OREGON – Eighty years ago, when a trio of brothers put their minds together on their farm, they were just looking for a better way to change the look of the landscape, but what they created would end up changing the business landscape, both at home and around the world.

Today, their name lives on in the company they built, along with their commitment to innovation.

Woods Equipment is known today as a leader in its field — and yards and everywhere else its products are used — manufacturing rugged, durable tractor implements and attachments from its Oregon plant. But behind all that steel and hard work is a rich history and a wealth of people whose ideas, relationships and pride have helped build a brand that’s celebrating 80 years in business this year.

The company’s products are used in a host of jobs — agricultural, landscaping, grounds maintenance, construction and more — helping landowners, farmers, contractors and municipal workers tackle tasks and chores with increased efficiency and reliability. The company also has a parts plant in Rockford.

Its product range includes various types of rotary cutters — from heavy-duty rigid models to flexible “Batwing-style” cutters — that are engineered to clear brush, mow fields or roadside vegetation, and shred crop residue. In addition to cutting tools, the company builds finish mowers to manicure turf, seeders for planting plots large and small, tillage equipment for preparing soil, and backhoes for digging and earth moving tasks.

Woods also offers a wide selection of landscape attachments and accessories, from hitches and loader tools to snow removal gear, designed to expand the capability of tractors and loaders for a variety of jobs. Together, those machines reflect a company focused on people who are focused on the land, with tools designed to last.

Woods Equipment traces its roots back to a 4,000-square-foot metal Quonset hut in 1946, when three brothers — Leonard, Keith and Mervel Wood — built and introduced the first successful tractor-mounted rotary cutter, revolutionizing how land was mowed and maintained. This invention helped create an entirely new category of implement that soon became standard on farms, roadsides and other large tracts of land.

Over the next few decades, Woods introduced and patented a steady stream of design improvements, including its “Batwing” cutters and numerous drive- and hookup systems. The history portion of Woods’ website (woodseequipment.com/our-story) details these patents with original sketch drawings of what would soon come.

In 2011, Woods became a division of Blount International, a global manufacturer of professional-grade tools and equipment, expanding its global distribution while maintaining its Midwestern manufacturing base. Blount rebranded to Oregon Tool in 2021 — a name that honors the lineage of companies under the former Blount umbrella founded in the state of Oregon, not the town Woods is based in.

As Woods marks its 80th anniversary, the story of its longevity is best told by the people who have been part of it, sharing their memories and everyday experiences. From assembly workers to office workers, technicians to truck drivers, sales team to management team, they’re all part of Woods’ legacy.

Among them, Vice President and General Manager Derek Paulsen, who’s taking time to look back on Woods’ past while keeping an eye on its future. He and fellow company leaders see the anniversary not only as a milestone worth celebrating, but as a launching point for where Woods is going.

When it comes to favorite moments in Woods’ history, Paulsen is experiencing his now.

“Our 80th anniversary, here in 2026, is my favorite,” Paulsen said. “It is incredible to see the evolution of an idea of a rotary cutter grow into a substantial business. It further mushroomed into the Batwing product category, in which our branded product has long been the industry standard and moniker. Even better, our team is hungry to make the next 80 years even better.”

For senior test technician John Becker, Woods has been both a career and a classroom. Over nearly four decades, Becker has worked closely with engineers to build first-run machines from the ground up, pushing them to their limits before they ever reach customers.

Becker’s favorite chapter in the company’s evolution came with the development of zero-turn, front-mounted mowers, products that took patience and persistence to perfect as designs improved over time. The process, he said, reinforced the value of learning, adaptation and passing knowledge forward.

“The development department has been great to work in because I am able to build the first new pieces of equipment from scratch, test and modify as needed so they may be produced and sold,” Becker said. “It is very rewarding to drive around the country and see all the products that Woods has manufactured over the years.”

Greg Gallentine, who has spent 32 years at Woods and now manages daily plant operations, recalls 2000 as a defining moment: Demand for the BrushBull single-spindle rough-cut mower surged, pushing the Woods team to produce an impressive 15,000 units in a single year.

