Cockshutt Plow Company

Since Cockshutt did not have a tractor design of its own yet, in 1929 an arrangement was made to distribute Allis-Chalmers model 20-35 and Untied tractors (a group of Fordson dealers who contracted Allis for a new tractor, once Ford stopped North American production the Fordson). In 1935 Cockshutt took on the Oliver tractor line.

During the war years, between 1939 through 1945, Cockshutt's Brantford, Ontario, factory, operating as Cockshutt Aircraft Division, manufactured undercarriages for several types of bombers. Still during the war years Cockshutt was able to design its own tractor.  This tractor was the Cockshutt Model 30 tractor.  However, because the raw materials needed for industrial production were restricted only for use in the war effort, production of the Model 30 30 horsepower 2-3 plow tractor had to be postponed until the end of the war.  The Model 30 finally went into production in 1946. Only 441 Model 30s were manufactured that first year.  In 1947, production of the Model 30 hit its full stride when 6,263 were built.  thus, the Model 30 was the first modern production tractor built in Canada.

Cockshutt had always intended to sell its new Model 30 beyond the borders of Canada.  The company especially wanted to enter the large farm tractor market south of the border in the United States. However, Cockshutt had no sales network in the United States. Consequently in 1945, cockshutt signed two marketing agreement with United States Organizations.  the first was signed with the National Farm Machinery Co-operative in the Midwestern United States.  Under the terms of this agreement the Model 30 tractors sold in the United States would be sold under the "Co-op" name.  The tractors would be painte4d entirely "pumpkin orange" with black lettering and would be re-designates as the Co-op Model E-3 tractor. The NFMC would wholesale the Model E-3 tractors to various local farmer-owned co-operatives. These local former-owned co-operatives, spread over 10 states in the Midwestern part of the United States, would then retail the Model E-3 tractors to the consuming farming public. Our locally owned farmer-owned cooperative was affiliated with the American Farm Bureau and sold right here in Zanesville, Ohio.
The Canadian Co-operative Implements Limited also marketed the Co-op E3, E4 and E5 in Canada.

Following introduction of the Model 30, cockshutt added the larger 45 horsepower, 3-4 plow Model 40 in 1949 and added the smaller 25 horsepower, 2-plow Model 20 in 1952 and finally in 1953 the Company added the still larger 60 horsepower, 4-5 plow Model 50 to the emerging line of Cockshutt farm tractors. The Cockshutt Blackhawk 35 was introduced in 1956 to promote the acquisition of the Ohio Cultivator company. 

In 1958, Cockshutt introduced a complete new line of tractors at the same time: the 540, 550, 560 and 570.  The Model 540 was 30 horsepower, 2-3 plow; Model 550 was a 40 horsepower, 3-plow; Model 560 was a 50 horsepower, 4-plow, and the model 570 was a 65 horsepower, 5-plow design  The big-brother Model 580 was never mass-produced; the first three hand assembled units were on the shop floor in the plant when the shut down order came in early 1962. It was a 100-horsepower unit and one tractor escaped demolition.

In 1958, the company ownership was taken over by English Transcontinental, a British mercantile bank buying on behalf of an American investment group that became the forerunner of white.  The company name was changed to Cockshutt Farm Equipment Limited and was acquired by white Motor company in January 1962.  White had previously acquired Oliver Corporation in late 1960 and subsequently bought Minneapolis-Moline in early 1963.

White established White Farm Equipment in 1969 to merge and further consolidate the three acquisitions and by 1975 had discontinued all three of the previous brand names and began offering White equipment, distinguished by its primarily silver paint job.  The Cockshutt name was no longer used beyond the mid-70s.