NEW IDEA Farm Equipment Dismantled Machines

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The founding of New Idea in 1889 and its subsequent success are tied to the modern widespread manure spreader, which Joseph Oppenheim is credited with inventing. John Kramer, however, had previously patented a manure unloading machine but also borrowed $1,000 from Oppenheim after his shop burned down in 1896. Unable to repay Oppenheim, Kramer signed his patent over. Oppenheim would eventually apply a “new idea” to the design by adding paddles that spread the manure wide, thus saving farmers considerable work.

The spreader led Oppenheim to found New Idea Spreader Works, the company he headed until his death in 1901. His son Ben and son-in-law Henry Synck then took control, eventually introducing corn pickers and shellers, elevators, rakes, hay loaders, mowers, wagons, and transplanters. In 1945, they sold New Idea to Avco, which operated as Avco New Idea before Allied Products bought the company in 1984 and restored the New Idea name.

After acquiring White Farm Equipment’s tractor production in 1985, Allied combined it with New Idea to create White-New Idea. By 1993, AGCO, owner of the Massey Ferguson, Challenger, and Sunflower brands, acquired the entire White-New Idea product line but discontinued it in the mid-2000s. Today, used New Idea-branded pickers, mowers, manure spreaders, shellers, and other products are still available.