Independent curation

Find farming history books you'll love

Weekly picks surfaced by readers who obsess over tractors, soil, and stories from the field.

Share your top 3 farm reads

Join fellow readers swapping must-read manuals, memoirs, and histories.

Start a list

Fresh off the shelf

Recently Added

Browse all books
Loaded 9 more books
COTTON KING DISK HARROW (CLASSIC REPRINT).
COTTON KING DISK HARROW (CLASSIC REPRINT).

View Details
International Harvester Farm Equipment Product History, 1831-1985
International Harvester Farm Equipment Product History, 1831-1985

Travel through the decades, watching the development of a company and an industry in this recently published book from ASAE. Authors Ralph Baumheckel and Kent Borghoff tell the entire IH tractor history from the first traction engine in 1906 until the last 5488 all-wheel-drive tractor rolled off the line on May 14, 1985. The story doesnt end with the tractors, in fact it is just the beginning. Now you can discover for yourself about the implements and combines that IH produced to make the farmers job easier. These products help illustrate the incredible tale of this legendary company.<br/>This book is filled with color. Nearly one-fourth of the over 800 photos are featured in full color. A special aspect of this book, which makes it truly a one-of-a-kind, is that many of the photos came from IH retirees. These never-before published photos give a unique insight into the company that only former employees and their experiences can provide. A detailed appendix is included to give collectors something to sink their teeth into. This high quality book will enjoy a prominent spot on your coffee table or bookcase.

View Details
Red Combines 1915-2020 The Authoritative Guide to International Harvester and Case Ih Combines and Harvesting Equipment
Red Combines 1915-2020 The Authoritative Guide to International Harvester and Case Ih Combines and Harvesting Equipment

<p>This award-winning book chronicles the complete story of the red combine's impact on agriculture and society. Co-authored by long-time IH and Case IH product manager Gerry Salzman, Red Combines 1915-2020 is a unique collaboration that featured Klancher's storytelling ability and Salzman's knowledge from 42 years as an industry leader and insider. The book includes photographs and details about every International Harvester and Case IH combine built in the United States and abroad, and tells the story of the creation of the Axial-Flow combine, which was developed in a garage so secret only a few people knew it existed. The Axial-Flow combine was a technological leap that transformed the industry when introduced in 1977. The book covers the entire line of red combines, including the CBX, a top-secret mega-combine built in the 1990s. Also included is brief coverage of J.I. Case combines. Authored by Lee Klancher and the team of talented contributors who created the award-winning Red Tractors 1958-2013, this thorough and entertaining book is another captivating volume sure to please fans of agricultural equipment and farm history.</p>

View Details
Salad Bar Beef
Salad Bar Beef

In a day when beef is assailed by many environmental organizations and lauded by fast-food chains, a new paradigm to bring reason to this confusion is in order. With farmers leaving the land in droves and plows poised to "reclaim" set-aside acres, it is time to offer an alternative that is both land and farmer friendly.<br><br>Beyond that, the salad bar beef production model offers hope to rural communities, to struggling row-crop farmers, and to frustrated beef eaters who do not want to encourage desertification, air and water pollution, environmental degradation and inhumane animal treatment. Because this is a program weighted toward creativity, management, entrepreneurism and observation, it breathes fresh air into farm economics.

View Details
John Deere A History of the Tractor
John Deere A History of the Tractor

These Limited Edition Leatherbound are signed by the author and hand numbered. A rare collectible for the true enthusiast!No tractor has achieved a more iconic status than John Deere. It's simple, two-cylinder tractors proved just the reliable, dependable tool the early 20th century American farmer needed to take the great leap from farming with animals to mechanized farming. Although a late comer to the motorized farming industry, today John Deere's two-cylinder tractors are the most sought after collector tractors in the world. Always a conservative company, John Deere stuck with its two-cylinder tractors into the middle part of the century, long after every other manufacturer had moved on to four- and six-cylinder tractors. Yet these simple, noble machines continued to serve their market. When John Deere entered the multi-cylinder fray, it did so with the most advanced, groundbreaking machines ever built - the New Generation tractors. These tractors set the trends for all subsequent tractor development through the latter half of the 20th century.

