When did farming become comfortable?

I was going to write today with a short analysis of the problems facing the beef industry, followed by an effective three-point strategy for returning the cattle business to sound profitability, but that will have to wait. Today my mind is on tractor comfort.

The following underscores the fact that I am getting older. This is a ‘when I was a boy’ type of story. As a sidebar, I use to always chuckle at my late father-in-law (he would have been 100 this year) who use to love to talk about the old days of working for CN Rail in Western Canada. Often I heard that the price of beer was 10 cents a glass at the hotel in Drumheller, Alta.  Well move over Frank.

What has inspired this blog is sitting for 10 minutes yesterday inside the cab of John Deere’s new 8R series field tractor at the Agri-Trade farm show in Red Deer, Alta. First of all I felt underdressed. Are you sure I should be in here with jeans and a sweater? Is there a dress code?

Man, it was nice. No wonder people want to go farming. Forget profitability – this is good.

I have been in and out of tractor cabs a bit over the past 30 years, but when did comfort become such a priority? 

It had a nice heated leather captains chair, which was more comfortable than my old recliner in the family room, a leather covered steering wheel. And the right-hand armrest/console had this wonderful array of attractively designed nicely colored controls that run everything. I am sure there was one button that said “Press Here, to begin taxi for take off”. It had a nice satellite radio system, with iPOD and MP3 player capability, Bluetooth for hands-free cell phone, a 10 vent air conditioning and heating system, plenty of leg room even with two people sitting in there, and of course cup holders. I didn’t see the cappuccino maker but that was probably in the rear galley across from the lounge area.

I had no idea if the thing could even start, or whether it had enough power to could pull a kid’s wagon. But it sure was comfortable. And to be fair, I’m sure if I had gone over the Case IH, or New Holland, or AGCO displays I would have found something similar.

But sitting in that cab for a few minutes, I had a flash back (and here it comes) to when I was a kid. We had two tractors on the dairy farm. One was a little grey Ford tractor and the powerhouse was a Allis Chalmers WD40 that had about six horsepower.

Because of the power and speed of the Allis Chalmers, as a kid I was only allowed to drive the little grey Ford. Both tractors had steel seats. Because the AC was newer, with improved creature comforts, its seat was mounted on piece of curved spring steel, sort of like a cultivator shank so it had a bit of give. The little grey Ford was metal to unforgiving metal. Fortunately my dad took a couple old throw pillows out the house, which afforded a measure of butt comfort on both machines.

I won’t go on about all the features these tractors didn’t have. You catch my drift that times sure have changed. The one thing the tractors of my childhood did have, which I didn’t see in the new John Deere, was instant weather reporting. When I was driving the little grey Ford on a 30 degree day to rake hay, I knew instantly it was hot. If it started to rain, I knew immediately that the weather had changed, and if you had to take the tractor out on a January morning, there was no doubt that it was damn cold outside.

You don’t get that kind of feedback sitting in the John Deere 8R corner office.

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