RobS
Super Member
My visit to the Farm Progress Show:
First I’ll apologize for lack of pictures. I still don’t have a digital camera and I didn’t feel like toting my 35mm all day.
I spent the day (9/26) at the Midwest Farm Progress show in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. I set this up more as a day out of the office/stress relief than anything else. I’m not a farmer and I’m really not in the market for anything right now. I just wanted a day to myself and it was completely successful in that sense.
The show was huge! I drove 120 miles starting at 5:00 in the morning and as soon as I got to the main highway near home it was a steady stream of pickup trucks all heading in the same direction. Traffic entered the parking lot (cornfield) in an orderly fashion. I got my ticket (where else can you get a whole day’s enjoyment for a mere $5.00?!?) and headed in. Did I mention that this show is huge! Here is the field layout:
Since I had all day, I walked up and down both sides of every aisle. I pretty quickly figured out that the seed and fertilizer displays were not my bag but I think I learned something and certainly got a greater appreciation for what a real farmer has to go through. The equipment displays were where I spent most of my time.
For us compact tractor lovers there was just about everything you could imagine. Deere, NH, Kubota, Case, Agco, Massey, Mahindra, Zetor and a few others I can’t remember. Funny though, since I already have my compact I spent more time drooling over the big ag equipment. Woods and a few other implement guys were there but this show is obviously more focussed on the big stuff.
My earth shattering revelation on implements is this: There is very little difference between the makes in the low and mid range offerings. My King Kutter box scraper (low end) was, for all practical purposes, the same as the Deere Frontier, the Agco labeled unit, the Rhino, and the few others I saw. The only appreciable differences show up in the high end of the market with the Woods/Gil/Gannon line.
I’ll highlight the big three, since that’s probably where I spent the most time. Kubota was first and they had one of every model there. No implements though (other than FELs, MMM and backhoes on the TLB models). The display was pretty stark compared to Deere and NH, but I suspect that has more to do with the ag nature of the show. The biggest Kubota tractor is still pretty small compared to the others. It was nice for me to get a refresher on the rigs that most of TBN operates /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
NH was huge. They had a big exhibition tent for the tractor demo and a large outside area. There was a separate tent for parts, service, financing, toys and all the other stuff. Lots of big tractors available for climbing on as well as the skid steers and haying equipment. The big news in their compact line is the TC30 model. It is a new “economy” tractor to compete with the Kubota Ls and the Deere 90 series. Very basic, gear transmission and a more squared off hood. Looked kind of odd now that I’m used to the other TC models. NH had a few implements including a front mount snowblower, backhoe, MMM, FELs, TPH mower etc.
If NH was huge, Deere was mammoth. I guess that is to be expected. They had an outdoor demo featuring at least 8 new models, the smallest being the 5X20 series. Oddly, no mention of the 4X10 series and the one rep I talked to knew nothing about it. There was equipment all over and just a handful of compacts. They did have the Frontier line of implements hitched up. The main tent had service, parts, financing, crop help etc. Deere seems to be leading in GPS technology but I don’t think I need that on my compact just yet /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
All over the show, the big theme seemed to be ways to get the huge tillage tools and planters narrow enough to travel on the roads. As an engineer, I’m both envious and awestruck at what their engineers are doing. It’s got to be a pretty fun career field.
Caterpillar was surprisingly large at the show. They are obviously trying to establish themselves in the marketplace with the challenger tractors, combines and such. They also had the full line of skid steers, engines and a TLB.
The Case display was impressive as they seem to lean towards the high-horsepower end of the market. They did have the DX series compacts with a couple of implements.
I found the Agco display most interesting though as I didn’t even know they had a compact. There was a full line of “orange” compacts made by Iseki with the most thorough line of implements on display by any of the manufacturers. What really caught my eye was a 6 ½ foot disc (cat 1) that was just massive. Made the farm store versions seem like toys.
From the displays I checked out the field demonstrations. There were tractor-pulled trams to take visitors to the soybean harvesting, corn harvesting or tillage fields. I watched a bit of all three. It’s not everyday you see 10 different combines taking turns picking beans while another 10 are across the way picking corn. Each would take a swath, then the crowd would move in to examine the residue. I moved with the crowd, pretending to know what I was looking for. A long line of “mid sized” tractors was waiting with a variety of grain carts for the unloading. For me though, the tillage was the most impressive. Each tractor was hitched to an appropriately sized tool and cut his swath for the crowd just like the combines. It’s just not everyday a suburbanite like myself gets to see, hear, smell and feel 450 horsepower pulling cold, hard steel through the ground. Even more amazing is to hear these behemoths actually straining a bit to do it.
For the first time ever, not a single moldboard plow was on display. All the tillage was “conservation” with various combinations of discs, rippers and mulchers.
I ended the day with a walk through a corn maze cut in the logo of my Alma Mater, Purdue University. Purdue was a co-sponsor of the show and had a significant presence with all that they can offer the farmers in the state.
