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Winning
the Prairie Gamble 
Training
CoursesFull Power All the Time!
First in the Field with NEW and REVOLUTIONARY “Live” Power Take-Off
By Collections Curator Ruth Bitner
December 2007
Cockshutt sales brochure, WDM
George Shepherd Library
Cockshutt Plow Company began in the late 1870s at Brantford,
Ontario. During the early 20th century, the company was best
known for its plows. Many a prairie farmer broke his quarter
section with a Cockshutt plow.
Cockshutt got into the tractor business in the mid-1920s selling
models made by others. During the early years of the Second
World War, Cockshutt investigated new arrangements with several
companies, including Ford, Minneapolis-Moline and J.I. Case,
however none was interested in a deal for dual distribution or
private labelling.1 No agreement was possible
either with these companies or with Oliver with whom it had had
previous arrangements. So Cockshutt decided to go it alone with
a new tractor of its own design.
Cockshutt shopped around for component parts, testing products
made by well-known builders. It eventually settled on a
Buda-made engine and a Wisconsin transmission. As William
Cockshutt remarked in his book, “You don’t just walk in, take a
transmission off the shelf, bolt it to your engine and go to the
field.”2 Endless calculations and testing were
carried out to ensure a successful match between engine and
transmission.
The concept of a “power take-off which would continue running
when the forward motion of the tractor stopped”3
was put forward by the designers. Live power take-off “... picks
off power from the flywheel instead of going through the ground
drive clutch and its driven shafts”4 making it
independent from the tractor transmission. This means that as
long as the tractor engine is running and the separate clutch
engaged, there is power for the implement being operated. Older
style power take-offs generally provided power only when the
tractor was moving forward.
The people at Wisconsin took up the idea, and together with
Cockshutt engineers, built the first tractor equipped with live
power take-off. Five prototype tractors were built and subjected
to rigorous testing–one of them was tested in Saskatchewan.
Cockshutt also challenged its designers to come up with a
modern, new look for its first tractor, a look that could be
carried through to other tractors in the series that was planned
to follow. The distinctive styling of its “round nose” or the
“smooth-styled” design was the result.
Production began late in1946 with testing at the Nebraska
laboratory in the spring of 1947. The Cockshutt 30 was the first
Canadian-built tractor to be tested there.5 The
new live power take-off took the industry by storm. Other
companies scrambled to copy this revolutionary feature and
before along, nearly all tractor manufacturers offered some type
of live power take-off.
The Cockshutt 30 sold for about $1750 US in 1947.
The Western Development Museum collection boasts a 1948
Cockshutt 30. The Braun brothers–Cornelius, John and Chris of
Drake, Saskatchewan–bought it second-hand in 1959. It was
restored by Western Development Museum staff for the new
Winning the Prairie Gamble exhibit
in the Saskatoon WDM. The Cockshutt 30 is featured in the 1950s
section.
End Notes:
1. Cockshutt, William H.; About Cockshutt, Driveline Publishing, Yellow
Springs, OH, 2004
2. Ibid, p. 96
3. Ibid p. 96
4. Cockshutt, Live Power Take-Off, Full Power all the Time, (WDM
George Shepherd Library, Cockshutt, XI.19)
5. Ibid p. 97
WDM's Cockshutt 30 tractor, Saskatoon
WDM Photo
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