Diesel World – October 2019

C

ockshuttis a storiedCanadiantractor

manufacturingcompanythatwehavediscussed

severaltimein TractorTalk.It wasa smalloutfit

comparedtomanyin thetractorgame,but

Cockshuttwasknownforqualityandinnovation.Thefirm

hadonlya fewdifferentmodels—andevenfewerspecialsor

rebadgedmodels.That’swhatwe’llshowyouhere.

Co-Op

TheCo-Optractorlinestartedin 1934whentheelements

oftheFarmBureauCooperativesolda smallnumberof

rebadgedHubertractors.In 1935,theycontractedwiththe

DuplexPrintPressCompanytobuildtractorsdesignedby

DentParrett,founderoftheParrettTractorCompany.Parrett

is a storyuntohimselfandwasbehindthesceneswithmany

majorcompaniesoverthedecadesdesigningtractorsand

equipment.You’veseenhiswork—evenif youdidn’tknowit.

In 1940,theNationalFarmMachineryCooperative,Inc.

(NFMC),wasformedbytheunionofthirteenoftheregional

cooperativesandthepurchaseoftheCornBeltMachinery

CompanyofShelbyville,Indiana,andtheOhioCultivator

Companyin Belleview,Ohio.NFMCcontinuedtoworkwith

Duplex,buttheyalsocontractedwithCletractobuildsome

tractorsjustpriorto WorldWarII. Thewarstoppedmost

production,butin 1944and‘45,NFMCbuiltsometractorsof

theirowndesignin Shelbyville.

In 1946,NFMCreachedanagreementtosellrebadged

CockshutttractorswearingCo-Opbadging.Thisstarted

withtheCockshutt 30 buteventuallyincludedthe20,40,

and 50 lines.Ofthose,somewereeventuallyofferedwith

dieselpower.WhenMFMCwentbankruptin 1952,Cockshutt

boughtmostoftheirassets,closingtheShelbyvilleplantbut

keepingBelleviewopenuntil1955.BesidestheU.S.manu-

facturingplant,theyacquiredtheCo-Opdealernetwork,into

whichtheykeptfeedingCo-Op-brandedtractors.Co-Opdied

whenCockshutt’sfinancialproblemsreacheda crescendo

in 1957,andit wasacquiredbya holdingcompanyin what

mightbeconsidereda hostiletakeover.Thefirmlastedonlya

fewmoreyearsbeforebeingfoldedintotheWhiteorganiza-

tionwithOliverandMinneapolis-Moline,eventuallyforming

thefoundationofthecurrentAGCOCorporation.

Notincludedin thissurveyoftheCockshuttmodellineis the

rareandshortproduction 1957 GoldenArrow.Wehavenot

seenit tophotographit.

GoldenEagle/BlackHawk

A goodlynumberofCockshutt’scustomerbasewassouth

oftheCanadianborder,soin 1956,astheystruggledto

increasesalesandremoveredinkfromthecompany’sbot-

TRACTORTALK CHIPS OFF THE OLD BLOCK

COCKSHUTT—BY

ANY OTHER NAME

http://www.dieselworldmag.com OCTOBER I 2019 • DIESEL WORLD 131