ALL ABOUT TRACTORS BY PAUL WALLEM The 58th National Tractor Pulling Championship was Aug. 14-16 in Bowling Green, Ohio. Conducted by the National Tractor Pullers Association, the huge crowd watched 13 class winners pull amongst many contestants. There were classes from garden tractors up to 15,000 HP entries plus trucks. Higher HP contenders arrive each year. Case IH sponsored this year’s event. Like tractors, grain carts keep growing In 2018, I interviewed a cart owner regarding future sizes. He had just bought a 1,500-bushel grain cart, thought that would be the biggest for the future. However, Brent Industry just released their Avalanche Dual Auger cart. It has a 3,150-bushel hopper capacity. The unloader capacity is 1000 GPM. The Autonomy Riddle In 2022, a large grower said, “Autonomous tillage operation will be a great step forward that allows simultaneous harvest and tillage at the same time.” Three years later, he recently said, “While I did some testing a couple of years ago with an autonomous tractor, I’ve not seen or heard any more about it. Since then, we have transitioned away from “holding our breath” waiting for autonomy to help us with seasonal labor shortage – to working to hire the right people, since it doesn’t appear that the technology that would fit our system is ready.” A different story comes from a growing number of Monarch tractor users, the first mass-produced autonomous electric tractor. (Originally built in Ohio, that factory location has been sold, and Monarch is now negotiating for a new location.) Monarch originally considered vineyards their primary user, but hours of use now indicate that dairies are benefiting the most. They are showing the largest return on investment, in an industry suffering from an immigrant labor shortage. Feed pushing is a repetitive task ideal for autonomous operation. An additional benefit comes from the absence of noise and exhaust. This environment improvement at a dairy has shown to improve herd production. According to Successful Farming, dairies that rely on immigrant labor are suffering a 20-year high on labor costs as a percent of income. Sod farms throughout the U.S. have also become significant users of autonomous tractors. They do repetitive mowing on fixed locations, have also relied on immigrant labor, and find autonomous tractors to be profitable. Monarch Tractor now has customers in China, Europe and the U.S. 1919 – When honestly entered the horsepower race Prior to 1919, outlandish claims came from some manufacturers. Some claimed enough power for a 3-bottom plow, when in the field, they struggled with two. Others claimed 25 HP in their advertising, but then came the 1919 Nebraska Test Law, and some of those same tractors tested at 12 HP or less. With the passage of the new law, buyers started receiving the power they were promised. Quote for today: Optimists invented the airplane…Pessimists invented the parachute. Paul Wallem was raised on an Illinois dairy farm. He spent 13 years with corporate IH on domestic and foreign assignments. He resigned to own and operate two IH dealerships. He is the author of THE BREAKUP and SUCCESSES & INDUSTRY FIRSTS of IH. See all his books on PaulWallem.com. Email your comments to pwallem@aol.com. |
