Recently the Norwegian ambassador to Ireland, Aslak Brun, paid a visit to the Kverneland Group’s headquarters in Kilkenny, during which the ambassador participated in a presentation on Kverneland’s history.
The company was keen to promote its innovative contributions to modern agriculture and its role in supporting farmers across Ireland. He then toured the facilities, viewing the company’s machinery and operations first-hand.
There should be no surprise that he should be willing to do so, for the company is one of the few farm machinery manufacturers in Norway and Ireland has a large agricultural community, one which appreciates the company’s ploughs.
Nowadays, we know Kverneland as the moniker on Ireland’s most popular plough range with the associated cultivation implements and forage machinery.
However, there is more behind the name than may be assumed for although it has become a worldwide brand, it is also the name of region in Norway as well as being the name of the founders.
The Kverneland family has its roots in this area of Norway which lies to the south of the country and close to the western coast, but whether the family took its name from the area or vice versa is not known.
Enterprising family
The family were both farmers and blacksmiths. The father figure was Gabriel Olsen Kverneland who was was born in 1807, and there were two sons who were recognised as skilled and enterprising sons.
The eldest son was Ole Gabriel Kverneland (1854 – 1941) who founded the Kverneland Group , and Tønnes G. Kverneland (1857 – 1950) who ran the family farm, and also went on to create an engineering company now known as TKS Agri.
It was Ole Gabriel Kverneland who established the factory, Kverneland Fabrikk, in 1879 after extensive travels in the Nordic Region, including a visit to Eskilstuna, the hot house of Swedish industry at the time, where Munktell’s, forerunner of Volvo Construction, were based.
While these two enterprises become significant in the sphere of Norwegian agricultural machinery, it is noticeable that as a whole, and certainly compared with its Nordic neighbours, Sweden and Finland, the country did not produce a sizeable manufacturing base for agricultural implements.
There was, for instance, no production of tractors and besides the two Kverneland enterprises, it is only Underhaug which is widely-known outside of Norway as being involved in machinery production.
The junior Kverneland
The second Kverneland company is now known as TKS and was started by the younger brother who handed it on to his son, Trygve.
The company was making basic farm tools until 1952 when an influx of cheaper foreign products forced him to diversify, and so was created his first hay blower.
Since then, the company has produced a wide range of conveyors, hoists and feeding systems that are sold mainly in the Nordic countries, Netherlands and Germany.