Local farmers featured in 2012 tractor calendar
By Heather Thorstensen
hthorstensen@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 01/11/2012 4:00 PM
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A 2012 calendar from Octane Press features antique tractors, including many from the Midwest, and lists farming and collectible shows.
Publisher Lee Klancher was the main photographer behind "Tractor: The Art of the Machine" and said he wanted to present the tractors in a creative way.
"Being around those guys who take such pride in their work, they're do-ers," said Klancher. "...those guys is what makes the experience special."
The calendar may be purchased online for $14.99 at www.octanepress.com or call (512) 334-9441.
Jerry Mez of Avoca, Iowa, owns the June tractor, a 1959 Farmall 560.
It's one of his favorite pieces in his collection of more than 150 IH tractors on display at Farmall-Land, his 26,500-square-foot museum.
"It was just a neat-looking tractor that was kind of new for its time and had a lot of power," he said.
The 560's IH turbocharger can drive output to 80 horsepower.
Mez's father owned Avoca Implement Company, a firm that he eventually took over. They worked with International Harvester equipment, which led to Mez's love for Farmalls.
He got the 560 when a local farmer traded it in at the implement dealership. He has sold the dealership and now focuses on the museum.
The 560 comes out for parades and he uses it to mow sometimes around Farmall-Land, which is visited by approximately 4,000 people each year.
Having his tractor featured in the calendar makes Mez want to get outside and use it.
"I keep it near the door," he said.
The August page features a McCormick-Deering Model 141 combine owned by Mel Melcher of Norwood Young America, Minn.
The minute Melcher first saw the combine, sitting in a farmer's shed, he knew he wasn't going to leave until he made a deal.
The 141 was made from 1954 to 1957 during the start of the self-propelled era for International Harvester.It was the first to work with a corn head in the IH line. Melcher's combine has original paint and a windrow head. He takes it to threshing shows, where he harvests small grains.
"You'll have some of the farmers that come to these shows and they'll check how much grain goes over the back end of the combine and I'll get compliments on how good a job it does," he said.
Melcher has 40-plus IH antique tractors, grows corn and soybeans and sells and repairs Badger farmstead equipment.
"I just love the antique tractors and working with the older tractors," he said. "They were much simpler than what they are now, very simple in mechanical terms. I just love tinkering with them and I love driving them."
The September calendar page has a 1918 New Hart-Parr 12-25 owned by Dave Preuhs of Le Center, Minn.
Preuhs, who helped start the Le Sueur County Pioneer Power Show and hosted the first event on his farm in 1974, kept tabs on this tractor for 10 years before the previous owner let him buy it.
It's only one of seven known to exist.
This elusive model marked a transitional time for Hart-Parr, from huge tractors the size of a steam engines to a size that would suit smaller farms.
New Hart-Parr tractors were made for only one year before they went back to being called simply Hart-Parr, he said. The color changed after 1918 from gray to dark green and horsepower was added.
Preuhs sticks with restoring Hart-Parr tractors partly because of the company's knack for innovation.
"They're the company that coined the word 'tractor', that kind of intrigued me," he said.
Hart-Parr merged in 1929 with others to form the Oliver Farm Equipment Company.
"The tractors we have nowadays are nothing like the old tractors were back then...they did a good job and they were proud of the equipment that they did make. That's a time in history that we're slowly losing. It's nice to keep something that was built and made to last many years," Preuhs said.