Walking into the large room the first thing that caught my eye was the green and yellow theme across the 35 tables for the expected 350 attendees. A stage with a beautifully restored John Deere model B from the 1950s was its backdrop. In the four corners of the large room were four restored 20-series that were revealed towards the end of the night.

Speaking to Michael Hanlon of Hanlon Machinery who were the main sponsors of the event, he said: “Tonight is a celebration of John Deere tractors and machinery in Ireland for the last 100 years. As local John Deere dealers for the northeast for the past 37 years, we have a loyal customer base stretching outside Louth into surrounding counties which we want to continue serving. Tonight proves this with every table sold out with many of our customers here to support this event.”

John Deere history in Ireland

Compere for the evening was Michael Moroney who talked through the history of the numerous tractor models sold in Ireland over the years. In a very interesting presentation, Michael explained how John Deere the blacksmith started off in Vermont, aged 32. The first tractor was the Waterloo Boy, the engine for which was bought in from the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Co in 1918. Shortly afterwards John Deere bought the company for $2.35m. Around the same time JL Martin was importing these tractors to London which facilitated sales into Ireland. The iconic John Deere Waterloo Boy was sold in Ireland and Britain as the “overtime” tractor.

Its name was changed to encourage farmers to work overtime to support the WW1 food effort. Also, Waterloo had a lot of associations with war hence the name change. Harry Ferguson, revered at the time as a brilliant salesman, even had John Deere tractors on his stand at the spring show in Easter 1916 when Ireland was fighting for independence.

Various models in the last 100 years were sold across the country by dealers such as Jack Olding, Sherrards up until 1983 and IAWS. Notable examples included the 1020, 1120, 2120 and 3120 with ‘like new’ examples from local owners on display in each corner of the room.

Around the room

Various farmers and people from the trade were interviewed. One story from John White of Nevitt, Lusk, Co Dublin was very interesting. As a long-time John Deere customer, John bought and sold many tractors throughout his farming career and is a loyal customer to this day. One day he received a phone call from the Gardaí asking if he was the owner of a 1988 D-registered John Deere 3050 spotted driving on a road near Gdansk in Northern Poland. His neighbour Tim Bergin, originally from Ballyboughal in North Co Dublin now farming in Poland, spotted the tractor and immediately reported it to the Irish authorities.

Thankfully the tractor was traded-in against another tractor at the time and was obviously exported to Poland without being re-registered.

Chris Meacock, divisional sales manager spoke about his time as area sales manager in Ireland and the current John Deere business. He spoke about the changes he has seen in his time with the company with GPS probably having the biggest positive impact. According to Chris, John Deere’s turnover was $30bn in 2017 with $1.376bn being spent in R&D equating to $3.7m spent per day.

Contractor perspective

David Leech is a retired contractor from Lincolnshire who spoke at the event. He said: “I’ve been to may dinners in my time but this is the first I have been at to celebrate a tractor.”

David started business by baling straw, importing some of the first Hesston large square balers into the UK. Powering these he used a couple of 2WD 5020s. On a brief video we saw what looked like monstrous square balers being pulled by the small John Deere’s with ease.

He has been a John Deere customer all his life running up to 25 different tractors at any one time.

Closing the event ironically was Fingal Vintage Society (FVS) chairman and local NewHolland dealer Charles Hutchinson. He thanked everyone for attending in particular Hanlon machinery for their sponsorship.