New Holland is one of the biggest names in the agricultural industry. The American giant is spread throughout the world and has a massive presence in agricultural powerhouses like India, China, Australia, and Brazil. There`s no denying it, if you are looking to buy a tractor anytime soon, a New Holland would be an excellent choice.
Over the years, the company has satisfied thousands of customers worldwide and set a benchmark in farm equipment manufacturing. Today, New Holland tractors are highly revered for their quality and highly durable engines and can last a lifetime when properly looked after. Of course, reliable doesn`t mean infallible. Luckily, when you run into issues, you can always use trustworthy New Holland manuals online to diagnose and repair pretty much anything.
But I digress…
So now that we know New Holland is an American company selling tractors globally, where does it actually manufacture them? And is production exclusive to the United States?
Time to find out!
Origins
First, let’s start with a little bit of background about New Holland. The company was established in 1895 by Abe Zimmerman in New Holland, Pennsylvania, and only manufactured feed mills at the time. By 1947, it was acquired by Sperry Corporation and has been owned by several companies since then.
In 2013, it became a brand of Dutch giant CNH Industrial NV. Together, New Holland and its parent company CNH now dominate tractor sales in over 170 countries, with 18 production plants spread across North America, South America, Asia, and Europe.
North America
As of now, New Holland operates seven plants in North America alone. Apart from tractors, these plants also manufacture other farming machinery such as harvesters, planting, seeding equipment, telehandlers, plows, hay and forage equipment, balers, and skid steer loaders.
New Holland`s oldest plant is located in Pennsylvania and has been running since 1895. Apart from making farming machinery and tractors, the Pennsylvania branch acts as the North American headquarters. It is one of the largest New Holland plants and is renowned for manufacturing excellent hay and forage equipment.
Moving a bit inland; there is Fargo in North Dakota, specializing in manufacturing one of New Holland’s best-selling tractors, the 670 HP T9 Series. The T9 has earned quite a reputation for being an agile and durable tractor that can work on almost any terrain. Apart from that, the North Dakota plant also produces articulated tractors.
Furthermore, Racine, Wisconsin, is home to the T8 Series, comprising some of the most powerful New Holland tractors, while Queretaro in Mexico manufactures tractors and their components. New Holland also owns the Saskatoon plant in Canada and the Wichita plant in Kansas.
Of course, all tractors go through a quality check before being sent to dealer shops and come with their own New Holland repair manual, which is not something frequently found in other manufacturers. Of course, if you are buying an older model, the manual may have been long lost but no worries. You can easily find repair manuals online for really cheap. eManualOnline for instance sells some for a fraction of the cost of a single oil change at the dealer.
South America
Brazil and Argentina house all of New Holland’s plants in South America. Curitiba, Brazil, is New Holland`s regional headquarters and produces almost all New Holland T8 tractors sold on Latin American soil. It also serves as an R&D unit for testing different types of technology to improve the efficiency of its tractors.
Furthermore, Sorocaba and Piracicaba plants in Brazil contribute their fair share of CR combine tractors and defensor sprayers to the market. Meanwhile, Argentina’s Cordoba plant is in charge of producing tractors for its domestic market.
Numerous authorized dealers also sell and repair New Holland tractors. However, going to the dealer every time for common repairs can get quite expensive real quick. A quick trick to avoid costly repairs is to regularly inspect your vehicle using a New Holland service manual and fix it yourself using the service and troubleshooting section. Once again, NH tractors may be more reliable than most, they still need to be looked after every once in a while.
Asia
Asia is one of the largest markets for New Holland tractors, with five plants in Asia, two of which are in China.
Indeed, China and India are two of the biggest agro-based economies and have a massive demand for farming machinery. So much so, the Harbin plant in China builts tractors exclusively for the Chinese market. However, the Shanghai plant produces tractors for the local market as well as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
India’s New Delhi plant manufactures tractors and components to meet domestic demand and has already produced over 500,000 units. Apart from that, India-made New Holland tractors are also exported to over 50 countries.
New Holland also has several joint ventures. For instance, the Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia, is a joint venture that builds tractors for the international and Russian markets. Meanwhile, the Tashkent plant in Uzbekistan is another manufacturing powerhouse located in Central Asia.
Europe
The Old Continent is undoubtedly New Holland’s most significant manufacturing hub. The company operates twelve production plants in Europe alone, with four of them located in Italy. Apart from its global headquarters in Turin, New Holland produces low horsepower tractors in Jesi, Lecce, and Moderna (also home to Ferrari) and exports them to European markets.
France also has its fair share of plants located in Croix and Coex. The latter is widely renowned for producing tractors and grape harvesters that are used across vineyards in Europe. New Holland’s famous T7 series tractor hails from Basildon, UK, Belgium’s Antwerp plant is the manufacturing center for the T5 auto Command CVT, and the Zedelgem plant deals with forage harvesters and low horsepower tractors.
On the other hand, Turkey’s Ankara plant is one of New Holland’s biggest cash cows. Notably, the factory has already manufactured over 600,000 tractors that have been shipped all across the globe.
Last Words
There is no doubt that New Holland is a global leader in manufacturing tractors. The company boasts production plants across the globe and is consistently pushing the standards in the agricultural machinery industry. So, buying a New Holland tractor is one of the best decisions you could ever make.
But again, buying is just the easy part. Regular repair and maintenance are an essential part of owning a New Holland tractor. Hence, make sure to inspect the tractor after each use and take down notes. A New Holland tractor manual will describe the most common problems and provide step-by-step instructions to perform the necessary repairs. Once again, if you want to keep downtimes to a minimum, go for New Holland. And to ensure maintenance costs stay on the lower side, get your hands on a good repair manual—as simple as this.
