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The harvesT Brigade Final YearsThe MasseY Ferguson era

MF

The added funding was also used to bring custom cutters to Des Moines, Iowa for service and maintenance training programs, designed specifically to enhance the operators abilities to make more of their own repairs and optimize combine performance through correct maintenance practices. This was a significant improve-ment from the “Kick Off” operator clinics that were conducted in the field at the start of earlier seasons.

Beyond the support that the Harvest Brigade afforded custom-ers, it also provided an opportunity to measure the performance of new engineering design changes and pinpoint any new problems related to production issues very early in the harvesting season.

Thus, if a new problem was recognized in May or June in Texas or Oklahoma, there was potential to take corrective actions before harvest started farther north or later in the year.

The Harvest Brigade also offered a vehicle for marketing, engineer-ing and production to interact with the company’s key customer base. Each group sent representatives to assist in the Harvest Brigade staffing each summer. Though engineering did work with some custom cutters to test new concepts and combines, a more common scenario was using custom cutters to evaluate alternate vendors of major components. For example, custom cutters Farris Brothers, from Edison, Kansas, Freddie Striet

from Vernon, Texas and Hitchcock & Campbell from Tahlequah, Oklahoma were frequently selected as top-of-the-line operations that provided a venue for fair and accu-rate testing. They kept extremely accurate records of their combines with a very thorough history of hours and operating conditions.

In 1984, operational manage-ment of the Harvest Brigade was transferred to the Marketing Group in Des Moines under Ray Hillock. However, the parts order-ing and field supervision continued as a Product Integrity function.

Unfortunately on March 4, 1988, Massey Combines Cor-poration went into receivership and the Massey-Harris / Massey Ferguson Harvest Brigades which

had so effectively supported custom cutters and achieved a significant share of the custom cutter business ceased operation.

During bankruptcy, a telephone service system was setup to offer some assistance to all Massey Ferguson combine customers–at least to the extent possible over the phone. But, there was absolutely no capacity to dispatch parts or technicians, as had been the case for forty-four years. Through the harvest seasons of 1988 and again in 1989, the telephone service, with a much greater participa-tion by dealers, helped resolve most combines breakdowns but not in the expedient manner Massey combine customers had become accustom. As a result many operators quickly switched over to competitive brands.

For Massey Ferguson employees who had enjoyed a long asso-ciation and a sense of partnership with customer cutters, 1988 was a very difficult summer.

In 1996, when AGCO Corporation bought Western Combines and reintroduced Massey Ferguson combines to the market place, support for customer cutters operating Massey Ferguson combines was re-established via AGCO Parts Tech Vans which operates two trailers to assist cutters with Gleaner, Massey Ferguson and Challenger combines. LQ

(LEFT)This small group photo includes parts clerks, parts runners and service staff from the Kansas City Branch. Shown above is a small part of the service and support truck fleet.

Custom cutters who were attending a service school in Des Moines, Iowa during the mid-1980’s. In the front row, from left are: Karl Klotzbach, Service Training in Des Moines, Frank Vieira and Kerry English Harvesting Product Integrity in Toronto. Company men in the third row from left: Ray Hillock, Marketing and Graeme Leonard, MF Harvesting Product Service Manager.

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