By Scott Garvey on the Equip Blog , one of the great Ag Blogs from Grainews, the greatest farm newspaper in Canada.
Nope. That headline wasn’t meant to refer to the weather. Something I saw this week made me wonder if we farm machinery enthusiasts might be on the verge of being considered “cool”.
As I staked my claim to the sofa and the TV remote control in order to watch all twenty-odd hours of this fall’s Barrett-Jackson auto auction, the announcer, Bob Varsha, mentioned a collection of restored John Deere tractors would roll across the auction block this year, a first for this automotive industry event. Was it possible that farm tractors—and the people who appreciate them—could now be, well, cool?
This auction is, after all, the hard-core car guys’ inner sanctum, and it’s broadcast on the Speed TV Channel. To bring tractors into this venue is quite a change from past events. Up until now, farm machinery certainly hasn’t been considered cool—at least by most of the car guys. But some tractors have become very collectable, garnering record prices at auctions that surpass most of the 70s muscle car values.
As an example of what I mean by farm tractors not being considered cool, you’ve probably heard this phrase: “It runs like an old tractor”. Which is what people say about their car when it doesn’t perform well. Granted, that unflattering reputation may have once been deserved, especially when you look at some of the engineering included on tractors in the middle of the last century. Take the steel seat for example. Even drivers of the earliest Model Ts were never subjected to that indignity. But 20 years after the first Ford was built it was still a standard feature on some tractors.
Today, however, things are much different. Modern farm tractors have standard technology that puts a lot of cars to shame. As we sit in quiet cabs letting GPS do the steering for us, maybe we machinery enthusiasts ought to use that time to think about how we might reword that old phrase. Maybe we could say “It runs like an old car,” when our modern tractors aren’t performing properly.
But back to the auction. When I heard about the tractors, I grabbed my computer, put it on my lap and scanned the online auction list to see when they would sell. As I watched and waited, every time a tractor was next, the channel would break for a commercial. By the time coverage resumed, some Camero or Trans Am was being sold. I guess you can forgive the Speed Channel for that. Tractors may be sophisticated now, but they still have pretty slow quarter-mile times.
The John Deeres and an 8N Ford did sell, but the producers apparently didn’t think there was enough viewer interest in seeing them go across the block, so they weren’t shown on television.
Oh well, our brush with coolness was a close one; just how close did we come? We were a two minute commercial break away! Maybe next year.
Scott
