“You can deal with the public and customers, but we refer to our Hitachis as therapy because when you’re in the excavator, it’s just like therapy,”

Casey said.

That love of excavating extends beyond Casey to four generations of Vanderwieles involved in the construction business. Casey’s grandfather worked in sand gravel. Casey’s parents, Cass and Pattie, own Triple C Redi-Mix, Inc., specializing in sand, gravel, ready mix and excavation, in Baker City, Oregon.

The entire family takes part in the day-to-day operations. That includes sons Corey and Casey along with Casey’s wife Tara and their daughters Dawson and Campbell. Four additional employees also help out.

Casey worked alongside his father as a “jack of all trades” until Cass started Triple C Redi-Mix in 1989. They also live near each other – Casey lives on one end of the property while Cass lives on the opposite end.

After that, it didn’t take very long for Casey’s two daughters – Dawson and Campbell – to show their aptitude for excavating. Dawson first hopped in a Hitachi compact excavator to help her mom move dirt to a garden. Now, Dawson is forging her own path as an instructor in a heavy equipment operator training program at Baker Technical Institute in Baker City.

“You could say excavating’s in our blood,”

said Casey, who has lovingly named their Hitachi excavators Johnny (ZX160LC-3), Kunzie (ZX240LC-3) and Clyde (ZX350LC-3).

Leaving no doubt

When Dawson walks into the heavy equipment training course classroom as the instructor, students often doubt her. After all, in addition to teaching groups of mostly male students, she’s only 20 years old.

Being doubted doesn’t faze her, though. For Dawson, who also takes online classes at Blue Mountain Community College, it just means she has to prove herself.

Dawson said:

“It’s similar to when you’re in fourth grade and a substitute teacher comes in. They think I’m the substitute, so I prove myself by showing rather than telling them how to use controls such as a boom, stick and bucket to get a full scoop of material.”

In her work at Baker Technical Institute, Dawson also taught young, female inmates during a special two-week program. She said it’s her favorite class so far and hopes the skills the women learn during their time in her course will help them get jobs once they’re released from prison.

Dawson said:

“The women’s results were great. I think that going into the class, they had a lot of self-doubt, but they figured it out. Next thing you know, they were helping each other pass different exercises. They had an attention to detail and patience, which is great for operating. I set goals and every single woman passed all 20 exercises.”

Family business

While Dawson’s schedule is filled with teaching operating courses, she still helps her dad and grandpa often. She’s also very familiar with their love for Hitachi machines.

Dawson smiled:

“All my grandpa and dad care about is their Hitachis. They’re the smoothest operating machines they’ve had yet.”

With their Hitachi machines, Triple C’s efficiency has increased. Casey said the company handles the same amount of material in a half day as compared to a day-and-a-half without the Hitachis. They also plan to get bigger haul trucks now that they can load using four buckets compared to the seven they used to need.

Casey said:

“The 350 was the first Hitachi my dad got. The Hitachis outperform anything as far as excavators. The response and power are outstanding. Those things will dance. The fuel savings will make the equipment payment. They’re great.”

The Hitachi fleet isn’t the only thing he thinks highly of. For Casey, working with family is a choice – not an obligation.

Casey said:

“I can honestly say since day one of working with my dad, we’ve never had any fights. He has taught me so many different things. I feel like one of the richest people in the world.”

This article first appeared in Hitachi’s BREAKOUT magazine, Fall 2020 issue, and it was written by Sarah Larson

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Would it be surprising to find out this summery city is actually the winter vegetable capital of the world – and that agriculture is its number one industry? The city is Yuma, Arizona; one that most associate with being a dusty, desert landscape is rich and vibrant with agricultural variety and is home to one of the places growers can find RDO Equipment Co. and John Deere tractors.

If it’s hard to believe Yuma is a bountiful agricultural community, just look at Jon Dinsmore’s Instagram account (@thefarmerjon). Yuma is the place where this fourth-generation farmer learned about planting, harvesting, caring for the crops that are now his livelihood.

The Challenge: Year-Round Agriculture Requires Well-Rounded Machines

With 1,200 acres of farmland in Yuma’s diverse and year-round farming area, Dinsmore Farms grows a variety of crops throughout the year.

