This chapter from Jon Kinzenbaw’s book, Fifty Years of Disruptive Innovation, shares his story behind John Deere’s effort to squeeze Kinze Manufacturing out of the planter building business.
In 1975, a farmer from southern Iowa stopped by my shop and commented that somebody should figure out how to fold a big planter horizontally to make it easy to move from field to field. At that time, twelve-row planters were being introduced, but they folded upward, which resulted in seed and insecticide being spilled from their hoppers.
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