We take it for granted — the ergonomics of modern tractor seats and controls, the multiple monitors that help us keep track of field operations, auto-steer, air conditioning, Sirius radio — all the comforts of home help make the long hours in the cab a little easier for a tractor operator.

It certainly wasn’t always that way. We were reminded of this when we found an ad for Year-A-Round Corp., the producer of generic tractor cabs that could be retrofitted on any brand, from page 50 of the Sept. 1, 1979, issue of Nebraska Farmer.

Year-A-Round, based in Mankato, Minn., was founded like so many other farm manufacturer brands: by a farmer looking for a better way of doing things. In the ad, the company touts its cabs as quiet, roll tested and sound improved. It mentioned sound-deadening insulation, a dual floor mat, hinged front lower windows for easier servicing, two doors, stairway steps, a heater, pressurizer air conditioning, radio, a windshield wiper, plus two-tone paint to match almost any tractor brand.

Innovative for the day

Those features were impressive by 1970s standards, but anyone who had a Year-A-Round knows that, compared with modern cabs, it was noisy to say the least. And those cabs were dusty. It was simply impossible to keep the dust out of those earlier cabs.

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REMEMBERING: This ad for Year-A-Round cabs ran on page 50 in the Sept. 1, 1979, issue of Nebraska Farmer.

Early tractors had open-air cabs, such as the Rumely Gas Pull built in 1912, but it was Minneapolis Moline that perfected the idea in 1938 with its UDLX tractor. It came with windshield wipers, a heater and even a radio. Although the concept was innovative and relatively popular with farmers, only a few were ever sold until production was discontinued at the beginning of World War II.

Like all good farm innovations, a few others tested the market and introduced cabs over the years. Merton Anderson decided to build his own cab in his farm shop one winter and then took his idea and prototypes to the Minnesota State Fair in 1966. Suddenly, Anderson was in business, and his Year-A-Round Cab Corp. was born.

By 1967 — only one year later — he had built and delivered 2,000 cabs. The main selling point was the ability for the cab to fit and be customized to most main tractor brands of the day. If you follow tractor supply or auction company list-serves or forums today, you can find Year-A-Round cabs for sale, ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to $1,000 or more, depending on the brand and condition.

The cab craze instigated by Year-A-Round caught on, and major tractor manufacturers including John Deere, Versatile and IHC began adding cabs as an option on their new tractors in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

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It is interesting today, with a push toward more autonomous tractors in the field, that modern cabs may one day no longer be necessary because there would be no tractor operator in a tractor seat. Going back to the days of the open-air tractor may be on the horizon again.

The company founded by Anderson still is in business in Mankato; however, it does other fabrication and no longer makes tractor cabs.