Brantford ever put out; - he was impressed.

[masseypride]

Redpainter,


Massey Ferguson Combines were built in Independence, Mo from 1998 to 2000. AGCO Combine production was moved to Hesston, Kansas in 2000.


Masseypride

[nebrmassey]

Sorry if this is off-topic but has anyone had the opportunity to get a tour of the new building in Jackson, MN or will we have to wait until spring when the visitor's center is finished?

[masseypride]

I owned a 1987 MF 8590 Combine serial number H000069 for many years. I visited with one of the Massey Engineer on the machine. He said that only one hundred of them were ever built. The machine was shelfed due to the amount of reengineering that was required to fix all the updates needed along with the poor sales numbers. He gave me a dealers name in Illinois who did a extensive amount of work on these machines. I called him and he sent me a list of about 90 updates he work on or with Massey in the fall of 1987. I was shocked about some of the updates because I really didn't have that much trouble with my machine. I did fix quite a few of the updates via a local machine shop. I no longer have the lists nor the machine. The main updates were the rotor drive shafts bending and the rear spindles breaking. I thought pretty highly of the machines performance but the controls and Cab could have been done differently. My machine was one of them sold through the Texas Panhandle Dealer.
I'm pretty sure mine was one of them hand built as some of the exterior sheet metal looked like a high schooler in shop class modified the components to fit. It wasn't pretty or comfortable but that dang thing could mow down some crops.

On a side note, I believe Massey patented the hydraulic rotor driven design in 1990. I thought that date was a little strange because you would of thought White would have patent early or even Massey when they started building the 8560 Combines in 1986. I will check on the patent date.

Masseypride

[martinr]

I wonder how many of the 8590s were exported? There were a handful that came here to the UK - maybe four or five. One or two are still in scrapyards being broken, and there is one farmer in the east who brings his out each year to back up his main combine, although I understand that currently it's laid up and needs some attention. The links below show it at work. The website is run by a friend of mine called Chris Lockwood, and features excellent photos of farm equipment at work in the UK.

http://www.midsuffolkagriphotos.co.uk/gallery/gp845.htm
Harvesting winter OSR, 30-07-07