AGCO's Origins & History

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That is a great video, learned a bunch about AGCO.  Didn't know about the brand they bought in Brazil.  I don't know if I would want to dwell on the loss of the top management in the plane crash, I believe one of the guys was Robert Radcliff's son in law.  I would venture to guess if that crash would not have happened, that there would be a more US based management team and quite possibly the orange brand would still be sold, at least in North America.  Interesting that he mentioned rebranding stuff in other parts of the world, it does make sense as MF was known pretty much world wide, unlike AC and other US companies.  I think a lot of North American farmers and dealers thought dropping AGCO Allis was a bad idea but corporate bean counters don't look beyond the bottom line of cost of goods, not customer loyalty. 

There is a Sunshine self propelled combine out at Yuma, Colorado that was built in Australia, I believe, in the early 1900's

The aircraft crash was a tragedy in more ways than one. It changed the entire Paradigm at AGCO. A very unfortunate event...………...

The guy that did that video is a friend of mine. That video is out of my collection. He did s great job. Its funny how Agco was all about there Orange heritage until the Germans took over. Now they wont even acknowledge them and focus on massey's history. Its a little disheartening. I agree that had agco not had the plane crashes things would be different. Ratliff was a smart man and built a great company.

Doug G. The current CEO is Richenhagen. He is German. In 1997 Agco purchased Fendt. Have you noticed the direction of the company since he took over after Ratliff? All about fendt, valtra, challenger and massey. One if his first tasks that iv heard he was verbal about was getting rid of the orange line. So thats what i mean by since the Germans took over.......again.

I have several signed letters from Robert Ratliff. I find it amazing that someone who could build a 3 billion dollar company from scratch could find the time to read my letters and respond back to them. Robert Ratliff was one of a kind.

The two men in the 'plane crash' were Ed Swingle and John Shumejda  (shoe may duh) Ed was a personal friend that went to work for AC the same time as I.  He was energy personified ... some loved him, others did not.. he accepted nothing but one best efforts as well as a positive attitude - he was the AC voice in recognition of the heritage.  John was brought along with Ratliff as he had been his right hand man in all things mechanical in the past . They had a unique team with James Seaver  as the business #'s man.  They did not always agree, but always worked together for a common good.  They actually mortgaged their homes to start Agco - it makes a difference when you can loose everything instead of just having an * on a resume if something went wrong and the company had failed.   None of the founders were related however there were some son in laws later added.   And yes the Deutz Allis company was breaking even or loosing money - we always wanted to know about a lot of  "one time charge offs' that made it that way that showed up on the financial statements.  Although the demise of the iron curtain did open up eastern Germany to the KHD group as to great potential, the fact that the farm depression of the '80 and the ambition of the afore mentioned founders provided a perfect storm for them to convince the KHD group they should abandon a sinking ship in the N America venture...  the acquisition didn't happen overnight if you know what I mean although it did get hectic at the end of Deutz-Allis...