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WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8, 2023

Sauk Valley Media/ shawlocal.com/sauk-valley • Wednesday, November 8, 2023

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TODAY’S FARM

Sauk Valley Media/ shawlocal.com/sauk-valley • Wednesday, November 8, 2023

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Used equipment’s supply catching up to demand But prices haven’t slowed down much

By DANIEL GRANT

FarmWeek Greg Peterson, the used farm equipment guru known as Machinery Pete, has a simple answer when asked about the meteoric rise in market values in recent years.

There just hasn’t been a lot of equipment for sale in the wake of the pandemic.

But that is starting to change, said Peterson.

“Obviously, the last two years it’s been the hottest market ever. Just unbelievable,” Peterson said of used equipment. “It’s not inflation. It’s a supply issue.”

The pandemic created all sorts of widely reported supply chain issues, which impacted production of new equipment. Labor shortages also slowed equipment output.

Many farmers responded by holding on to more of their used equipment and bidding up prices for anything

that was available.

“The summer of 2022 was the absolute bottom for the used equipment inventory,” Peterson said. “There was nothing for sale and everybody was shopping.”

Peterson noted many of the sale prices he saw at used equipment auctions the past two years often broke records by anywhere from $20,000-$70,000 and more.

“When any market is about availability, that price is just out the window,” he said “it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen” since beginning his Chicago-based Machinery Pete business in 1989.

Since bottoming a year ago, the used equipment inventory has rebounded, according to Peterson. But, so far, it hasn’t slowed bids at most auctions.

“With the supply starting to go up and getting back to a more normal pattern, I’m interested to see if auction prices act correspondingly,” he said.

“Auction prices for good used tractors are still sky high.”

Peterson has tracked the volume and value of more than 1.5 million pieces of used equipment at auctions the past 34 years and currently has about 100,000 sale listings at his web-

site, MachineryPete.com. His used value index for high horsepower tractors is still strong, at 9.9 out of 10.

“Four-wheel-drive tractors are hot,” he said. “We’ve not seen any drop-off [in auction prices].”

Other hot spots in the market include tillage equipment, used planters, self-propelled sprayers and skid steers.

The vintage market is also still doing well, he said. However, one portion of

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the market to crack ever so slightly in recent months is used combines.

“Auction prices have started getting softer for 1- to 4-year-old used combines,” Peterson said. “I think we might start to see a few more used equipment special offerings.”

This story was distributed through a cooperative project between Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Press Association. For more food and farming news, visit FarmWeekNow.com.

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Farmers keep on truckin’, but sellers are having a hard time keeping their lots full

By JEANNINE OTTO

“We still face challenges with electrical connectors and the chip shortage is still a real thing,” Zwicker said.

On the bright side, the demand for new and used power units is strong.

“Demand for units still is really strong. From the standpoint of the used market, it shot way up and it crested about 18 months ago and has started to come down. The daycab market will never, ever go all the way down. It’s always been strong, even in a recession,” Zwicker said.

The OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) continue to be on an allocation basis due to ongoing component shortages.

“Dealers only have a certain number of trucks to sell,” the sales representative said.

Another factor that continues to impact the availability and supply of both parts and power units is environmental regulations and emissions requirements.

“You’ve got hundreds, if not thousands, of parts, from the engines to the emissions system. It never fails that the one component you need is the one you can’t get, but we have worked our way through a lot of that. The emissions requirements haven’t helped, but it’s the world we live in,” Zwicker said.

While 2024 won’t bring new requirements, Zwicker

said the industry is considering the impacts of an Environmental Protection Agency proposal announced in April that would further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, specifically nitrous oxides, from heavy-duty trucks, starting with model year 2027 units.

“There are going to be more regulations that we have to deal with, more complexity, and, in the ag market, that’s the frustration. These trucks are tools to haul product. They are not the main part of the business. Our customers need them to run and they need them to run reliably. These regulations add frustration and uncertainty to not only buyers, but to dealers and OEMs,” he said.

When it comes to electric trucks, Zwicker said he doesn’t see them as something on the immediate horizon in the Midwest agriculture truck transportation market.

“Kenworth makes a couple of electric vehicles: One in a Class 6/Class 7 straight truck application, and [one] that is, at this point, isolated to the coasts. The infrastructure for electric trucks is absolutely not in place here and I don’t see them as something that is on the near horizon, at least, not in this market,” he said.

Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@ shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Otto.

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Sauk Valley Media/ shawlocal.com/sauk-valley • Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Shaw Media’s AgriNews publications DECATUR — The demand for trucks is strong.

But the supply? Well, be ready to wait if you want a new one.

“You won’t see a stock truck on our lot. Everything has been sold before it gets here,” said Kyle Zwicker, truck sales representative at CIT Trucks, a major Midwest truck dealer with locations in two states, including a dozen in Illinois — two of them in Peru, about 40 miles south of the Sauk Valley.

