The long and storied history of Henry Ford, the Ford Motor Company and agriculture
“I believe that Industry and Agriculture are natural partners. Agriculture suffers from lack of a market for its product. Industry suffers from a lack of employment for its surplus men. Bringing them together heals the ailments of both. I see the time coming when the farmer not only will raise raw materials for industry but will do the initial processing on his farm. He will stand on both his feet – one foot on the soil for his livelihood; the other in industry for the cash he needs. Thus he will have a double security. That is what I’m working for,” said Henry Ford.
Roots in agriculture
Henry Ford was born and raised on a family farm in Dearborn, Michigan. There are farmers in Monroe County today who can recall their father or grandfather going to farm meetings in the 1930’s at which Henry Ford told them of the benefits of raising soybeans. Henry Ford had so many farms in southeast Michigan that he could reportedly walk from Tecumseh to Dearborn without setting foot off of his property!
Henry Ford and the tractor
Ford predicted that automobiles and tractors would replace horses. The horse is a “twelve-hundred-pound hay motor of one horse power.” Henry Ford wanted “to lift the burden of farming from flesh and blood and place it on steel and motors.” He believed that the best way to realize this desire was to develop a rugged, reliable tractor that the average farmer could afford. He developed his first experimental tractor in 1907 with a copper-jacketed engine, built at 1302 Woodward Avenue in Detroit.
The decision that Ford was to build farm tractors was announced in 1915. Ford opened his Dearborn Tractor Plant on October 1, 1915, “the biggest and best equipped tractor plant in the world” at a cost of $1 million.
Tractors were built for export to England in 1916 (for use during World War I) and then introduced to American farmers in 1918. According to several well-known authorities, the Fordson tractor was responsible for revolutionizing all previous ideas of tractor design and efficiency. The Fordson was the first lightweight, mass produced tractor on the market, built at the Rouge Plant.
This interest in tractors led to a lawsuit by partners, the Dodge Brothers, John and Horace, separating formal relations with the Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford bought out their 10 percent interest for $4 million. For organizational reasons, the Fordson tractor was originally manufactured by a separate company - Henry Ford and Son. Within a few years, however, Ford Motor Company took over both manufacturing and sales. Tractors were sold directly to Ford car dealers.
Initially Ford tractors were called Fordson because the Ford moniker was taken by a small operation in Minneapolis that employed a man named Ford.
Henry Ford worked with Harry Ferguson, who developed the “Ferguson (3-point hitch) system.” They worked together for nine years, until November 1946.
In 1945 Henry Ford turned over the reins of Ford Tractor to his grandson Henry Ford II. Fordson production ended in 1964.
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Henry Ford and alternative fuels
Initially Ford built three prototype tractors, one having an engine that ran on alcohol, another on kerosene and the third ran on gasoline. These three went to Nebraska in early August 1916 to the national plowing demonstration. Tractors were purchased from Europe so Mr. Ford could see what they were developing over there. They were using gasoline, so Henry Ford decided to use that fuel in his tractors. Tractors were demonstrated at the 1915 Michigan State Fair.
Henry Ford and soybeans
Henry Ford believed that he could grow a car instead of manufacture it. He used many commodities such as cotton for upholstery, linseed and soybean oil for paint and experimented with molasses for antifreeze. The promotion and development of soybeans as an agricultural product proved to be one of Henry Ford’s greatest contributions to American agriculture. Ford scientists researched food products and industrial applications of the soybean.
Ford took pride in the various commodities he incorporated into the Model A and V-8. His success led him to plant fields of soybeans and refined the processing method. Ford’s leadership created fledgling markets and convinced sometimes-conservative farmers to embrace a new crop.
By 1933 Henry Ford was growing soybeans on 12,000 acres of his own land in Michigan. This made him the single largest soybean grower in America and the Western World.
The Ford Motor Company was also a major soybean user. October 21, 1935, Time magazine noted, “This year Ford will use soybeans from 61,500 acres.” That year a bushel of soybeans was used in the manufacture of every Ford car.
Time magazine, October 12, 1936, noted that in 1935 soybeans had put $35 million into the pockets of US farmers, outranking in value rye and barley. Soybean trading had grown so active that the Chicago Board of Trade had just started trading soybean futures. But their greatest praise was reserved for Ford: the number one soybean man in the US.
Henry Ford foresaw the new soybean oilseed crop as a means of rescuing the farmers from their unhappy plight and thus perhaps enriching American agriculture.
In 1938 at a huge meeting in his Dearborn plant, he wore a handsome suit made entirely of soybeans, at a whispered cost of $40,000 in scientific research.
On August 17, 1934, at a Century of Progress Exposition at the World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois, an entire five-course soybean banquet was served in which every dish was made wholly or in part from soybeans. Items included soybean cheese on celery, soybean soup, soybean salad, soybean cake, soybean croquettes (instead of the usual roast), soybean apple pie and soybean coffee.
Three hundred varieties of soybeans were planted on 8,000 acres of Ford farmland in the area where the company’s World Headquarters, Research and Engineering Center and Ford Motor Land Development Corporation’s Fairlane Town Center now stand in Dearborn.
Ford Motor Company and agricultural plastics
Mr. Ford thought that agricultural plastics might become his most significant contribution to society. He and researcher Robert Boyer eventually manufactured a car with a body consisting of many soy-plastic toppings.
