The United States imported approximately 134,000 agricultural tractors in 2024, worth roughly $5 billion, with South Korea, Japan, and India supplying 71% of those units. Even brands assembling tractors on US soil source engines from Finland and France, transmissions from Germany, and hydraulic systems from overseas suppliers. The tractor industry doesn’t have a domestic supply chain the way some manufacturing categories do. We researched every brand with meaningful US assembly operations, which model lines qualify, and what “assembled in the USA” actually represents in this category.
The Parent Company Landscape
The US tractor market is divided into three major corporate groups, and understanding the ownership map helps make sense of the makeup of the tractor industry. Deere & Company, headquartered in Moline, Illinois, operates independently under the John Deere brand. CNH Industrial, formed through the 1999 merger of Case Corporation and New Holland N.V., now headquartered in the United Kingdom, owns both Case IH and New Holland Agriculture, with those two brands sharing assembly facilities in Racine, Wisconsin, and Fargo, North Dakota. AGCO Corporation, headquartered in Duluth, Georgia, owns Massey Ferguson, Fendt, and the now-discontinued Challenger brand, all of which have had assembly operations at AGCO’s Jackson, Minnesota, plant. Kubota and the three independent American manufacturers, as discussed later in this article, operate outside these groups.
Tractor Brands With US Assembly Operations
John Deere
John Deere is the most vertically integrated of the major tractor brands for US manufacturing. The company assembles its large-frame 7R, 8R, and 9R row-crop and articulated tractors at its Waterloo, Iowa, factory, the same facility Deere acquired in 1918 when it purchased the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company. Waterloo also manufactures Deere’s own diesel engines for those models, making John Deere unusual in this category: most US-assembled tractors use powertrains imported from Europe or Asia. Mid-range 6M and 6R series tractors are assembled at a plant in Augusta, Georgia, and compact utility models come from Horicon, Wisconsin.
Not all John Deere models qualify, though. The company produces tractors in Mexico, India, and elsewhere for certain lines. When you’re researching a specific purchase with domestic assembly in mind, the model series matters more than the brand name.
CNH Industrial Brands
CNH Industrial operates two sister brands in the US market that share the same North American assembly footprint: plants in Racine, Wisconsin, and Fargo, North Dakota.
Case IH
Case IH’s manufacturing roots in Racine date back to 1842, when Jerome Increase Case founded the Racine Threshing Machine Works. Today, the company assembles its Magnum series tractors at the Racine plant and its Steiger articulated four-wheel-drive tractors in Fargo, North Dakota. Those are the US-assembled lines. The Maxxum series and several other Case IH models are built outside the United States, primarily in Europe.
New Holland Agriculture
New Holland Agriculture assembles two high-horsepower tractor ranges domestically: the T9 articulated four-wheel-drive line, which tops out at 700 horsepower, in Fargo; and the T8 Genesis row-crop range in Racine. Those are the same two plants Case IH uses, reflecting how CNH Industrial runs both brands through a shared North American manufacturing infrastructure. As with Case IH, domestic assembly applies to specific high-horsepower model lines, not the full catalog.
AGCO Brands
AGCO Corporation’s primary North American tractor assembly operation is in Jackson, Minnesota, expanded by 75,000 square feet in 2012. Massey Ferguson and Fendt both assemble model lines there. Challenger, a third AGCO brand with history at the Jackson plant, is covered in its own section below.
Massey Ferguson
Massey Ferguson 7700 and 8700 series high-horsepower tractors are assembled at Jackson, Minnesota, for the North American market. Formed in 1953 through the merger of Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the UK, and acquired by AGCO in 1994, the brand has a broad global manufacturing footprint: most of its lineup is built in Beauvais, France; Canoas and Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil; and Changzhou, China. Jackson handles the North American high-horsepower segment only.
The powertrain breakdown is worth knowing. The engines powering those Massey Ferguson tractors come from AGCO Power’s factory in Linnavuori, Finland. Transmissions are assembled in Germany. “Assembled in Minnesota” is the accurate claim — “made in the USA” is not.
