September 2, 2022
Every farmer wants to update equipment as he can afford it. I needed something bigger and better. I was harvesting with a 7720 John Deere combine and six-row head. My wife wouldn’t run it. I had children getting old enough to run it, but it was noisy, and some sensors didn’t work. They didn’t like running it.
I updated to a 9650 STS with an eight-row corn head. The quiet cab, buddy seat and stereo made all the difference in the world. I trained my son, Caleb; daughter, Whitney; and wife, Michelle, to run it as I ran trucks to market.
The routine changed with the bigger machine from me waiting for a full truck to trying to keep three trucks emptied and the combine rolling. Caleb would rush home from college to get in the combine.
One Friday, Michelle was harvesting, and I was on the road to market when she called. I just happened to be in my Freightliner, our noisiest truck, and I could hardly hear her. It sounded like, “Tell them I’m running it.”
“Say again?” I asked.
At the same time, my phone buzzed. Caleb was calling. I thought maybe he had car trouble at school. I told my wife just a second and switched to answer.
In a loud voice, Caleb said, “TELL HER I’m going to run the combine! I came home early so I could run it!”
I asked, “Are you sitting next to your mother in the combine?”
“Yes, I am, and she won’t get out and let me pick corn,” he answered.
I was beside myself. The two of them were fighting over who was going to pick corn!
I switched calls and explained to her that while we had Caleb, he was running the combine. She reluctantly exited. Years later we can laugh at this. But that day, all I could do was shake my head.”
Schmicker writes from Wanatah, Ind.
Editor’s note: Todd, we were all waiting for you to say you called the implement dealer and asked for your old combine back to restore family harmony!
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