The most famous and dramatic demonstration was on November 2, 1940, when Henry Ford swung an axe to show the toughness of a deck lid fashioned from a plastic material made largely from farm products. Within a year Ford Motor company researchers completed the world’s first experimental plastic automobile body.
Automobile production: Industry and agriculture
By 1941, every one million V-8 Fords used 69 million pounds of cotton, three million pounds of wool, 350,000 pounds of goat hair, two million gallons of molasses, two million pounds of linseed, 500,000 bushels of corn plus acres of soybeans.
The only original building at Greenfield Village (at The Henry Ford) is the 1930 three-story laboratory where George Boyer directed the work of 30 researchers who worked on a “vegetable of the month.” After December 1931 the work focused on soybeans.
Ford Motor Company and connection to county agricultural agents
The 1960 First Annual Ford Almanac Farm Efficiency Awards. Ford Motor Company honors twelve of the nation’s outstanding farmers for sound management practices. On February 15, 1960, in Dearborn, Henry Ford II, president, Ford Motor Company, personally awarded plaques at the first Ford Almanac Farm Efficiency Award banquet. Winners were from Wisconsin, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Iowa, Nebraska, Georgia, California and Kansas. Included in the group was Carl E. Rose, Fayetteville, Arkansas, President of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA). Vice President Richard M. Nixon also met with the group, as well as True D. Morse, under secretary of agriculture. Among the 200 agricultural and business leaders at the banquet were Dr. Thomas A. Cowden, Dean of the College of Agriculture at Michigan State University, Dr. M.P. Ralston, director of Extension at Michigan State University, Dr. Lawrence L. Boger, director of agricultural economics at Michigan State University and Director C.M. Ferguson at Federal Extension Service, Washington.
“Farmers and consumers are greatly indebted to industries such as the Ford Motor Company for the part they have played in the tremendous progress in agriculture. All 180 million Americans have benefited – as indeed have people in all parts of the world.” That is an excerpt of comments by True D. Morse, U.S. under secretary of agriculture speaking at the Ford Almanac Farm Efficiency Awards banquet on February 15, 1960.
Ford publications serve all American farmers. Supplementing the Ford Almanac are “Ford Guide to High Dollar Farming,” “Farm Management Digest,” “Ford Farming” and the newsletter “High Dollar Farming” for county extension agents and Vo-Ag instructors. These publications are evidence of Ford’s continuing interest in efficient management in American farming. Copies may be obtained through Ford dealers everywhere.
This is a very brief history of Henry Ford, the Ford Motor Company and agriculture. Although this summary deals only with the historical relationship, developments with agricultural products continue to date.
As prices for petroleum-based products continue to rise, the automobile industry seeks alternatives for plastics, foams and structural parts. Leading the way is Ford Motor Company’s soy-based flexible foams research.
One example of the current use of agriculture is the use of soy foam, part of a three-area project at Ford that includes the use of natural fibers for composite body parts and biobased resins for other applications. In 2003, Ford unveiled the Model U concept vehicle containing soy-based seats.
Soy foam must pass a rigid testing and inspection process before it is usable in vehicles. To meet these requirements, researchers are testing various blends of soy and petroleum. In the past, the biggest concern among manufacturers was the odor associated with soy foam. Recently, Ford overcame that obstacle and plans to move testing to the next phase.
July 8, 2007, Ford Motor Company announced that soy-based foam was going to be used in the seating of the Ford Mustang automobile. It has since been used in Ford F-150 trucks and other vehicles. Ford Motor Co. has since licensed this technology to Deere & Co. and Sears Manufacturing Co.
Ford tidbits
The Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn has a 10-acre “living” roof. This newer plant assembles the Ford F-150 pickup truck and is popular for tours. The green sedum material helps cool the assembly plant, acts as environmental storm water retention and is projected to prolong the life of the roof. There are also bioremediation ponds and meadows planted with native grasses, prairie and wetland plants at this facility.
Did you know that Bill Ford, Jr., great grandson of Henry Ford and Chairman of the Board of the Ford Motor Company, likes to see sunflower growing on the property of the Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn? A local farmer has been contracted to plant sunflowers on several acres around this and other Ford buildings.
One of the Ford Farms, Cherry Hill Farm, currently is 896 acres and has a barn in which Henry Ford used to have square dancing on the parquet second floor. This barn is so large that it has held 19,000 bales of hay and straw. Ford Land recently spent $100,000 “restoring” the roofs of this and two adjacent barns, a granary still used today and a smaller horse barn.
Carhartt has its world headquarters just behind the Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Carhartt started by manufacturing rugged car seats for Ford vehicles. An original seat, in an original vehicle is on display at their office.
Henry Ford had many small parts factories located in small towns in southeast Michigan. Most of these used dams and hydro power to help run these factories.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company flew a blimp around a Henry Ford farm on August 6, 2012, to announce they will be using soybeans in the manufacture of tires.
Ned Birkey is the Michigan State University Extension agriculture and natural resources educator for Monroe, Wayne, Washtenaw and Lenawee Counties. Thanks to Jim McCabe, chief collections manager and curator of buildings of the Henry Ford. Thanks also to the staff at the Benson Ford Research Center for their help with this very brief summary.