Brooks Tractor is celebrating its 80th year in business. To mark the occasion, an open house was held at its Sun Prairie, Wis., headquarters on Sept. 25 and 27, 2025.
Long-time customers, new customers, friends and family gathered to see the newest equipment, latest technology and kick off the company's next 80 years.
In 1945, Lewis Peil Brooks and Lewis E. Kraft opened an ag equipment dealership in Sun Prairie, Wis., Brooks' hometown. The company was named Brooks & Kraft, with Brooks the majority owner after he and his wife invested $4,500.
Brooks brought to the company his experience selling farm implements. Before World War II, he had been encouraged by Louis Allis, a member of the founding family of Allis-Chalmers equipment, to work at an Allis dealership in Sun Prairie. Brooks did so for eight years before the Army called.
The post-war partnership with Kraft lasted just a year. After Kraft pulled out, "Brooks Implement" plowed ahead, first selling Ford-Ferguson tractors and then Oliver tractors — both brands highly valued in their heyday. The first construction machines sold were Oliver bulldozers, followed by Insley excavators, Lorain rough-terrain cranes and other construction brands.
"After they picked up the John Deere industrial line in the 1960s, growth was tremendous," said Lew Brooks, son of the company founder and president and CEO.
In 1983, the company completed its transition from agriculture products to construction products and was poised for growth.
Since then, Brooks Tractor has added many other equipment lines in addition to John Deere, including Atlas Copco, Bandit Industries, Bergmann, Dynapac, Etnyre, Felling Trailers, GiANT, Merlo, Rubble Master, STIHL, Thunder Creek Equipment and Wacker Neuson.
As the company grew, new locations were opened. Today, Brooks Tractor, headquartered in Sun Prairie, Wis., also has facilities in De Pere, Milwaukee, Mount Pleasant, Plover, Sparta and West Salem, Wis.
For more information, visit brookstractor.com. CEG
