In 1948, agriculture in Italy was faced with a great challenge: the need to increase productivity to meet the growing demand for food in a country still scarred by war. Farms, especially small and medium-sized farms, needed more efficient and accessible tools to modernise work in the fields.
This is the situation in which SAME, a company founded in Treviglio by the Cassani brothers, responded with an innovative product: the 10-horsepower Trattorino Universale. Designed to be economical and versatile, the small “universal tractor” was a viable alternative to the use of draught animals, which were widespread in the Italian countryside up to that point.
The agricultural situation of the time was characterised by a fragmented land structure and mechanisation that was still in its infancy. Many farming families managed small plots of land, where the use of large agricultural machinery was often impractical or too expensive. In these cases, the SAME Trattorino Universale offered the possibility of introducing mechanisation gradually, with a low level of investment and simple operation.
The main technical characteristics of the SAME Trattorino Universale are:
- Petrol-powered operation with a consumption of about 2 kg per hour
- 10-horsepower
- Reversible drive, which allows the operator to always work facing forward, reversing the direction to perform different tasks
- Three wheels with tyres: two drive wheels and one for steering, for good manoeuvrability even in tight spaces
- Gearbox with four forward gears and reverse
- Air-cooled engine
- Rear power take off for operating various agricultural implements
These characteristics made the tractor suitable for many operations: from tillage to sowing, and from towing implements to mowing. In this way, many farms could increase productivity and reduce working time.
The SAME Universal Tractor was awarded the Gold Medal of the Academy of Agriculture in Turin, testifying to the quality and importance of the product in the Italian industrial and agricultural landscape.
Today, this model remains a concrete symbol of the technological evolution that accompanied the transformation of the Italian countryside after World War II, representing a first step towards the widespread mechanisation that would revolutionise agriculture in the years that followed.