“We grow a large mix of lettuces and cilantro during ‘produce months’ then alfalfa, Sudan grass, and Durum wheat in the spring and summer,”

Jon said. Along with producing a large variety of crops comes the challenge of finding equipment that can handle the different practices each requires.

“It’s tough to see large tractors parked on the sidelines,”

he explained.

“If they’re not suitable for the crop we’re growing at that time, we can’t use them.”

Jon was always interested in a tractor that could handle a variety of Dinsmore Farms’ practices, particularly its various tillage needs, so it could be productive and working most of the year vs. sitting idle.

The challenge was finding a tractor that could work with the different implements, to go from tilling one season to listing up beds during produce season. If the right equipment was deployed, Jon estimated that it could get them,

“an additional two to three months of work out of the one tractor.”

Smoothing A Rocky Past

As Jon set out to find the right tractor, he had to confront some of his own preconceived opinions. The farm had historically owned and operated a certain brand of equipment, a decision that traces back years before he was ever involved in the business.

“A main reason our farm ran the color and brand we did for so many years is because we were always told John Deere was too expensive,”

Jon said. But he wanted to explore all of his options and set out to find a dealer that could help him get to the bottom of this family folklore and educate him on his options with Deere.

It was then that Jon confronted his second preconceived opinion: dealer reputation. More than two decades ago, the Deere dealer in Yuma wasn’t a great partner to Dinsmore Farms. Jon explained,

“The service aspect just wasn’t there, both my grandfather and father didn’t have positive experiences.”

It’s easy to see how this type of family tradition gets passed down. But Jon says, throughout the years, he noticed the new Deere dealer that entered Yuma in the 1990s, RDO Equipment Co., was different. The way it does business, partners with customers, even its presence in the community have all helped erase the memories of the previous dealership for Jon. That, plus the genuine approach of the team members themselves gave him ample reasons to overcome his long-held convictions. He decided he needed to give RDO the chance to earn business.

About five years ago, Brant Palmer, Precision Product Specialist, Joe Twomey, Regional Sales Manager, and Bobby Walker, Account Manager, began working with Jon, trying to build a relationship and offer solutions they believed would further Dinsmore Farms’ success and solve their unique challenges.

“They gave us opportunities to demo smaller tractors to see if John Deere machines would be a good fit for us,”

Jon said.

“We really liked how the Deere tractors ran, they’re strong machines with more power than what we’d been running.”

That initial experience gave Jon the motivation he needed. As a result of the strong personal relationship plus a new conviction in the power of Deere, Dinsmore Farms converted to three Deere machines for hay work, then made a bigger move two years ago with Deere’s 8345 tillage tractors.

Green equipment would continue to find its way into the Dinsmore Farms’ fleet with another opportunity to address one of Jon’s biggest problems, the earlier-mentioned need for a more productive, robust tractor.

The Solution: Machines

In the spring of 2020, Dinsmore Farms’ Account Manager, Bobby had been talking about Deere’s new 8RX tractor and that it might be the versatile workhorse Jon was looking for, one that could handle multiple tillage practices and give the farm the extra two to three months of productivity it needed.

Coincidentally, Jon had been doing his homework on this tractor. All the online reviews he saw were good. He also follows Precision Product Specialist, Brant on Twitter and enjoyed all the photos and experiences in the valley he was sharing of the tractor.

“Plus,”

he said with a laugh,

“it looked like a cool tractor. It kind of draws out the little kid in you when you see it.”

As they had done in the past, the RDO team arranged for Jon to demo the tractor. Jon was interested to see how the tractor would handle the farm’s various implements, how much impact it had on the field, and how it integrated technology and data management.

The Results Are In

When it came to Jon’s goal of less field impact, the 8RX performed as he’d hoped, saying,

“With the 8RX, I was really surprised it could turn as sharp without leaving as much of a trace. Our experience with two-track tractors was they’d leave a mound of dirt after pivoting at the end of each row.”

In addition to fields looking more aesthetically appealing, the performance cut down on added clean-up work of the mounds.

Jon was pleased with the tractor’s performance, both in terms of having the power to handle implements, as well as the added bonus of comfort.

“It’s a good, stable tractor in the field,”

he said.

“It really grabs the ground and distributes that power.”

Jon continued, pointing out the 8RX could handle a variety of implements, while being fuel-efficient and providing a smooth, comfortable ride.

