- Should farmers themselves be allowed to fix the tractors
that they paid for?
Farmers say yes, but John Deere says no.
(engines puttering)
(engine revving)
This leaping deer is beloved by hard workers
across the globe enjoying a legacy of nearly 200 years.
But like almost everything else in America,
this one is ripe with controversy.
In this episode, you're gonna learn the rich history
of these Illinois tractor boys
and why a ton of farmers are suing them.
This is everything you need to know
to get Up To Speed on John Deere.
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And now, back to the show.
Up To Speed, a battle between farmers and John Deere
has been quietly fought inside barns, fields
and courtrooms all over the country for years now.
And the crux of this issue is this,
should farmers be allowed to repair their own tractors
like they have been for 100 years?
Now, it sounds crazy but John Deere has argued
that farmers don't even own their tractor,
but instead an implied license to operate them.
So how did it get this way?
Well, we should probably start at the beginning.
- [Announcer] Chapter 1, The Plowlogue.
- Our story about tractors begins
before tractors were even tractors,
back when tractors were horses and mules and stuff.
In 1837, a blacksmith by the name of, you guessed it,
John Deere was living in Grand Detour, Illinois.
So one day, John's hanging out with these farmers
and these farmers, they have a problem.
Dan Aykroyd Chicago accent, Chicago, Chicago.
Hey, we gotta problem.
Our plows don't be trudging through this root-ridden,
sticky Midwestern soil and such.
- Yeah, this mud is deeper than our friggin' pizza.
- Hey, not so fast there, pal.
Not all of our pizza is deep.
Some of it is really thin and crispy.
- Yeah, we need a plow that we can drag through the garden
like our frickin' hot dogs.
- Yeah, no ketchup.
- No ketchup.
- So John got to thinking.
He remembered this broken steel saw blade
that he had sitting in his shop
that he had salvaged from a nearby saw mill.
So he threw the blade under a plow and voila,
it worked really, really freaking well.
And he was able to pump out so many plows
and he left the small town of Grand Detour
for the big city lights of nearby Moline, Illinois.
In 1876, Deere registered the iconic leaping deer logo
with the US Patent Office, which went on to become one
of the longest continually used logos of all time
and a staple of mesh-backed hats with really curved bills.
(upbeat music)
Even if the company never got into the tractor game,
John Deere would've earned a spot in American history
with this plow alone.
(ringtone ringing)
- [Announcer] Chapter 2, The First Deere.
- In 1892, 103 years before Post Malone was born,
a dude named John Froelich
invented the first gasoline-ed tractor
that used a one-cylinder engine
to move the machine backwards and forwards.
Froelich met up with businessmen in Waterloo, Iowa
and they all partnered together
to form the Waterloo Gasoline Tractor Company,
which immediately began struggling
as the company was only able to sell two tractors
before running out of money.
(laughs)
Then in 1914, they introduced their R model tractor,
which unlike the first attempt
was a really freakin' sick tractor
and the company sold 8,000 of them
before it was discontinued.
The Waterloo Company's experience made it very attractive
to another company that was looking
to round out their farm equipment line.
And that company was Caterpillar, jk, it was John Deere.
In 1923, John Deere released their first tractor
marketed as a John Deere.
No more Waterloo nameplate, okay.
I'm calling this thing my name.
Deere had a friggin' kerosene-burning, soul-churning
two-cylinder engine pushing 15 hrspr.
They called it the Model D.
While other tractor makers were experimenting
with more powerful four-cylinder designs,
John Deere was making a conscious decision
to make a less advanced tractor
because they knew their customers were relying
on their machine to survive.
And that stands in stark contrast to Deere's fight
to keep farmers from repairing their machines today.
(engine puttering)
The Model D was a huge success.
It's basically the '32 Ford of the tractor world.
Over the course of its 30-year lifespan,
John Deere sold 160,000 Model Ds.
So fast forwarding a little bit through history,
the Great Depression messes up the economy,
then World War II followed,
which meant John Deere couldn't make tractors.
When the Allies won, John Deere got back to work
on the next big thing.
(engine starting)
In 1949, Model M, took two years to design
and would be John Deere's best tractor yet.
It was conceived as the complete farming package.
Hydraulic touch-o-matic controls in front of the driver
allowed them to adjust plow height on the fly.
And out back, the new quick-tach system
meant anybody could hook up equipment
to the Model M by themselves,
which streamlined the entire experience.
John Deere also made the Model M super comfy for farmers
by including an air cushion seat
and an adjustable steering wheel.
My cars don't even have adjustable steering wheels.
John Deere produced a version of the M
for construction called the MC.
The C stood for crawl because this booger
had tracks like a frickin' tank.
This was a big deal for the company because it showed
that John Deere could innovate outside
of the farming industry.
