How many were there?

How manyJohn Deeres were on display at the show? Several people counted, and the consensus was right around 500 John Deere tractors at the show. One exhibitor brought 29 tractors, mostly 320's, 420's and 430's in many variations.

There were at least two Deeres with mounted 1 row pickers, a 120 and a 127. Another came to the show with a mounted 237 mounted picker. There were a number of vintage JD combines on hand, several 12A's, 30's, two 40's, one older, and a later seldom seen version. A couple of 55's representing different versions, one with a 315 JD corn head.

Also in the harvesting line, a rare JD "grain pump" type elevator in good original paint. This unusual elevator used an auger hopper to feed a chain fitted with round paddles running through a round tube. The unit was usually fitted with a JD flywheel engine.

Five 8020 four wheel drives were in attendance, along with Darrel Fischer's WA-14 and WA-17 four wheel drives as well. That's a good turnout of the some of the rarest Deeres, only 100 8020's were built, and 65 0f the WA's. Some model variations had much smaller numbers, but few tractor, models approached the rarity of these four wheel drives. Also in the "big" tractor area were several 5020's and 6030's, including a 5020 re-powered with a Kinze V8 Detroit Diesel engine kit.

Though not really considered antiques by most, a number of 30 and 40 series tractors were there as well. Though the majority of these tractors are still working hard on the farm, the newest 30 series are approaching 30 years old, certainly an age that would qualify as vintage.