Fendt
Fendt is a German brand at its core, founded in Marktoberdorf, Bavaria, in 1930 and acquired by AGCO in 1997, with the Marktoberdorf factory retained as a condition of the deal. Its full tractor lineup, spanning 70 to 673 horsepower, is produced primarily in Germany. The US connection is specific: since 2018, AGCO has assembled two Fendt track tractor model lines at the Jackson, Minnesota plant, the 900 Vario MT Series and the 1100 Vario MT Series. Fendt’s Jackson-built track tractors source around 90% of their components from suppliers across 31 US states. That 90% domestic component figure stands out in a category where even domestic assembly plants typically run foreign powertrains. Fendt is still a German brand, but if you’re specifically shopping high-horsepower track tractors, the Jackson-assembled models represent one of the stronger domestic manufacturing stories on this list.
What About Challenger Tractors?
Challenger started in 1986, when Caterpillar introduced the Challenger 65, a rubber-tracked tractor designed to reduce soil compaction without sacrificing pulling power. AGCO acquired the brand from Caterpillar in 2002 and relocated production to Jackson, Minnesota, where Challenger tractors were assembled for more than two decades.
AGCO phased the brand out around 2024. The last documented model year was MY23. The machines didn’t disappear. The same tractors now leave the Jackson facility as Fendt 900 Vario MT and 1100 Vario MT models. Same plant, same platform, different badge. New Challenger tractors are no longer in production, but AGCO continues parts support for existing machines through its dealer network.
Kubota
Kubota is a Japanese company, founded in Osaka in 1890, with US tractor assembly operations through its subsidiary Kubota Manufacturing of America Corporation. KMA was established in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1988 and expanded to a Jefferson, Georgia, campus that now assembles the L Series tractor line, ranging from approximately 24 to 60 horsepower, along with select skid steer models. The operation employs more than 3,500 workers across the Gainesville and Jefferson facilities and produces approximately half of all Kubota-branded equipment sold in the United States. The supply chain picture is direct: L Series engines and transmissions are manufactured in Japan and shipped to Georgia for final assembly. A foreign brand with real domestic assembly, Kubota is an okay option for American assembled compact and utility tractors if you don’t mind the parent company being Japanese-owned. The engines and transmissions are Japanese, which is a given.
Independent American Manufacturers
These three brands are different from the major OEMs above. They’re small, US-based companies building tractors for niche markets (articulated utility, specialty crop, and compact utility) without the global supply chain complexity of the corporate brands. None can claim 100% US-manufactured components (no tractor can), but they represent the closest thing this category has to genuinely American-made machines.
Power Trac
Power Trac has been building articulated utility tractors in North Tazewell, Virginia, since 1984, with the management team’s engineering background in heavy mining equipment going back to 1977. The company dropped its dealer network in 1998 and shifted to factory-direct sales, meaning you buy directly from the people who made the machine. The core design uses an articulating chassis that accepts interchangeable attachments, allowing one machine to handle multiple tasks. All production remains at the original North Tazewell facility.
Tilmor
Tilmor builds tractors and implements for small and mid-scale specialty crop and vegetable growers from its facility in Dalton, Ohio, a market the major OEMs have largely left to themselves. The family-owned company draws on more than 50 years of experience in agricultural equipment, pivoting to the small-grower segment in 2012. Its 520 tractor and Super E electric cultivating tractor are both designed and assembled in the United States. Some implements in the Tilmor lineup come from partner manufacturers, so if full domestic sourcing is the priority, it’s worth asking specifically about the tractor lines when you reach out.
Tuff-Bilt
Tuff-Bilt builds compact utility tractors in Walthill, Nebraska, from an ISO 9001-certified manufacturing facility. The brand’s design lineage goes back to 1974, when Bud Thomas of Cumming, Georgia, built the original machine under the Thomas-Bilt name. Production resumed in 2007 after engineering updates modernized the design, and the current Walthill operation was established in 2016. Rita Dunn has been the sole owner since 2021.
