If one isn’t concerned about the hard industries’ wealth-creation, the jobs of all types, the economic contribution up and down the supply chain and manufacturers’ role as anchor-employers in the communities, one might ponder the void that could be left by their absence.

I just finished a cover story article for the June 2024 edition of Farm Equipment on a dramatic “color conversion” story at Intermountain New Holland (Twin Falls, Idaho). The 2-store dealership earned a chance with a custom harvester on one New Holland swather, and quickly parlayed it into 6 units.

I have said the word never a lot in my life. Growing up, Grandpa would say “Never is a very long time,” and I would shrug it off. Back then, and now, when I say never, I mean it. 

Last week, Leo Johnson (recently retired chairman of Johnson Tractor, Janesville, Wis.) and I took our mutual friend and Farm Equipment inaugural Hall of Fame class inductee Paul Wallem to lunch.