The technology aspect also impressed him, saying,

“We had no GPS issues. When trying to get an A/B line, the tractor didn’t waver off point, which is a big deal, because with other systems, we’ve experienced down moments when they drop the satellite signal.”

Jon further commented on this key aspect, noting the ease of data sharing from the machines to their devices.

“I can pull up everything right on my phone, be able to monitor hours, keep track of where the machine is, watch all the data easily. RDO also has access so Brant can send us breakdowns and make it easier to understand the usage reports. It takes the pressure off us because, we all know that when work gets busy, you can get complacent. But the reports make it easy to understand the data and get us to best usage.”

Speaking of usage, the real benefit xperienced from the 8RX demo was the one that he’d hoped for and directly affected the bottom line.

“Using the 8RX, we realized we can downsize from running two competitive-brand tractors because it does everything we need,” he said. Jon also recalled his earlier comment, his father’s and grandfather’s previous concern with Deere equipment being too expensive.

“There’s a lot of available technology that gives us more opportunities. That’s on top of the savings that come from getting more production out of a single machine. Overall, it saves us money.”

While not a drawback of the machine, Jon acknowledged one adjustment they’ll have to make with the 8RX is monitoring hours and maintenance due to the tractor running more hours than they’re used to.

“With two tractors we’d normally share the workload, so with the increased hours per machine, we’re cautious not to over use it.”

The demo period went so well that Jon decided to move ahead with a purchase of the 8RX tractor. He’s eager to have it as a permanent fixture in the fleet so he can keep doing what he loves – farming.

The Future of Farming

Jon’s long family farming history is certainly a point of pride but he’s glad he further investigated the family’s folklore on Deere and the local dealer. In selecting his Deere equipment, Jon is starting new family traditions and using those machines to power them forward.

“It wasn’t until I got a little older I really started to grasp and understand what a blessing of an opportunity it was to grow up on the farm,”

he said.

“I always wanted to follow my grandpa and dad, and now I get to provide that same opportunity for my kids.”

Jon says that, even if they don’t share his same passion and follow in the family’s farming footsteps, the lessons learned on the farm will serve them well, no matter the path they take.

“I don’t know if any of them have it in their heart but I hope they find whatever it is that lights the fire like farming does for me,”

he said.

SIDEBAR – Making Farming Social

With more than 5,000 followers and dozens of photos and videos shared every month, Jon has done something many farmers haven’t – in fact, something many Instagram users haven’t: created an engaged fan base that gets a behind-the-scenes look at the hard work and beauty that is farming. And for Jon, the value of social media has nothing to do with how many likes and comments he gets.

“I love to connect with other farmers on Instagram, from everywhere,”

he said.

“It’s especially fun when people tell me my photos remind them of their farm where they grew up, even if they’re not still in the business.”

As a professional farmer, part of the Dinsmore Farms family, Jon also appreciates the business aspect that comes with the connections he has built, opportunities to share ideas and best practices, and see new equipment.

“There’s real business that happens on social media,”

he added.

In addition to Instagram, Jon is also on Twitter (@thefarmerjon).

Source: RDO Equipment Co.

The post RDO Equipment Co. and John Deere Tractors Team Up for a Yuma Farmer appeared first on North America FarmQuip Magazine.

The family business Grimme from Damme (Germany) has completely taken over the Danish specialist for vegetable technology Asa-Lift. In 2013 the Grimme Group already acquired 70% of the shares in the company founded in 1936 in Sorö, close to Copenhagen (Denmark).

Over the past seven years, the cooperation has developed very positively. During this time, the workforce has increased from 70 to over 130 employees. Extensive investments have been made in buildings, product development, production and the distribution of customer-specific machinery, for guaranted future growth. With over 30 product groups Grimme and
Asa-Lift offer the world’s most comprehensive range of vegetable technology for onions, carrots, red beet, chives, parsnips, fennel, celery, etc.

“With Asa-Lift and Grimme we have two strong brands for the high demands in vegetable cultivation. We will continue to develop this segment with maximum power to become the market leader in innovation, quality, performance, crop protection and profitability”,

explains Christoph Grimme, Managing Director of the Grimme Landmaschinenfabrik.

Source: The Grimme Group

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