John Deere Harvest – Then to Now
The company produced its first combine harvester in 1927; the John Deere No. 2. A year later, it was followed by the John Deere No. 1 which was smaller and a more popular machine with customers. By 1929, the No. 1 and No. 2 were replaced by a newer, lighter-weight version.
In the 1930’s, John Deere and other farm equipment manufacturers began to make hillside harvesting technology. Harvesters now had the ability to use their combines to harvest grain on hillsides with up to a 50% slope grade!
John Deere’s first self-propelled combine was introduced in 1947; the model 55. Soon after in the mid-1950’s, they introduced attachable corn heads which allowed crop producers to cut, shell, and clean corn in one smooth operation.
Produced in the 1970’s, a new generation of combines were made; 3300, 4400, 6600 and 7700. These models were also the first to come with Quik-Tatch header mounting capabilities.
The Single-Tine Separation (STS) system was introduced in 1999. The STS system uses less power and improves material handling. The 9760, 9770 and 9870 were a couple of the STS models that were made.
In 2010, John Deere Harvester Works made its 500,000th self-propelled combine. Wow!
Now let’s fast forward to 2017 when John Deere introduced the S700 Series. Let’s talk about a whole grain tank load of updates! From the 4600 CommandCenter Display, Combine AdvisorTM, ActiveYieldTM, JDLinkTM, John Deere Tracks to switching heads with 1 tool in 2 minutes, what’s not to love about the S700 series!
Now that right there is 90 years of evolution!