The Story Behind John Deere’s Harvester Line

By: Dave Mowitz

The advent of tractors in the Deere family brought with it the desire on Charles Wiman’s part to raise the bar for harvesting machines. Wiman, Deere’s president, asked his engineers to create a homegrown combine that fit the needs of the average farmer in the Midwest. At this time, the market was loaded with gargantuan harvesters that were more than the average farmer could afford to run.

In response to Wiman’s plea, the No. 2 combine (shown at right) was born in 1926. And in rapid succession, it was replaced with lighter, smaller machines, as Deere engineers devised ways to get more harvesting capacity out of smaller components.