Tour Stop #1: June 28, 2021; Star Rock Farms, Conestoga, PA

Abe Barley runs a highly diversified operation just outside of Lancaster, PA, near the township of Conestoga. In late June, you’ll find him in the field harvesting about 2,000 acres of wheat, in order to double crop his soybeans for a fall harvest. He tends to cut the wheat a little higher in moisture to get his soybeans in as early as possible and to provide straw for a local mushroom producer. The wet crop makes for a tough harvest, which is why he asked his local dealer, MM Weaver, to demo the CLAAS LEXION 8600TT against his John Deere S680 combines . . .

Duane Ditchens runs a large farming operation in the Willamette River Valley, near Salem Oregon. While his primary crop consists of perennial and annual grasses, he also raises clover as a rotation crop. In July, you’ll find him in the field harvesting about 1,500 acres of the tough-to-thresh crimson clover. This year, he demoed a CLAAS LEXION 6900 straw walker with rubber concaves developed by his dealer, Holt Ag, in particularly windy and dry condtions. The new machine ran against his fleet of John Deere S670 rotary machines . . .

David Landewee runs a large diversified operation in the bootheel of Missouri near the town of Bloomfield. His most important crop is the 1,900 acres of soybeans that he raises for seed. Needless to say, he requires a combine that is gentle enough to help him earn premium prices on the soybeans with as few losses as possible. He also grows a cover crop in his beans, which can present a challenge if not timed just right. Such was the case, in late October, when MirTech Harvest Center came to demo a LEXION 7500 alongside his John Deere S770 . . .

Kenneth Bell is a diversified farmer with more than 7,000 acres of rice fields northeast of the town of Sikeston in the bootheal of Missouri. He runs two John Deere S780 combines on “floater” tires to contend with the challenging wet conditions common during rice harvest. 2021 was more challenging than most. In early November his local CLAAS dealer, MirTech Harvest Center, asked if they could bring out the LEXION 8600TT, with its large threshing capacity and low-psi tracks designed for just such conditions . . .