All in all, it was a great day. No office, no kids, no hassles just fun. Next time I’m on my little 790 I’ll just have to imagine the “other” 420 horsepower /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
First I’ll apologize for lack of pictures. I still don’t have a digital camera and I didn’t feel like toting my 35mm all day.
I spent the day (9/26) at the Midwest Farm Progress show in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. I set this up more as a day out of the office/stress relief than anything else. I’m not a farmer and I’m really not in the market for anything right now. I just wanted a day to myself and it was completely successful in that sense.
The show was huge! I drove 120 miles starting at 5:00 in the morning and as soon as I got to the main highway near home it was a steady stream of pickup trucks all heading in the same direction. Traffic entered the parking lot (cornfield) in an orderly fashion. I got my ticket (where else can you get a whole day’s enjoyment for a mere $5.00?!?) and headed in. Did I mention that this show is huge! Here is the field layout:
Since I had all day, I walked up and down both sides of every aisle. I pretty quickly figured out that the seed and fertilizer displays were not my bag but I think I learned something and certainly got a greater appreciation for what a real farmer has to go through. The equipment displays were where I spent most of my time.
For us compact tractor lovers there was just about everything you could imagine. Deere, NH, Kubota, Case, Agco, Massey, Mahindra, Zetor and a few others I can’t remember. Funny though, since I already have my compact I spent more time drooling over the big ag equipment. Woods and a few other implement guys were there but this show is obviously more focussed on the big stuff.
My earth shattering revelation on implements is this: There is very little difference between the makes in the low and mid range offerings. My King Kutter box scraper (low end) was, for all practical purposes, the same as the Deere Frontier, the Agco labeled unit, the Rhino, and the few others I saw. The only appreciable differences show up in the high end of the market with the Woods/Gil/Gannon line.
I’ll highlight the big three, since that’s probably where I spent the most time. Kubota was first and they had one of every model there. No implements though (other than FELs, MMM and backhoes on the TLB models). The display was pretty stark compared to Deere and NH, but I suspect that has more to do with the ag nature of the show. The biggest Kubota tractor is still pretty small compared to the others. It was nice for me to get a refresher on the rigs that most of TBN operates /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
NH was huge. They had a big exhibition tent for the tractor demo and a large outside area. There was a separate tent for parts, service, financing, toys and all the other stuff. Lots of big tractors available for climbing on as well as the skid steers and haying equipment. The big news in their compact line is the TC30 model. It is a new “economy” tractor to compete with the Kubota Ls and the Deere 90 series. Very basic, gear transmission and a more squared off hood. Looked kind of odd now that I’m used to the other TC models. NH had a few implements including a front mount snowblower, backhoe, MMM, FELs, TPH mower etc.
If NH was huge, Deere was mammoth. I guess that is to be expected. They had an outdoor demo featuring at least 8 new models, the smallest being the 5X20 series. Oddly, no mention of the 4X10 series and the one rep I talked to knew nothing about it. There was equipment all over and just a handful of compacts. They did have the Frontier line of implements hitched up. The main tent had service, parts, financing, crop help etc. Deere seems to be leading in GPS technology but I don’t think I need that on my compact just yet /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
All over the show, the big theme seemed to be ways to get the huge tillage tools and planters narrow enough to travel on the roads. As an engineer, I’m both envious and awestruck at what their engineers are doing. It’s got to be a pretty fun career field.
Caterpillar was surprisingly large at the show. They are obviously trying to establish themselves in the marketplace with the challenger tractors, combines and such. They also had the full line of skid steers, engines and a TLB.
The Case display was impressive as they seem to lean towards the high-horsepower end of the market. They did have the DX series compacts with a couple of implements.
I found the Agco display most interesting though as I didn’t even know they had a compact. There was a full line of “orange” compacts made by Iseki with the most thorough line of implements on display by any of the manufacturers. What really caught my eye was a 6 ½ foot disc (cat 1) that was just massive. Made the farm store versions seem like toys.
From the displays I checked out the field demonstrations. There were tractor-pulled trams to take visitors to the soybean harvesting, corn harvesting or tillage fields. I watched a bit of all three. It’s not everyday you see 10 different combines taking turns picking beans while another 10 are across the way picking corn. Each would take a swath, then the crowd would move in to examine the residue. I moved with the crowd, pretending to know what I was looking for. A long line of “mid sized” tractors was waiting with a variety of grain carts for the unloading. For me though, the tillage was the most impressive. Each tractor was hitched to an appropriately sized tool and cut his swath for the crowd just like the combines. It’s just not everyday a suburbanite like myself gets to see, hear, smell and feel 450 horsepower pulling cold, hard steel through the ground. Even more amazing is to hear these behemoths actually straining a bit to do it.
For the first time ever, not a single moldboard plow was on display. All the tillage was “conservation” with various combinations of discs, rippers and mulchers.
I ended the day with a walk through a corn maze cut in the logo of my Alma Mater, Purdue University. Purdue was a co-sponsor of the show and had a significant presence with all that they can offer the farmers in the state.
All in all, it was a great day. No office, no kids, no hassles just fun. Next time I’m on my little 790 I’ll just have to imagine the “other” 420 horsepower /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
