40 Years of innovation

• In 2024, Horsch Maschinen GmbH celebrates its 40th anniversary. Since its foundation in 1984, the company has developed into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of agricultural machinery and state-of-the-art solutions for the sectors tillage, seeding and crop care. Constant innovation and the consistent focus on the customer are integral parts of the company philosophy and the key to success

In 1984, the company was founded in Sitzenhof near Schwandorf where the company’s headquarters are still based. Michael Horsch’s first developments, however, date back even further. Based on his vision of farming without a plough and the requirement for the appropriate machines, he developed the Seed-Exactor, a machine for direct seeding under straw. This innovation paved the way for the foundation of the Horsch Maschinen GmbH.

An important milestone in the history of the still young company was the Fall of the Wall in 1989/90 and the resulting opening of the eastern countries which allowed for approaching larger farms with a great demand for Horsch technology. In the 2000s, Horsch intensively dealt with site-specific tillage and with the Terrano, the Tiger and the Pronto launched three important product lines in the sectors tillage and seeding which are still continuously developed further.

The foundation of the Horsch Leeb Application Systems GmbH in 2011 completed the product range with crop care technology. The first joint projects of the companies Horsch and Leeb, however, date back to the late 1990s when the first prototype of a self-propelled sprayer was developed.

With the pneumatic fertiliser spreader Leeb Xeric, Horsch entered the sector of fertilisation technology to further intensify the topic of plant nutrition.

In the past years, the focus was on the extension of the product range and on diversification to provide solutions for the varied requirements of farming all over the world. Horsch particularly focused on internationalisation and the development of new markets. The result was a worldwide growth of all sectors. In addition to the development and construction of a site in Brazil with an own production line, significant investments were also made at all sites in Europe. In the past five years, the number of employees doubled to almost 3,300 all over the world.

In view of increasing weather extremes and climatic changes, precision turned out to be one of the central future topics. Horsch has been focussing on this aspect for many years and

in the future, it is to be optimised continuously across all sectors. One tool in this respect is digitalisation the advantages and potentials of which will play an even more important role in the company. From a global point of view, autonomic driving projects will become more and more important. The development and the implementation of these technologies are intensively pushed in some markets.

The close contact to the customer and the intensive exchange has been characterising Horsch since its foundation. Thus, one of the big objectives is to be even closer to the customers, understand them better and to always develop new, innovative solutions.

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