There were many farm layouts at last year’s National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa – they ranged from large-scale to small-scale adult and youth displays. There were some educational displays among the top three of the small-scale layouts, as well.

The first-place award went to  Gordy Schultz from Oshkosh, Wis., for his Pea Harvest display. This was a labor of love and actually a recreation of his past for Gordy, who worked for Stokely USA from 1983-96. Since then, Gordy explained the company was bought out and closed. These days, he runs a square baling operation and has made a business building and selling toys.
Gordy Schultz is well-known for his vegetable model equipment and while many knew he was creating a farm layout, only a few knew what it was. Pictures of Gordy’s work are available at the Toy Tractor Times website at http://toyfarminllc.toytractortimes.com

The winning farm layout was based on a Stokely pea harvest circa 1995. Gordy explained what was happening at that time: “We ran three- to four-wheeled combines. We went a 100-mile radius and the combine traveled 12 miles per hour.”

Keeping machinery operating was key and one of the combines had mechanical issues. “We borrowed a combine because one broke down all the time,” Gordy explained. “In 1994, they brought out an experimental harvester on tracks and it was unstoppable.”

The workmanship on these combines was clear. He custom-made the combines and included the experimental one. While these days the peas would have been planted with an air seeder, back then they used a drill. Gordy said, “Farmers got the grain drill as part of their contract.

“The farmers used the rented grain drill to plant the peas, then once the fields were planted, Stokely field samplers marked with a stick where samples would be pulled from when harvest was near. The samples were then pulled from those fields and the peas were checked for moisture.”

Evidently, peas become hard very fast and getting there in the nick of time is crucial: “Depending on the moisture, they would decide which field to harvest first.

“When the peas had about 90 percent of the moisture, it was sweet and the harvest crew would come. I guarantee it would be a warm, nasty, hot day. Then if the peas got too hard, we pulled out.”

According to University of Wisconsin extension, field peas were native to southwestern Asia and this was among the first crops cultivated by man: “Wild field pea can still be found in Afghanistan, Iran and Ethiopia. This crop has been long grown in the United States and historically, field pea was one of Wisconsin’s best paying cash crops.

“In 1909, 78,000 acres were planted and part of eastern and northeastern Wisconsin led the country in field pea production.

“As market prices declined, partly the result of less costly imported field pea, production declined. Today, the countries leading in field pea production include the Soviet Union, China, India, Canada and the United States. In the United States the largest acreages of field pea are in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Minnesota and North Dakota.

“Plantings of dry field pea in 1989 in the United States was estimated to be over 30,000 acres and in Canada, over 450,000 acres. Cultivation of field pea has led to a gradual separation of types: those grown for vegetable use, those grown for seed and fodder and the edible podded types which have evolved most recently.”

Of course the peas that Gordy profiled were for human consumption.
“In the harvester drum there are five beaters; the peas go in one end and out the other. They dump into a truck or dump cart, and then they are trucked and taken to the canning factory,” he said.

Gordy’s display captured late June harvest. One scene depicted the experimental harvester on tracks dumping into a cart pulled by a tractor: “I scratch-built the harvester; I made five. It took five months and 900 hours working sometimes 14 hours a day. I started in October of 2009.”
One interesting aspect of the harvest that Gordy added was the harvester being washed: “They washed them once a day. I scratch-built the (display) washer.”

Gordy will probably take this display to another show in Ripon, Wis., the third Sunday in March. For those with questions, he can be reached by e-mail at tfarming@athenet.net

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.