I was on my way out to my folks’ place recently when I got held up in front of the John Deere factory in East Moline. A long line of brand new combines were on their way out of the factory.
I’ve taken the factory tour twice, once in grade school and the other about three years ago. As I’ve previously mentioned, the plant tour is very cool, even if you’re not into farm implements.
I got out of the car to see how long the train was, and couldn’t see the end, so I got out of there. But it was still kind of neat to see all those new machines on their way to points unknown.
Those look like S660s. They have interiors that would rival some high end cars.
I definitely fed my inner Farm Geek when I was out there!
+10 cool points for having the newest Brougham I’ve ever seen!
Ha! I didn’t catch that.
Tom, nice touch on bringing one to the interior too.
As my father the John Deere salesman says: “The Cadillac of Farm Equipment.” As you can see my father still remembers when Cadillac ment something.
I’m so Midwest farm boy that the garter I toss this July is going to be John Deere. 😛
Dan,
That’s awesome! You know you found the right one when you can get that approved!
Well she’ll be wearing a 2nd royal blue garter but that one won’t be coming off… during the reception anyway.
John Deere green is the best green ever!
I concur: It’s neck and neck w/ English Racing Green!
Pretty cool stuff… I borrowed my neighbor’s JD 6600 combine (1960s technology) one year to harvest about two acres of field cord for chicken feed. It was pretty “clank-clank-steam-heat” technology, but it sure got the job done a lot faster than using my 1950s two-row corn picker and hand shelling and cracking the corn.
Those new ones sell for a very pretty penny, and might be good for four or five years before technology improvements make it worth the farmer’s while to upgrade.
There’s a joke about a farmer who won the lottery… the local news crew came out to interview him and asked, “So what will you do with all the millions you won?” The farmer thought for a moment and replied, “Well, I guess I’ll keep farming until it’s all gone!”
It is a great shade of Green.
Being born into a Harvester family I may get hanged for saying that though.
Blasphemy everyone know real tractors are RED and
If it ain’t red
Leave it in the shed.
Right on brother!
I’m going to call the old man tomorrow and ask if he got a chill up his spine..
FYI.. Don’t go walking around the John Deere Pavilion or the Rock Island/Moline area with an IH T-shirt on..
Well at least you didn’t go on the combine factory tour with that t-shirt 🙂
I can see the headline:
“Tourist chased out of town by angry John Deere Works employees”
In Rock Island you’d get a little more respect, there was a huge Farmall plant there until 1985 when it closed. There was also a Case plant in East Moline until about 2006. It had been there about 100 years and is now a giant vacant lot. Too bad…
In reality everyone I met in the QC area was very welcoming, including yourself.
I did get some odd looks at the JDP though..
I wish I had more time, budgeted a little more money and brought the dogs.
The interview went well though so time will tell..
Tom, you probably just undervalued the load. If not, wait till next year.
It is amazing how much those suckers cost. Rolls Royce money to put corn, wheat, and soybeans into the food chain.
My Dad says the amazing thing is he’ll see a farmer buy the latest and greatest equipment that will take a job that used to take the farmer 3 weeks and turn it into a 1.5 week job. 5 years later the guy is back looking for something BIGGER to make the job even faster.
No joke. The cheapest of the S series is $336k! And you only use it once a year.. The nice part is that they keep improving operator amenities not just production ability.
(The last Combine I was in was an 83 Case IH 1480 and it made 1950s pickups look luxurious.)
There was a Top Gear episode a while ago where they modified a combine harvester to function as a snowplow/blower. And despite being a half-assed bodge job, it still functioned well enough to serve as proof of concept. They originally did it as a joke, but concluded that it actually seemed to make a fair degree of sense. They’re both hugely expensive machines that see very limited seasonal use, and spend most of their lives parked. Why not build something to do both, and get twice the service out of them for less than the cost of two dedicated machines?
I saw that one. I loved the “Bovril” in the cab and the flame thrower. One of their better skits.
educatordan: Chalk that down to the ridiculous levels of farming subsidies.
I’ll bet that somewhere in that train was a boxcar load of wheels and tires.
Re the red tractors, out here that could mean Massey Ferguson too, not just I-H. The first tractor I drove was a MF 135, on my grandfather’s farm.
As for machinery cost, I remember my uncle buying an I-H harvester in the mid-80’s that cost $250k, he ran that for probably 15 years. Things have changed a lot since, GPS autosteer & control of sowing & fertiliser distribution to name just a couple.
I’d never forget Massey.
Massey Ferguson and friends were staples of the farm environment from the late 1800s until today. Why don’t we just call them the “Other” Red.. 😀
Cool shots. I’m amazed that, in the midwest, apparently you can put railroad tracks down in the weeds and expect them to stay there.
The only other comment I’ll add here is “Combine Demolition Derby!”
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=/watch?v=F_KJpFKO_Bk&v=F_KJpFKO_Bk&gl=US