Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Pat and I attended the Ohio Farm Science Review yesterday.  It’s one of the better-run outdoor farm exhibitions.  We departed very early Tuesday morning, and arrived there about 930 am.  The day was overcast, there were very light sprinkles occasionally, but the temperature warmed to the upper 60s, so it was pretty comfortable to be outside.  We walked almost every ‘street’ in the exhibit field.

Pat poses for a picture at the corner of Soybean Avenue and Silage Street in the exhibit field of the FSR

We saw displays by major and minor players in the farm equipment and supply business.  Of course, one of the highlights for me was the John Deere exhibit, and I got to see the new 9R series 4WD tractors.

This is a 2015 JD 9620 tractor. As the number indicates, it has 620 HP. This is the most powerful tractor JD has ever produced.

We also saw a new flex-draper header at the CaseIH exhibit.  The interesting part on it is that the knife drive is in the middle of the header!

This display explains the knife drive on the new CIH flex draper header.

There were hundreds of displays, too many to see them all.

The German brand of Fendt had a presence at FSR

New Holland introduced a new configuration to their tractors.

This big Massey-Ferguson was a headliner in their exhibit.

After a nice lunch, we rode the shuttle out to the fields to watch the combines run.  We only saw some corn harvested, I’m not sure the overcast day was a good day to see soybeans harvested.  There were about 10 combines running.  They’d make a ’round’ and then stop to let the farmers examine the quality of their work.  Then, they’d go again.

The combines are lined up, about to begin their work.

We also saw nearby a demonstration of many kinds of machines installing drainage tile.  The soils on this Ohio State University experimental farm will benefit from this practice.

Pat and I were pretty tired from all the walking, many miles we estimate… We stopped overnight near Dayton and returned home today.

On the way home, Pat and I stopped for a short visit in Knightstown, Indiana.  There we experienced the old “Hickory” gym featured in the movie “Hoosiers”… (by the way, my favorite movie).

Being here brought back sweet memories of the long-ago childhood days when I’d watch Ross play in these kind of gyms. Later, in junior high school I got to play in these kind of places. But later, by my high school days, these were disappearing as small schools were being consolidated into new and bigger high schools around Indiana.

The place is still in excellent shape, and used as a community center.  There are occasional games here too.  I took the opportunity to shoot a few baskets.  My shot is a little rusty, but it was neat to hit a few in the Hickory gym.  One particular part that struck me was that the old painted wood bleachers and rafters even had the ‘smell’ I remember.