Booth Machinery Sales

The founder of Booth Machinery, Dick Booth, received the contract to sell Minneapolis Moline tractors in December, 1965. Dick had previously worked in artificial insemination for cattle and dairy operations in the surrounding area, but decided to venture into machinery sales when the amount of cattle in the area began to dwindle. In the beginning, Booth Machinery was staffed by only Dick and his four boys - Dan, Gary, Kenny, and Rick. Of course all of his boys were still in school, so he was a one man operation while school was in session. Around 1970, the Oliver line was picked up with Moline after two other local dealers went out of business. Booth Machinery then became a New Holland dealer around 1973, about the same time they hired their first non-Booth mechanic, Brad Kenny. In 1975, Minneapolis Moline and Oliver was folded into White Farm Equipment (WFE) and Booth Machinery began selling silver tractors as opposed to prairie gold or green tractors. Also in 1975, the New Holland Twin Rotor combines were released and Booth Machinery began to push them over the White combines they had previously sold. During the early eighties, while there was a recession and WFE was having economic issues, Booth Machinery became a Kubota dealer. Kubota allowed Booth Machinery to sell more compact tractors and not only rely on row crop and hay equipment. In 1986, New Holland was purchased by Ford and we began to sell Ford tractors as well as New Holland equipment. Around the same time, after WFE had gone through multiple bankruptcies and ownerships, Booth Machinery dropped the WFE contract. In 1991, Ford sold Ford-New Holland to Fiat and the Ford name was removed from the tractors to make it just New Holland, leaving our two main equipment lines as New Holland and Kubota. 2015 marks the beginning of our 50th year in business. We are still family owned, family staffed and have no intention of changing. However, we do have a major hole in the business since founder, dad and grandpa Dick Booth went to be with the Lord last April. We all miss him and plan to honor his memory by carrying on for another 50.