MOWER CENTRAL

Grass and cereal crops have been cut by hand with scythes since time immemorial, but by the early 19th century the race was on for manufacturers to design the perfect labour-saving device for mowing.

First cut

The first mechanised mowers appeared not in our farm fields, but in our parks, gardens, and sports fields. Edwin Beard Budding was granted a British patent for his newly invented lawn mower in 1830, and over the next few decades, the agricultural sector gradually embraced mower technology.

Cyrus McCormick designed one of the first successful horse-drawn mowers. This device moved away from the idea of a scythe-like blade and instead featured teeth that moved back and forwards horizontally, a movement created by the rotating of a wheel. Initially, McCormick’s machine had the horses positioned behind the mower. His next design placed the horses alongside the machine, and it was some time before designs that placed the horse in front of the mower became the norm.

By 1885, William Deering had entered the harvesting business too, and he and McCormick joined forces, along with other companies, to form the International Harvester Co in 1902.