FARM WEEKLY was sent down memory lane this week with the announcement Steiger has turned 60.
Memories of Steiger Australia’s marketing drives (fly to Adelaide for a ride and buy, dazzling dinners in the Adelaide Hills), came flooding back.
But not many people know how the Steiger tractor came into being.
Sixty years ago, a pair of North American brothers on a farm near Minnesota needed a high-powered, four-wheel drive tractor for their business.
When they couldn’t find one on the market they built it themselves and the first Steiger rolled out of the shed and into the paddock.
Douglass (yes, he uses the double ‘s’) and Maurice Steiger built the first Steiger in 1957 for their own use, but the reaction from fellow farmers was immediate and in 1958 they built another for a neighbour and the Steiger dynasty was established.
The brothers went on to establish a full-scale manufacturing business called Steiger Farms and it became a sort of status symbol if you owned a green Steiger.
It didn’t matter whether it was a Bearcat, Wildcat, Cougar, Panther or Tiger, it had a Cat or Cummins engine, Allison transmission and Spicer axles and that’s all that mattered – no problems with parts and easy to service.
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The tractor division of Steiger Farms was moved to Fargo, North Dakota, in 1969 and WA farmers quickly became passionate supporters of the brand.
In 1986, Case IH bought the company and painted subsequent models red.
Today, the Steiger name lives on at the top end of the Case IH tractor range, with five models from 299 kilowatts to 447kW (400-600 horsepower), including Quadtrac and Rowtrac four-tracked row crop systems.
And it’s still making a name for itself in the history books, last year becoming the world’s first articulated tractor to offer a continuously variable transmission (CVT).
Your local Case IH dealer may have some more information on Steiger – not the history.
It’ll be a deal that will make your Christmas.
