In 1890, Americans Benjamin Holt and Daniel Best started experimenting with various forms of steam tractors for use in farming. Working separately for their respective companies they were pioneers with track-type tractors......In 1890, Americans Benjamin Holt and Daniel Best started experimenting with various forms of steam tractors for use in farming. Working separately for their respective companies they were pioneers with track-type tractors and petrol-powered tractor engines. In those early days, steam traction engines were enormous and often got bogged down in soft soil - freeing the machine could take days. To increase the traction engine’s area of contact with the ground, Benjamin Holt hit upon the idea of replacing wheels with tracks. In 1904, the first Holt track-type tractor was tested. It soon went to work ploughing soft ground near Holt’s factory in Stockton, California and was pronounced ‘a decided success’. After more tests, the first crawler – with a new and improved set of tracks was sent to the Holt family ranch for a winter of ploughing. Soon after, Holt coined the “Caterpillar” trademark. Holt switched from steam power to petrol and by 1909, his crawlers were being snapped up by customers. Meanwhile, Daniel Best’s son, C L Best formed his own company and in 1910 began building petrol-powered, wheeled tractors, and almost immediately set to work on an experimental track-type tractor. The “CLB” 75 hp crawler appeared in early 1913 and was the first machine to bear Best’s ‘Tracklayer’ trademark. The 75 Tracklayer incorporated a number of significant advances in design. Among them were improved oscillation of the tracks to reduce shock loads on the frame and the engine, plus improved metallurgy throughout the tractor. In 1925, the Holt Manufacturing Company and the C L Best Tractor Company merged to form Caterpillar Tractor Co. From 1925 to the present has been a story of continuous product development. There were two major breakthroughs – the introduction of the diesel engine to the line in 1931 and the invention of the sealed and lubricated track. The diesel engine gave the machines more horsepower than ever before and made them less expensive to own and operate. The sealed and lubricated track helped reduce costs of undercarriage maintenance. The track pin is permanently coated with a sealed-in lubricant, which minimises metal-to-metal contact and slows pin and bushing wear. The Challenger tractor, together with its patented Mobil-tracTM system, was introduced in 1987. Mobil-trac was a major leap forward providing greater traction and flotation, reduced soil compaction and more versatility for reduced costs and more productivity on the farm. Improvements over the years have included a move from cable to hydraulics controls, computerised monitoring systems, torque dividers, planetary power shift transmissions, differential steering – the list goes on. Ag-Chem has been successfully building application equipment since 1963, under the name Ag-Chem Equipment Company Inc., selling specialised spray equipment to the agricultural industry. Ten years later, the self-propelled Terra-Gator 1253 was introduced – Ag-Chem’s first 3-wheel applicator with high flotation tyres. This was followed in 1979 by the 1603 model, soon recognised as the premier high flotation applicator in the industry. In 1984, the company Kurstjens produced the first pull-type Tri-Axer. The first Terra-Gator chassis with a liquid manure system was sold in Holland three years later. Kurstjens soon became the official dealer for Terra-Gator in Holland, Germany and Belgium, selling the first Terra-Gator in the former East Germany in 1991, and opening the market for self-propelled fertiliser spreaders in Europe. Just two years later, the 1993 Soilection, the first self-propelled multiple bin, was sold into Germany, paving the way for site-specific agriculture. Ag-Chem also broke into the row-crop market with the launch of the first self-propelled RoGator tramline sprayer. In 1994, Kurstjens became a 100% subsidiary of Ag-Chem, operating as Kurstjens Terra-Gator BV. The company’s name changed 2 years later to become Ag-Chem Europe, the official importer of Ag-Chem Equipment Company Inc. in the UK, France and Central Europe. 1997 saw the introduction of the Terra-Gator 8103, a new series of Terra-Gator 3-wheelers with a new-style cab and drive-train that was to shape the design of all new-style Terra-Gator machines. Just one year later, the 10,000th Terra-Gator was sold by Ag-Chem. The first Terra-Gator to be completely produced by Ag-Chem Europe in Grubbenvorst was the 2104, replacing the previous 2204 model. In 2000, Ag-Chem started to produce and sell the RoGator 618 self-propelled sprayer, designed by Ag-Chem Europe to fit the European tramline width of 1.8 m. When the Ag-Chem Equipment Company Inc. was taken over by AGCO Corporation in 2001, the first co-operation between Ag-Chem Europe and other divisions of the AGCO family began. Visitors to the Agritechnica exhibition in Hannover late that year were very enthusiastic about the combination of the Fendt 926 Vario and an Ag-Chem Tri-Axer with a 22 m3 tank. Spra-Coupe self-propelled sprayers were added to the Ag-Chem Europe line-up in 2002, along with the introduction