Jean Francois Millet  “The Gleaners”

GLEANER Heritage

Back in 1857, when Jean Francois Millet painted “The Gleaners”, which depicted three women gathering grain that had been left in the field by the reapers, he surely never dreamed that the name of his painting would live on through to the 21st century on the side of a combine.

Inspired by the painting, the Baldwin brothers chose the GLEANER trademark to exemplify their new radically designed harvesting machine.

The GLEANER combine tradition dates back to 1923 with the development of the first self-propelled combine by the Baldwin brothers of Kansas. While others were upgrading the now defunct threshing machine, the Baldwin brothers developed the first self-propelled harvester that incorporated reaping, binding and threshing all into one machine. This totally new innovation in combine design marked the beginning of one of the greatest success stories in mechanised farming history.

The Baldwin’s GLEANER combine introduced several “firsts,” including an auger that replaced canvas drapers, a rasp bar threshing cylinder instead of a spike-tooth arrangement, and a down-front cylinder that put threshing closer to the crop. It also introduced the use of galvanised sheet metal and the name “GLEANER” – two trademarks that have remained unchanged for over three-quarters of a century.

In 1955 the Gleaner Harvesting Corporation was acquired by the Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company, and over the coming years, Allis-Chalmers led the company in the production of numerous new models, as well as wealth of new technology.

One of the biggest changes came in 1979, when a new concept to harvesting was introduced – the GLEANER rotary combine. The first model to be released was the N6, which carried grain fronts up to 30 feet. It was soon followed by the N5 and the N7, the largest combine of its day.

In 1985, the Allis-Chalmers Corporation was purchased by Kloeckner-Humboldt-Deutz of West Germany and renamed Deutz-Allis. Six years later, AGCO Corporation was formed. 

Today’s Gleaners are renowned for both their exceptional ruggedness and their high productivity, especially in typical harvesting conditions experienced in much of Australia. With features like the transverse rotor which provides a “natural flow” of material from front to rear, the patented accelerator rolls to accelerate the flow of grain through an air blast at four times natural gravity, the 4 speed transmission which suits Australia’s harvesting so well, and the two year unlimited hour warranty, the Gleaner lives up to this well deserved reputation.

And through all the changes since 1923, the one greatest continuos feature has been the GLEANER name proudly printed on the side…a name borrowed from a painting over three three-quarters of a century ago.