View Details
A Corporate Tragedy: The Agony of International Harvester Company
A Corporate Tragedy: The Agony of International Harvester Company

In an examination of the disastrous fall of International Harvester Company, this book details the powerful forces that have undermined American industry and the dizzying succession of management blunders that are being repeated throughout American companies every day

View Details
John Deere
John Deere

To farmers the world over, there's no tractor like a John Deere. The history of Deere's development of the farm tractor and its fight to be number one in the business is a fascinating tale - told here in complete detail through extensive research and interviews with the designers, engineers, dealers, and farms that made Deere famous. Author Randy Leffingwell traveled across the country photographing tractors from New England to California, bringing together hundreds of stunning color photos along with rare archival images. The full line of Deere tractors are presented, from early experimental models to the Waterloo Boy, the Model D, the Johnny Poppers, modern four- and six-cylinder models, and everything in between. Packed with colorful stories, anecdotes, and never-before-seen illustrations, John Deere is the ultimate tribute to the legendary American tractors.

View Details
Snoopy and the Spy A Saga of Espionage, Ingenuity, and the Epic Battle to Save International Harvester
Snoopy and the Spy A Saga of Espionage, Ingenuity, and the Epic Battle to Save International Harvester

<p>On the farm fields of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the stakes had never been higher. The era marked one of the hardest economic environments of the twentieth century, and two of the world's toughest competitors were locked in a high-horsepower arms race to create the world's best piece of agricultural equipment. For John Deere, winning meant maintaining global dominance. For International Harvester, winning would mean survival. For all the other ag equipment makers--well, it was mostly bad news. </p><p>In a big money game of poker, the two top makers bet on various new technologies and raced to build the best one first. The new machines were designed and built in secret spaces, then tested in dark pastures and remote corners of the world. They were transported carefully covered under tarps and rail cars . . . all in effort to keep them from the prying eyes and nimble cameras of the competition. </p><p>In this rollicking trip back in time, the salesman, engineers, and executives who played the game offer firsthand accounts of how and why this techno-turf war was fought. As the game escalated, one salesman took matters into his own hands. In the name of company loyalty, he crossed a line he shouldn't have and found himself deep in enemy territory. </p><p>The book includes never-before-published images of facilities and equipment, engineering design details, a look at company culture at the ag equipment companies, quotes from interviews with engineers, salespeople, and leaders of both International Harvester and John Deere, as well as insight into the events that led International Harvester to fail. If you love agriculture, history, or a zesty read, this book is for you! </p>

View Details
Taking the Guesswork Out of Aquaculture
Taking the Guesswork Out of Aquaculture

Product description This is the student guide that corresponds with the John Deere Publishing text, Taking the Guess Work Out of Aquaculture. This is a guide for prospective producers of aquaculture products. Chapters are devoted to types of aquaculture enterprises, commercial catfish production, required resources and investment, site selection, stocking, and feeding. Also covered are water quality, fish health and disease management, harvesting and marketing. Also included is a decision checklist, common calculations used in fish pond and lake management, species profiles, and a section on additional sources of aquaculture information. About the Author Martin W. Brunson holds a B.S. in biology and M.S and Ph.D. in Aquaculture and fisheries Management. He began his career as an assistant professor in Aquaculture and Fisheries at Louisiana State University, moving to Mississippi in 1988. He has conducted extensive research in aquaculture of catfish, crawfish and sunfish, as well as recreational fisheries management in small impoundments. He is currently Extension Leader and Professor in Wildlife and Fisheries at Mississippi State University, and works closely with the aquaculture industry nationwide in meeting their educational and technical assistance needs. He has authored a comprehensive set of over 150 fisheries and aquaculture extension publications, as well as 75 technical and scientific articles. Bob Ratliff is an agricultural journalist with experience in radio, TV and print. From 1980 until 1990, he served as farm director of the Progressive Farmer Network, a regional radio network providing agricultural programming to stations in the Midsouth. His career also includes four years as editor of MAFES Research Highlights, a quarterly magazine published by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. His articles about the work of MAFES researchers have appeared in the Catfish Journal, Cotton Farming, Delta Farm Press and other agricultural publications. He currently serves as Mississippi State University's science writer, providing print and broadcast coverage of the university s science-related teaching and research activities.

View Details

Browse by interest

Explore Subjects

View all subjects