With the federal government concerned about how much top executives are making in firms funded with bailout dollars, Ag Equipment Intelligence editors thought it was a good time to analyze how much the top brass at the biggest ag equipment firms are taking home.

Much of the information was gathered from reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Here’s what we learned about salaries, stock awards, stock options, pension value, nonqualified deferred compensation and other forms of incentive plan compensation.

Deere & Co.

For fiscal year 2008, Robert Lane took home $22,043,602 in compensation. Having retired last summer as chairman, president and CEO at Deere, this was $1,540,180 more than in 2007. The 2008 fiscal year breakdown for Lane shows $1,435,545 in salary, $3,933,231 in stock awards, $3,676,338 in stock option awards, $6,930,421 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, a $5,625,577 increase in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings and $442,490 in other compensation.

AGCO

For fiscal year 2008, Martin Richenhagen earned $10,571,483. This compensation for the chairman, president and CEO was $1,342,868 higher than for 2008 and $7,321,192 higher than in 2006. The 2008 breakdown for Richenhagen shows $1,024,833 in salary, $7,222,839 in stock awards, $408,318 in Stock-Settled Appreciation Rights (SSAR) awards, $1,124,447 in non-equity incentive plan compensation, a $659,910 favorable change in pension value and nonqualified deferred earnings and $134,136 in other compensation.

CNH Global N.V.

The information for CNH chief executive Harold Boyanovsky was not as clear since data on much of his total compensation is not readily available. Since the privately held Italian firm Fiat owns a large majority of the shares in the company that produces the Case IH and New Holland brands, detailed executive earnings don’t have to be provided to the SEC in the same form as for U.S. based firms. The company was created in 1999 through the merger of New Holland N.V. and the Case Corp.

Boyanovsky’s salary for the latest fiscal year was $860,544 and was only available due to a listing of CNH director salaries. The CNH communications staff also told AEI editors that additional compensation information would not be provided.

However, a CNH report filed from overseas with the SEC indicated that his total compensation for 2008 was $1,330,980. Besides his salary, this included $75,646 in future pension plan remuneration, a cash bonus of $149,004 and $145,786 in performance share unit vesting. The report indicated that Boyanovsky held 124,416 shares of CNH stock at the end of 2008 that would have a value of $2,737,152 based on recent $22 per share CNH stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange.

However, it’s likely Boyanovsky is also compensated in other ways through the parent company.

While CNH Global N.V. stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the firm is a majority owned subsidiary of Fiat S.p.A. This is the parent company of the Fiat Group, a public company whose capital stock is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in Italy.

From November 2009 Ag Equipment Intelligence