And also, who doesn't like frickin' tank tracks?
- [Announcer] Chapter 3, Hay Bales and Snowmobales.
- If you're a city dweller like me,
you might not ever encounter hay bales in the wild
outside of the Red Bull soapbox course
or maybe on Halloween at Knott's Berry Farm
or your local hayride facility.
But farmers, they rely on it because in the winter
when grasses aren't growing in the pasture,
they need something to feed their livestock.
And that's where hay comes in.
It's like Shredded Wheat big biscuits for animals.
In the 1930s, automatic balers were developed
to form and tie hay bales with twine.
The problem with these balers is that you usually needed
someone behind you to throw the bales in the wagon.
But that changed in 1957
when John Deere introduced the 14T Baler,
which had so-called bale ejector technology
which could throw the bales into the wagon for you,
making hay baling a one-person job for the first time.
Another leap for Deere around this time
was the increase in engine displacement.
Up until 1959, two-cylinder engines
had ed all of Deere's tractors.
But in 1960, that was about to change
as they introduced 4M six-cylinders engines
across the entire lineup,
giving farmers even mo' plowah babeh in their fields.
(laughs)
After the baby boom in the 1950s, the concept
of the American suburb was spreading all over the country.
And with cookie cutter tract homes, usually, comes a lawn.
And boy, did Americans love their lawns.
By 1959, nearly 6 million lawnmowers had been sold
in the US and John Deere wanted in on that market,
but with a different kind of motor.
A tractor for the suburban age.
In 1966, John Deere unveiled the John Deere 60 lawn tractor.
Besides the mowing blade underneath, there are a bunch
of attachments for the urban tractor warrior that loves gear
like a snow thrower, snow blade
and a pull-behind sprayer so you can spray
delicious lawn treatment formulas behind you.
Well, John Deere had wide name recognition
within the world of agriculture.
Putting their baby tractors
on suburban lawns all over the US really brought the brand
into the mainstream.
- [Announcer] Because nothing runs like a Deere.
- John Deere followed that up with an even nuttier attempt
at mainstream success with a line of snowmobiles.
In 1971, they started with the 339 cc model called the 400.
And a 463 cc one called the 500.
Deere stopped building the sleds in 1982
after selling the brand
to one of their competitors, Polaris.
Have you ever heard of it?
(engine whirring)
(crashing) - [Spectator] Ooh!
- In 1972, John Deere was poised to drop another bomb
on the farming game in the shape
of their Generation II tractors.
These beefy boys were unlike anything
the company had released before.
Instead of sitting on top of the machine outside
in the sun, Gen IIs had an enclosed cockpit
called the Sound Guard.
Not only did it protect you from the black hole sun's rays,
but the insulated cabin was also equipped
with ample sound deadening to give your ears a rest,
again, improving a farmer's whole way of life.
The largest of these tractors was a 4630,
a crop row tractor making 150 horsepower.
What's a row crop tractor?
As the name suggests, a row crop is designed
for the cultivation of row crops.
(chiming)
As the '80s rolled on, John Deere started to focus more
on fuel efficiency with their new lineup.
And the change up couldn't have come
at a more opportune time for them.
Thanks to the combination of crop over production, embargoes
and declining crop exports,
farms around the US were in pretty bad shape.
The event was called, The Farm Crisis.
Finally, we get to talk about another crisis
other than a gas crisis.
I talk it so much, we're making it a shirt soon.
(applauding and cheering)
But because of Deere's refocus while other manufacturers
like International Harvester were really feeling the heat
of the Farm Crisis, John Deere was able to make a profit
and went right ahead with new designs.
They released a bunch of new tractors,
but we like big stuff here.
So I'm gonna talk about the big one.
The largest of these new tractors
was the gigantic Model 8850, a V8-powered,
370 hrspr, four-wheel drive beast.
It was like the frickin' Charger Hellcat
wide body of tractors.
But capabilities like this came at a cost, $120,000,
about $320,000 in today's money.
John Deere was on top of the game, but was once again
looking to break in to some new markets.
But this time around, John Deere wouldn't be taking on
a specific task like they did with the lawn tractor.
This new Deere would be about utility.
- [Announcer] Chapter 4, Gator Aid.
- In 1992, John Deere dropped the Gator TH.
This humble work vehicle was designed
for all sorts of work in mind.
They're a friggin' blast.
It's the first thing that most of us drive,
that or a golf cart.
The TH came in a 6 x 4 configuration, meaning six wheels,
four of them putting power to the ground.
Deere also released the slightly less hardcore Gator TS,
which had four wheels instead of six.
Now, the Gator is important
not only in John Deere's history, but I think
it helped shape an entire sector of motor sports today.
Now stick with me.
