There were lots of small tractors under 55 hp that were not rebadges. John Deere had 20, 30, 40, 50, and 55 series tractors from the mid 60's to mid 70's that had quick attach loaders all the way back to 1965`, closed center hydraulics, draft control, single finger steering, syncro shift/shuttle shift options, 50/55 series even powershift. Some of the 55 even FWA, nice extendable 3 point arms and simple yet durable, mechanical diesels.
Case had the 1190/1290 that were very nice as well as the 1194/1294. Loaders I see on these tractors around here were mainly westerndorf but depending on which models could be quick attach
MF are few in this area but they made some nice utility tractors in that era as well and some areas are quite plentiful.
You are right about IH in the early 80s, they were so far behind every other major with their british made compact/utility tractors they were not selling and making any money, but their big tractors had no innovation either. The 44/54/64/74 utility tractors were durable but were little better than the 04 series utility from 1961 in features. Loaders took hours to get off, terrible rust issues in the fuel tanks, transmissions cooked your legs in heavy work due to the open center hydraulics.
The big tractors were no better even if they sold. While they had good durable engines there was not refinements in the 06-86 series. By the 86 series they were lagging and just riding on loyalty and namesake from the 60's and before.
The 88 series finally made the leap forward and caught up but they were to late to effect the necessity of the sale from terrible lack of innovation from the late 60's on.