The Reality of Tractor Manufacturing
Why a 100% US-Made Tractor Doesn’t Exist
Tractors are among the most globally integrated manufactured products you’ll find. The import data makes this concrete: the US imported approximately $5 billion worth of agricultural tractors in 2024, with South Korea, Japan, and India supplying 71% of the units. That’s finished machines. The components flowing into the ones assembled here tell the same story.
Engines are the clearest example. FPT Industrial, the captive engine supplier for CNH brands like Case IH and New Holland, manufactures at plants in Bourbon-Lancy, France, and Turin and Foggia, Italy. AGCO Power, which supplies Massey Ferguson and Fendt tractors, runs production at Linnavuori, Finland. Perkins, which powers tractors across multiple brands, builds its engines in Peterborough, England, and claims one in five tractors worldwide runs a Perkins engine. John Deere manufactures its own diesel engines at the Waterloo, Iowa, facility for its large row-crop models. That last point is the exception in this category, not the rule.
Transmissions follow the same pattern. ZF Friedrichshafen, whose TERRAMATIC CVT series covers tractors from 65 to 450 horsepower, builds those systems in Passau, Germany, where the company’s first tractor transmission came off the line in 1946. The high-horsepower Massey Ferguson and Fendt tractors assembled in Jackson, Minnesota, run transmissions built in Marktoberdorf, Germany. The tariff bills put a dollar figure on the amount of foreign content that flows into the US assembly: Deere & Co. absorbed approximately $600 million in tariff costs in 2025 alone. AGCO projected up to $110 million in tariff exposure for 2026.
So, unfortunately, sourcing a tractor with 100% US-manufactured components isn’t a really practical goal. The industry just isn’t structured for it.
What “Assembled in the USA” Actually Means for Tractors
The FTC permits an “Assembled in USA” claim when final assembly occurs on US soil and represents a substantial transformation, with no minimum threshold for the amount of the product’s value that must come from domestic components. In practice, that means the Massey Ferguson tractors coming out of Jackson, Minnesota, meet the “assembled in USA” standard, while their engines come from Finland and their transmissions from Germany.
What US assembly facilities actually do: final tractor assembly, cab installation, electronics integration, testing, and quality inspection. Those are real manufacturing operations, not just stickering imported units. But the powertrain components (the most complex and expensive parts of the machine) are typically manufactured overseas before arriving at the US plant.
So, at the very least, “assembled in the USA” means domestic jobs, domestic facility investment, and some level of domestic supply chain activity. It doesn’t mean the tractor was built from American-made parts, but it’s obviously still worth supporting if you’re going to buy a tractor anyway.
How to Research a Specific Model
US assembly applies to specific model lines within a brand’s lineup, not the brand as a whole. John Deere assembles its 7R, 8R, and 9R tractors in Waterloo but produces other lines in Mexico and India. Case IH assembles its Magnum and Steiger series domestically, but not its Maxxum series. The brand name on the hood doesn’t tell you where the tractor was assembled. The model series does.
A few ways to verify before you buy:
- Check the brand’s product page for that model series. Brands with US assembly almost always call it out, since it’s a selling point.
- Ask the dealer directly: “Where is this specific model assembled?” and “Where are the engine and transmission sourced?” A straight, specific answer is a good sign.
- For a full breakdown of how the FTC’s manufacturing standards work and what assembly and origin claims actually cover, read our guide to US manufacturing labels and how to verify them.
Tractor Brands Not Assembled in the USA
These are some of the most recognized tractor brands sold in the US market, all manufactured entirely outside the United States.
- CLAAS — manufactured in Le Mans, France (most models) and Harsewinkel, Germany (XERION series)
- Kioti — mostly manufactured in Korea
- Deutz-Fahr — manufactured in Lauingen, Germany (large tractors); Treviglio, Italy, and Bandirma, Turkey (smaller models)
- Valtra — manufactured in Suolahti, Finland; an AGCO brand with no US assembly operations
- LS Tractor — manufactured in Jeonju, South Korea
- Landini — manufactured in Fabbrico, San Martino in Rio, and Luzzara, Italy
- McCormick — manufactured in Fabbrico, Italy
