These two programmes are a tribute to the Massey Ferguson combine harvester, charting its history from 1847 right up to the present day. Using the magic of original archive footage shot when the machines were brand new we travel back in time to see how Massey Harris progressed from the self-tying binder to the reaper-thresher - the forerunner of the combine harvester. The Massey Harris 20SP was the first self-propelled combine and its successor the 21SP went on to become the worlds first successful self-propelled machine and we see how it participated in the famous Harvest Brigade of 1944 which saw the beginning of custom harvesting in the USA. Massey Harris developed the self-propelled design over the years resulting in the popular 780 model that was built in Scotland for the European market and was also sold under the Massey Ferguson name after 1957. In the 1960s the 400 and 500 Series became the best selling combines both in the USA and in Europe and Massey Ferguson followed this success with the first ever 'super' combine - the huge 760 which soon became the custom cutters combine of choice.

RUNNING TIME: 70MINS APPROX.

Improved designs in Europe during the 1970s included the popular 525 and 625 machines and these were followed by the French built 800 Series which complemented the big 850 and 860 combines from the States. Rotary combines were becoming ever popular and so MF bought the White company with its brand new massive rotary combine that soon became available in MF colours and in Europe MF entered into an agreement with Danish combine maker Dronningborg to produce machines in MF colours. Eventually the Dronningborg expertise in electronics lead to the bigger 30 Series machines of the late 1980s and 1990s, these being the first in the industry to use GPS to field map fields as they were harvested and therefore pioneered the techniques of precision farming. The bigger and improved 7200 Series combines followed still produced at the Dronningborg factory which the new owners of MF, AGCO was later to acquire in full. In the 21st century combine manufacture in Europe has moved to the newly acquired Laverda plant in Italy while large rotary machines are still made in the USA. AGCO can proudly boast that it is one of the worlds largest combine harvester makers today with brands such as Challenger, Gleaner, Fendt and of course Massey Ferguson, but as these two DVDs show, few manufacturers can claim the amazing heritage and huge array of technical achievements that are associated with the famous red and grey machines of Massey Ferguson.

RUNNING TIME: 70MINS APPROX.