HAVRE, Mont. – The Big Bud 16V-747, the world’s largest tractor with 1,100 horsepower, is parked outside the Big Equipment Co. building in Havre.

A turn of the ignition says all the machine needs to say. Sixteen pistons vibrate a body that weighs over 100,000 pounds. Twin plumes of black diesel smoke flee silver exhaust pipes above the cab.

The cause of the fire that burned an internationally-known custom tractor business to the ground Christmas Eve near Havre — the Hi-Line city’s largest blaze in three decades — remains undetermined, ...

Big Equipment Co. has led the agriculture industry in rebuilding and custom-building older tractors for farmers, many of them Big Buds. Without computerized systems, these tractors worked the fields, ...

HAVRE, Mont. – The Big Bud 16V-747, the world’s largest tractor with 1,100 horsepower, is parked outside the Big Equipment Co. building in Havre. Only one 747 was ever built, but from the mid-1970s to ...