With the success of the Gator, other manufacturers
followed suit with their own utility vehicles,
companies like Polaris and Yamaha.
Now, these things were definitely meant for hard work
much like the Gator, but owners discovered something.
They are frickin' so fun to drive!
(engine revving)
Polaris was the first person to recognize this
and built a utility vehicle that wasn't so much utility
and they called it the RZR.
And I don't know if you've noticed this,
but RZRs are frickin' everywhere.
You drive into any frickin' suburb,
you either got an RV, a boat or a RZR.
John Deere even got in on it with the RZR RSX line.
The RSX had four-wheel drive and a top speed
of 60 miles per hour.
60 miles per hour in an off-road golf cart.
The Gator reintroduced John Deere to millions of people
who have never otherwise come in contact with the brand.
I mean, I've never driven a tractor,
but I've driven a million Gators.
(engine rumbling)
In 1994, John Deere dropped the Model 8000 tractor,
another game changer for farming productivity.
The engineers wanted to drastically improve
the turning radius of the tractor, which would help farmers
get their vehicles on track in the fields more easily,
but it just seemed impossible
until engineer, Tara Woods, had an idea.
All right, put the engine way up above the front axle
and use a dropbox transmission.
This eliminated the need for wider frame wheels,
so the front wheels could be turned much tighter.
The design worked.
The advancement was so significant to farming
that the Smithsonian Museum of American History
included Tara's drawing in an exhibit
of significant napkin innovations.
It seemed that John Deere could not be stopped
as the 20th century came to a close.
They were killing the farming game.
But as the 2000s got into gear,
some people actually believed that.
Like John Deere was actually killing farming.
- [Announcer] Chapter 5, Right to Repair.
- Going back to the question that opened this episode,
should farmers themselves be allowed to fix the tractors
that they paid for?
Because today's Deere's are so advanced,
some even driving themselves, John Deere says
that to repair the machine is less of a mechanical issue
and more of a question about software rights.
Now technically, you can still replace parts
on your John Deere, but then you gotta take your tractor
to an authorized dealer for a mechanic
to clear all of the error codes in the computer
to get the machine operating again.
Loading up a tractor ain't cheap.
Some farmers have reported that it cost $1,000
just to get their tractor to and from the shop,
not counting the cost to have the actual codes cleared.
Now, farmers say that John Deere essentially has a monopoly
on the repair market.
Make no mistake, John Deere is making money
on this arrangement.
But the tractor maker has a few rebuttals to this argument.
Just like in your car,
tractors have to meet emission standards.
And let's say a farmer has access to all the engine controls
and tunes his Deere to make a little moh powah, baybah
creating more pollution in the process.
Now, that's not good.
Another common Deere talking point is the threat
of unintended consequences cascading
through the computer system by a well-meaning mechanic
not exactly knowing what they're doing
and making the problem worse.
That's sweet of you guys.
20 states in the country have introduced legislation
to help farmers regain their right to repair,
but unfortunately, the battle is a very, very uphill one.
Because the issue concerns software, tech companies
like Apple have a tendency of showing up to hearings
on the subject.
John Deere lets their customers access their software,
then a precedent might be set
to make Apple let their users do the same.
Apple doesn't want that.
Because of this shared interest, farmers have teamed up
with tech sector right to repair advocates
like Louis Rossmann,
a YouTuber who shows people how to repair their gadgets.
So he makes really good videos, you should watch him.
- John Deere in many ways acts similarly to how Apple acts.
We have a lot of the same complaints that people that work
on farms and farm equipment and people like me
that try to work on these devices...
- Never thought I'd die fighting side by side with a techy.
- What about side by side with a friend?
- Oh, I could do that.
(laughs)
- [Announcer] Chapter 6, Modern Venison.
- So the right to repair fight aside,
what does John Deere look like today?
Their largest tractor currently is the 9620RX,
a four-wheel drive, track-fueled machine
with a 15 liter Cummings turbo diesel
making 620 hrsprs, dude, ha-ha-ha.
The 9620 was designed for maximum traction
in wet and haily conditions.
And since it uses tracks, the 55,000-pound curb weight
is distributed over a larger area minimizing the impact
on the soil below.
As a bit of an immature farmer myself,
I know that you don't wanna impact the soil below.
Also, I forgot to mention it drives itself.
GPS guidance isn't exactly a new thing,
but John Deere's AutoTrac guiding system
steers the tractor while the farmer onboard is free
to look after whatever equipment they're towing behind.
John Deere is an iconic name with an undeniable impact
on the world of farming and by extension,
the world together.
As the tractors keep advancing,
the company stands at a crossroads.
Balancing the tradition it helped create
and setting a new standard
that is tarnishing the company's reputation
among the people who rely on the most.
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