John Deere
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50 free John Deere trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Few brand names are as tied to the land as John Deere. What began in the 1830s as one craftsman's answer to a stubborn farming problem grew into a maker of tractors, combines and construction machines known on every continent, with a paint scheme and a leaping-deer badge that people recognise at a glance. This quiz covers the whole story: the founder's early life and the plow that made his name, the family who built the business, the tractors collectors still chase, and the factories, takeovers and technology behind the modern company. There are also questions on the headquarters, the song and the tournament that carry the name. It is written for farm families, tractor-show regulars, collectors and anyone who grew up around green machines. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will finish knowing more than when you started.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01John Deere's farm machines are known worldwide for green paint paired with which second signature color?
Yellow
Yellow joins green on the farm machines, while the leaping-deer badge on the company's construction equipment swaps the green for black.
Q 02In the best-known account, John Deere shaped his 1837 plow from which discarded piece of Scottish steel?
A saw blade
A saw blade gave Deere ready-polished steel to work with; his shop turned out about 100 plows in 1842 and around 400 the following year.
Q 03When Russian troops took John Deere machines from Ukrainian dealers in 2022, what did the dealers reportedly do?
Locked them remotely
The dealers locked them remotely, leaving the stolen equipment useless once it reached Russia. Late-model machines depend on the maker's software, which makes a remote shutdown possible.
Q 04Alongside plows, wagons and cultivators, John Deere made a few of which other product during the 1890s?
Bicycles
Bicycles were a brief sideline for the plow maker in the 1890s, though farm implements stayed the core of the business.
Q 05In the country hit John Deere Green, where does Billy Bob paint his declaration of love for Charlene?
A water tower
A water tower is his canvas, and the song ends with the heart and words still up there despite the town's attempts to paint over them.
Q 06The steel skin of John Deere's world headquarters, opened in 1964, was chosen to do what over time?
Rust on purpose
Rust on purpose is the idea behind its weathering steel, a choice that worried company engineers who had long warned farmers about the dangers of rusty machinery.
Q 07What nickname did John Deere's two-cylinder tractors earn from the distinctive sound of their engines?
Johnny Poppers
Johnny Poppers kept their two-cylinder layout for decades because the company chose to keep costs low by improving one engine rather than developing a new one.
Q 08John Deere unveiled a self-driving tractor in January 2022 at which annual event?
Consumer Electronics Show
The Consumer Electronics Show hosted the reveal of a tractor built for large-scale farming, part of the company's push to sell software-driven smart machines.
Q 09Which golfer won the 2013 John Deere Classic at age 19, the PGA Tour's first teenage winner since 1931?
Jordan Spieth
Jordan Spieth won two weeks shy of his 20th birthday, then took the same title again two years later.
Q 10Which Illinois city in the Quad Cities has been John Deere's home base since the founder moved there in 1848?
Moline
Moline drew the founder with its water power and river transport, and the company's world headquarters still stands there at One John Deere Place.
Q 11John Deere, who built his plow business in Illinois, was born in 1804 in the town of Rutland in which state?
Vermont
Vermont is where Deere learned his trade as a teenage apprentice, and he left the state for Illinois in 1836 when hard times hit his business.
Q 12Which trade did John Deere learn as a 17-year-old apprentice, years before he started making plows in Illinois?
Blacksmith
Blacksmith work made Deere a general repairman when he reached Illinois, turning out pitchforks and shovels before his plow made his name.
Q 13Under which two-letter ticker symbol do John Deere shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange?
DE
DE is the ticker of a company big enough to rank 84th on the 2022 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations.
Q 21Late in life, plow maker John Deere served two years in which elected office in his adopted Illinois hometown?
Mayor
Mayor Deere declined to run for a second term because of ill health, though he also led a local bank and sat on the public library's board.
Q 22John Deere's idea for a polished plow is said to recall polishing what for the family tailoring business?
Needles
Needles, in one telling, came out gleaming after young Deere ran them through sand, and he reasoned that an equally polished plow would slide through heavy ground.
Q 23Which son of John Deere took over the family business and led it until his death in 1907?
Charles
Charles Deere built the sales network, introducing marketing centers and independent retail dealers in 1869 to sell the firm's plows nationwide.
Q 14Which reptile-inspired name does John Deere use for its family of small utility vehicles, introduced in 1992?
Gator
Gator vehicles carry a pickup-style cargo bed, and the US Army adopted a military version in 1997 that went on to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Q 15On some older versions of John Deere's leaping deer logo, the animal is shown jumping over what?
A log
A log sat beneath the deer in some early marks; the design has been simplified over the years, with pieces removed along the way.
Q 16Which country singer recorded John Deere Green, a Dennis Linde song released as a single in November 1993?
Joe Diffie
Joe Diffie took the song to number five on the country charts as the third single from his album Honky Tonk Attitude.
Q 17John Deere's software locks on tractors made it a prime target of which campaign, backed by farm groups?
Right to repair
Right to repair was the issue behind a 2023 memorandum with the American Farm Bureau Federation, in which the company agreed to let farmers and independent shops buy access to its software and manuals.
Q 18Which popular tractor brand did John Deere acquire in 1918 by buying an Iowa gasoline engine company?
Waterloo Boy
Waterloo Boy tractors had the best performance in field tests, which settled the purchase, and they kept that name until a new John Deere model replaced them in 1923.
Q 19Besides military tractors and tank transmissions, which unusual item did John Deere make during World War II?
Mobile laundry units
Mobile laundry units joined aircraft parts and ammunition on its wartime list, while its transmissions went into the M3 tank.
Q 20In which northern Illinois village on the Rock River did John Deere open his first plow-making workshop in 1837?
Grand Detour
Grand Detour still preserves his 1836 house for visitors, with a replica workshop built where archaeologists located the original in the 1960s.
Q 24Competition from which newly formed farm equipment giant pushed John Deere to widen its range in the early 1900s?
International Harvester
International Harvester's arrival made the plow maker add more implements, though it was gasoline tractors that came to define the business in the 20th century.
Q 25Willard Velie, a grandson of John Deere, founded an Illinois company in 1908 that manufactured what?
Automobiles
Automobiles made the Velie name, with more than 1,000 sold by 1910, and the firm later branched out into aircraft.
Q 26Which two-cylinder machine, launched in 1923, had the longest production run of any John Deere tractor?
Model D
Model D was the company's first mass-produced tractor, and it kept its letter throughout, never switching to a number as other letter-series machines did.
Q 27The John Deere Model R of 1949 was the company's first production tractor powered by which type of engine?
Diesel
Diesel power arrived after years of testing, and the Model R relied on a small pony engine to crank its big two-cylinder main engine into life.
Q 28Which New York industrial designer, also known for Bell telephones, restyled John Deere's tractors in the late 1930s?
Henry Dreyfuss
Henry Dreyfuss is said to have caught a train to Iowa the night he was asked, and he learned to drive the tractors in the field before redrawing them.
Q 29In 1960 John Deere flew thousands of dealers to which Texas city to unveil its New Generation tractors?
Dallas
Dallas hosted about 6,000 guests for the launch, and a tractor with a diamond-covered nameplate went on show inside the Neiman-Marcus department store.
Q 30Which John Deere tractor of the 1960s, with over 184,000 built, is widely regarded as the company's most popular?
4020
The 4020 offered a six-cylinder engine and an optional Power Shift transmission, a world away from the two-cylinder machines the company had sold a few years earlier.