By DOUG GRAVES

Ohio Correspondent

FT. LORAMIE, Ohio — When the Kellogg Company came out with Pringles, a potato and wheat-based snack chip, marketers coined a slogan telling us “you can’t eat just one.”

It’s not known if Ivo Gottemoeller ever ate the snack, but the lifelong corn and bean farmer from Shelby County, Ohio, had a similar addiction, but it wasn’t to any food item. Gottemoeller had a passion for tractors and he collected 32 of the machines before he died in January at the age of 85.

In June, Polk Auction of New Paris, Ind., presided over the farm estate auction of Gottemoeller. All 32 tractors (rated in good condition or better) were sold that day.

“I would call this a very good, well-rounded collection of tractors,” said auctioneer Jeff Polk. “Not only did he collect but the muscle-era tractors are getting really collectable in the times we’re living in. And, Gottemoeller was still farming with those.”

“Muscle-era tractors are those from the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s,” Polk said. “These are highly collectible and Gottemoeller had some quality pieces.”

Topping the list in this tractor sale totaling more than $120,000 was an International Harvester 5288, with just 3,892 hours. The excellent condition tractor sold for $23,000. According to the wesbsite Tractor Data (www.tractordata.com), this tractor was made between 1981 and 1985. It originally cost around $60,000 and fewer than 6,000 were made, according to the website.

Second in line was a tractor dating a decade earlier. The International Harvester 1456, a circa 1970s tractor, sold for $17,500.  It included four sets of rear weights and had 4,849 hours. According to Tractor Data this one would have originally sold for $12,400. This example was rated in excellent condition. Selling at $14,000 was another IH 1456 rated in good condition with five sets of rear weights and 5,572 hours. Other high-ticket tractors sold included a circa 1970s International Harvester 4186 selling for $8,500 and an early 1960s International Harvester 340 bringing $6,500. This selling price just about doubled what the tractor would have sold for originally.

“Gottemoeller’s IH 5288 was the top selling tractor at auction in the past 12 months,” Polk said.

According to Polk, a 1982 IH 5288 tractor with 6,034 hours was auctioned last November in Fairview, Ill. It sold for $20,000. In July of 2017, a 1983 IH 5288 tractor with 5,288 hours was auctioned in in Corning, Ark. It sold for $18,750.

Gottemoeller’s collection of International Harvester tractors was not short on variety, and included an IH 130, dating from the mid 1950s, as well as numerous 1960s and ‘70s models. 

According to Polk, the International Harvester 1456s and 5288s is what the farm collecting world has migrated toward. The 1456 series was manufactured between 1969-1971. The 5288 series was manufactured between 1981-1985.

 In addition to being left in awe of the condition of each piece, Polk was astonished at the quantity.

 “I can understand his obsession with collecting, absolutely,” Polk said. “Once you get the bug it doesn’t stop. Once you get started collecting these machines you’re putting up more buildings and sheds to house that collection.”

 Ivo, a U.S. Army veteran and lifelong farmer, raised a son and three daughters on his 220-acre farm in the small city of Ft. Loramie. Beans and corn were his crops of choice. Tractors were his collection of choice.

 “He was an avid collector of old tractors and he kept them all in his barns,” said his son, Russell Gottemoeller. “Dad had eight to 10 tractors that he tended to and worked with. When mom died (in 2003) dad started collecting and adding more tractors to his collection. He had other passions in life, but mainly it was his tractors.”