Pioneer Equipment Co. history

In 1946 the company name changed again, to RED-E Tractor Co.

They bought out another Milwaukee maker of small tractors, Page Dairy and Farm Equipment Co., in or before 1949; the two companies apparently had ties going back several years before that.

RED-E Tractor Company, owners manual, 1955

In 1963, the highly influential MN and SD associations agreed to merge their efforts, forming the Retail Farm Equipment Association for Minnesota and South Dakota, later known as the Minnesota-South Dakota Equipment Dealers Association.

The Wengerd family started building horse-drawn plows in the summer of 1976.

The first run of plows was sold in the spring of 1977; twenty-five Walking Plows and twenty-five Sulky Plows.

Spring and spike tooth harrows were some of the first products added to Wengerd’s equipment line, and the first steel wheel was made in March of 1983.

In 1986 a corporation was formed and the business name was changed to Pioneer Equipment Inc. and now more recently to Pioneer Corp.

New product lines and additional employees created a need for more elbow room.In October of 1992 the Wengerd family purchased a 57-acre farm 1-1/2 miles away where the the business now resides.

A new 145’ x 200’ steel framed shop was built in 1994.

When Henry passed the farm on to the next generation, he worked in the business full time until a few months before his passing in March of 2007.Wayne hired his first full time employee, Emery Yoder, in the summer of ’79.