“Mechanic” never was a pejorative term for the (almost always) men who worked on tractors and combines in sheet-metal buildings throughout the Arkansas Delta.
A generation ago, these mechanics kept moving the green and red and blue tractors and combines that, in turn, kept the state’s agriculture engine humming along. They worked long hours in building shells that were hot in the summer and drafty in the winter, usually muddy and always greasy.
They may as well have showered in oil, because their work basically required them to immerse themselves in it, as well as antifreeze and transmission fluid, day in and day out.
To be sure, farmers themselves performed more than a little maintenance on the machinery. From changing oil and fuel filters to replacing cutter-bar teeth and re-flighting augers, farmers could usually help with the upkeep of their equipment, but yesterday’s machines didn’t require a lot of special education to maintain.
The typical diagnostic session consisted of listening and guessing.
Times have mostly changed.
Today’s service manager at his desk at an equipment dealership receives a text message. A particular tractor out in the field is losing hydraulic oil pressure. The tractor’s sensing system alerts the manager, who can quickly alert the farmer and catch the problem before it becomes a serious issue.
Down the road, a tractor’s computer notes that the field cultivator it is pulling varies its pull torque more than usual. The service manager can alert the owner that her driver is being a bit too rough on the equipment.
That’s a far cry from the day when a mechanic would have listened to an engine to try to figure out what might be causing a horsepower loss and then tried to fix the problem through a process of eliminating possibilities.
Today’s ag equipment technician simply hooks up a laptop and quickly diagnoses the problem.
Nearly 70 percent of the next generation of ag equipment technicians are learning their trade at places like Arkansas State University-Beebe.
The school’s program is one of nearly two dozen across the country sponsored in large part by John Deere Co. John Deere provides equipment and parts to the school to allow the students hands-on experience. By the time a student completes 40 hours of academic instruction, he will be well on his way to earning John Deere’s “master technician” designation.
But getting into the program takes more than an application and a half-inch wrench. Applicants must have a sponsor. Greenway Equipment dealerships have filled that role. The sponsors agree to provide an “internship” for the students and will have a job waiting on those who graduate.
Dr. Keith McClanahan, director of the agriculture equipment technician program at Arkansas State University-Beebe, explained that today’s equipment is too complex for a shade-tree mechanic to work on.
“These pieces of equipment have integrated GPS. The implement they are pulling, if they are working on a hill and the GPS is activated, the pulled implement will communicate with the tractor. It is very complicated,” he said. “Many of these pieces of equipment will have multiple computer systems embedded in them.”
Ethan Patterson of Biscoe, a graduate of the ASU-Beebe program and an equipment technician at Greenway Equipment in Brinkley, said repairing tractors and combines these days is an involved endeavor.
“You couldn’t do it without computers. All the technical stuff uses the computer,” he said as he worked on a tractor transmission.
Patterson graduated from the ASU-Beebe program and has worked for Greenway for more than three years. He said that he ultimately wants to help train technicians.
Nick Quinn, service manager at Greenway’s Brinkley location, said repairing agriculture equipment has changed greatly in his tenure.
“There is so much electrical, hydraulics, computers. There is so much technology in there. It’s nothing like it used to be. There is no more ‘Average Joe’. You have to be really savvy,” he said. “You used to be able to get almost anybody to come in and do the work, but not anymore. You have to be dedicated. We put them in training every year.
“We are always trying to get them in a class on combines or sprayers or whatever we can. They always have to be training to keep up. ”
Seven people work in Quinn’s shop, and they stay busy all year. The manager said that dealership service shops, in years past, often had slow times in the winter. No more. With new equipments costs skyrocketing, farmers are either keeping their under-warranty equipment in tip-top shape or protecting their aging equipment with preventive maintenance.
McClanahan said graduates of the ASU-Beebe program will likely earn upward of $40,000 shortly after they enter the workforce and within a few years, after continuing their education, will be able to earn double or triple that.
Though technology has greatly changed the face of today’s ag equipment and the technicians who work on that equipment must have many hours of training, there is still a place for a throwback “mechanic.”
Leslie Fahr of Weiner started his own ag mechanic business in 1999. He built a loyal customer base and continues to maintain the equipment for a number of farmers in northeast Arkansas, but without an affiliation with a dealership he does not have access to the training and information required to work on new equipment. Instead, he focuses on maintaining equipment from the pre-electrical/hydraulic period and performing routine maintenance that is still possible on today’s models.
“When I started, there were levers and rods that worked valves,” he said. “You don’t have that anymore. Everything is electrical and hydraulic. It’s gotten so complicated that I can’t hardly do anything to them. You have to have a computer to hook up to them that tells you what the problem is.”
Fahr said his business has evolved the past five years.
“I work on the older tractors and combines and power units, even though there are not a whole lot of power units left anymore. People are changing most of them over to electricity,” he said.
Fahr said he works with a small group of customers and keeps “covered up” in business.
“People will say, ‘Give me your card, and I’ll tell people about you.’ I don’t need anyone knowing about me. I’m as busy as I can be now,” he said.
Fahr follows a schedule of overhauling tractors in the winter and early spring and usually works on combines after that. He said that unexpected breakdowns still come along, though, and make for a hectic time during planting and harvesting seasons.
Looking to the future, Fahr said he can almost see an end to his career.
“When all the older stuff is gone, I guess I’m gone,” he said.
(Editor’s note: Leslie Fahr is an uncle to the article’s author Rick Fahr.)
Sign up for Daily E-news
