The word tractor originated from the Latin word trahere, meaning pull. Today, farm tractors are used for drawing in, towing or pulling farm objects that are extremely hard to move. Farm tractors are commonly seen on farms to push agricultural machineries or trailers that plough or harrow fields.

Farm tractors from the 1800s and early 1900s were powered by steam engines. These farm tractors were phased out due to instability of the steam engine that caused explosions, or trapping the driver in a belt driven attachment. Subsequent farm tractors were built with internal combustion engines. However, many farmers were still killed in accidents when the farm tractors rollover crash on top of them and crushed them to death. Rollover crash happen most frequently when the farm tractors are driven along steep slopes.


Modern farm tractors are built with a rollover protection system (ROPS) that protects the operator from being crushed in the event of rollover accident. It was the New Zealand legislation that first required ROPS to be built-in to farm tractors in the 1960s.