Behind the Wheel: Simply the best – 75 years of mechanized sugar cane harvesting

The affection Ken Schmidt, Product Performance Manager for Case IH, has for the machine he calls “the Tina Turner of sugar cane harvesters” is at once blindingly obvious and infectious. Ken positively delights in inviting his audience to ask him the question: what does an iconic piece of agricultural machinery from the 1980s possibly have in common with the legendary Queen of Rock? All is revealed in this latest episode of our Behind the Wheel series which traces the history of sugar cane harvesting from its very beginnings to the present day:cnhindustrial.com/simplythebest_en

London, October 17, 2019

The year is 1944 and the young men of Australia, who would usually be engaged in bringing in the sugar cane harvest by hand, have been called elsewhere. Happily for the population of Australia, the Toft brothers take the famous words of Plato, “necessity is the mother of all invention”, to heart and invent the world’s first mechanized sugar cane harvester. And the rest, as they say, is history.

2019 marks the 75th anniversary of the first Australian built mechanized sugar cane harvester. The Toft brother’s invention revolutionized the industry and improved the working conditions of the thousands of workers who previously carried out the back breaking work of cutting sugar cane by hand. By the 1970s, Toft Bros was one of the most significant manufacturers of cane harvesters in the world. In 1986 the company rebranded as Austoft, and in 1996 was acquired by Case IH, today a global agricultural machinery brand of CNH Industrial (NYSE: CNHI /MI: CNHI). The film includes some spectacular aerial footage of the latest Case IH Austoft machines at work in Brazil, where they are now manufactured, and from where they are exported across the globe.

This Behind the Wheel webisode provides a snapshot of the history of sugar cane harvesting mechanization and pays tribute to the pioneering Toft brothers and their ingenious invention though the use of archive footage, photographs and interviews with past and present employees.

Watch it now at: cnhindustrial.com/simplythebest_en

CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI /MI: CNHI) is a global leader in the capital goods sector with established industrial experience, a wide range of products and a worldwide presence. Each of the individual brands belonging to the Company is a major international force in its specific industrial sector: Case IH, New Holland Agriculture and Steyr for tractors and agricultural machinery; Case and New Holland Construction for earth moving equipment; Iveco for commercial vehicles; Iveco Bus and Heuliez Bus for buses and coaches; Iveco Astra for quarry and construction vehicles; Magirus for firefighting vehicles; Iveco Defence Vehicles for defence and civil protection; and FPT Industrial for engines and transmissions. More information can be found on the corporate website: www.cnhindustrial.com

Sign up for corporate news alerts from the CNH Industrial Newsroom: bit.ly/media-cnhindustrial-subscribe

Media contact:

Laura Overall Corporate Communications ManagerCNH Industrial Tel. +44 (0)2077 660 338 E-mail: mediarelations@cnhind.com www.cnhindustrial.com

Attachments