“The commitment, hard work and teamwork from everyone in our organization to build those 15,000 units in that year was pretty awesome,” Gallentine said. “The sales on it really took off.”

Gallentine says Woods’ appeal has always felt personal, familiar for a company rooted in a region where land management is part of everyday life.

“It’s been a great, stable place in our community,” he said. “With this area we live in with a lot of agriculture, there’s a lot of land management to get done, and I think it’s neat to work for a company that helps with all of that.”

On the sales and dealer side, Pamela Turek has spent 45 years nurturing relationships that extend far beyond transactions. Working closely with a dealer network of roughly 1,500 across the U.S. and Canada, she credits Woods’ long-standing reputation and people-first culture for those connections — even when the conversations turn from work.

“We’ve built good relationships, whether it’s with inside employees or outside employees, and you keep those relationships forever,” Turek said. “It’s a real good, close-knit community.”

Those relationships were shaped most during a pivotal shift in how Woods connected with dealers: a mid-1990s zone concept sales reorganization under former CEO Tom Laird that brought the company closer to the people selling its equipment. Turek’s zone was in the Southeast U.S.

“He set up zones all over the U.S. and had district managers,” Turek said. “I was able to meet dealers and put a face to the name, and work one-on-one with the sales force. I like to talk, and that worked out well. We worked closely inside our own little zone; you knew what products were the ones they were most interested in and could sell best.”

Rob Dewey, who started as an engineer and now leads product development after 38 years with the company, sees that culture reflected in how Woods approaches innovation. He describes the company’s design-to-value philosophy as deeply rooted in listening to loyal customers of both Woods and other brand products. New products are tested extensively, both on Woods’ 30-acre test plot near the plant and on private land owned by area farmers.

“When we release a new product, we have confidence that it’s the best product that we can produce and that it outperforms the competition,” Dewey said.

One moment that crystallized that confidence for him came in 2018, when a Kentucky dealer hosted a side-by-side mowing comparison against competing brands. Watching a Woods mower outperform the others — and hearing a longtime horse farmer explain why so many in the region relied on Woods — was validation years in the making.

“I wanted to see it first-hand because I had worked on these machines,” Dewey said. “That was my favorite day. I worked in the engineering department most of the time I’ve been here, designing these products and testing them. It just was proof that we’re doing the right thing.”

To mark its 80th anniversary, Woods will celebrate throughout 2026 under the theme “Quality for Generations,” which highlights company milestones, customer stories and its long-standing focus on performance-driven engineering, Marketing Manager Jillian Love said.

The celebration includes limited-edition Batwing and BrushBull rotary cutters with commemorative matte-black designs, to be unveiled at the 2026 National Farm Machinery Show in mid-February in Louisville, Kentucky. Proceeds from these anniversary model sales will support Woods’ new “Your Land, Your Legacy” scholarship program, which will fund future leaders in agriculture, conservation and land management from schools in and around Oregon.

Love said she enjoys working for a company that gives back to the community. In 2023, Woods designed an “Old Glory” Batwing cutter, decked out in red, white and blue to award to a farmer involved with the Farmer Veteran Coalition, which provides assistance to veterans starting a farming or ranching career. Aspiring recipients sought it through an application process, and it was awarded to Texas farmer and Army veteran Joseph Burdulinski.

Many veterans work at Woods, something the company is committed to and takes pride in, Love said.

“When we have an opportunity to support veterans, we always try to find a way to do that,” Love said. “That was a very cool initiative that we had.”

Moments like that, employees say, reflect a company whose impact extends well beyond its equipment, and the community sees it, Turek said.

“Woods has always been the place to work in Oregon and Ogle County,” Turek said. “It has a great reputation, treats their employees well, and I can’t think of a better place to work. It’s always been a part of Oregon’s history, 80 years.”

For many at Woods, those moments of pride are woven into a workplace that has shaped careers, relationships and a shared sense of belonging across generations.

“Woods has a family culture where we experience wins and challenges together. We treat our external partners like family, and how we want to be treated. It’s all about people.”

Find Woods Equipment on Facebook or go to woodsequipment.com to learn about the products made at its Oregon plant, as well as a history of the patents developed there over the course of 80 years in business.