Zwicker, who works at CIT’s Troy location, said the industry still faces some of the supply chain challenges that were highlighted by the COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020.

“We are still heavily constrained as far as certain components. During COVID in 2020, there were extended shutdowns in the industry, maybe not your main tier suppliers like Kenworth and some of the other OEMs — their shutdowns were limited to six, seven, eight weeks. It’s been mainly the downstream suppliers, the places that make steering gear, axles, a lot of the electrical components,” he said.

The computer chip shortage also continues to affect the availability of new trucks.

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TODAY’S FARM

Couple’s business is growing in the wild

Sauk Valley Media/ shawlocal.com/sauk-valley • Wednesday, November 8, 2023

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Veggies, doodles and more: A Morrison family is putting food on people’s tables — and dogs in their yard Sarah FORD

For Shaw Media A Morrison family has combined their suburban and rural farmsteads for a small-scale farming business with a growing presence in the region. Thanks to green thumbs, a productive garden, and chickens at home, plus cows and meat birds on a rural property, Tanglewild Farms is bringing diversity to the local market by specializing in eggs, beef, veggies — and even Goldendoodles.

Josh and Jennie Gowan acquired their farmland on Mathew Road, just outside Morrison’s city limits, about four years ago. It was previously owned by Josh’s dad, Larry Gowan, and included nine acres across the road with some barns and a storage shed. After Larry passed away unexpectedly, the house was eventually sold, but Josh kept the nine acres for their family farming dreams.

Josh owns and operates Gowan Concrete, a concrete and excavating business, and Jennie is a first-grade teacher at Northside Elementary School in Morrison. The couple have six kids, and together they work the farm to bring healthy food options to their community.

Jennie grew up helping her grandparents,

Bernie and Neva Baar, of Baar’s Potato Farm in Fenton, and remembers picking from their large garden and canning vegetables.

“I’m very fond of these memories and want to pass these skills down to my kids, which is how the garden came about,” she said. Some of their favorites are salsa, corn, green beans, tomato juice, pickles, and jalapeno jelly.

At their home on Tanglewild Drive, just down the road from Morrison-Rockwood State Park, the Gowans have been raising chickens for the past six years, a venture that started thanks to Jennie’s classroom chicken unit.

Every April, she orders fertilized eggs and incubates them in the classroom, to teach students chickens. After a week of having “lots of chirping in the classroom,” the chicks go to a farmer.

“After a few years of doing this, I decided that I would try it out and take the chicks home to raise,” she said of the start of the egg business. She loves having a flock and selling fresh eggs, and this past summer she expanded the egg operations, raising quail on the farm.

They also added some cows last year and plan to bring in more to “really start to experience farm life,” Jennie said. Meat chickens

were another addition last year, and they’ve become a family favorite. To keep them safe from predators, Josh made an enclosure in the pasture, where they peck away at a diet of grass, bugs, chicken feed and scraps.

Dogs are another part of Tanglewild Farms, where they breed and sell Goldendoodles. The family welcomed their first litter this summer.

“It’s very exciting for us and the kids. We love that we can share these experiences with our family,” Jennie said.

Jennie goes to the Twin Cities Farmers Market in Sterling every other week to sell produce, as well as microgreens such as arugula, broccoli, and radish blends. “Many people love the healthiness of these greens,” she said of the nutrient-dense sprouts. She also received her food license this past spring so she could sell her own line of chocolate chip and monster cookies. The Gowans also like to take part in area pop-up markets. One of their favorite crops to grow is pumpkins, and they had several different varieties for this fall’s harvest.

“We learn so much each year about the animals and garden, and try to improve,” Jennie said. “The farm is definitely a work in progress.”

More info Tanglewild Farms 16819 Tanglewild Drive, Morrison Contact: email tanglewildfarms @gmail.com Online: Follow Tanglewild Farms on Instagram and Facebook for updates, ordering information, events, and delivery options.

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Sauk Valley Media/ shawlocal.com/sauk-valley • Wednesday, November 8, 2023

SAVANNA — How do you get a group of excited fourth-graders to pay attention and learn something about bird migration? You get them to spread their wings.

“We are giving them an idea of what it would be like to be a bird traveling north to south and making that journey,” said Angela Miller, the 4-H program coordinator for University of Illinois Extension in Jo Daviess County.

Miller coordinated a recent presentation on bird migration at Mississippi Palisades State Park in Savanna, one of 32 stations set up at the Whiteside County Soil and Water Conservation District Conservation Day. The annual event brought fourth-graders from Whiteside County out to the state park to learn about soil, water and wildlife conservation in a series of outdoor classrooms. This year, some 600 students attended the event.

“I try to come up with a program that will capture their attention and provide some hands-on activity and some movement,” Miller said.

During the presentation, Miller and the students demonstrated potential threats to birds.

Boxes were set up to to simulate tall buildings; students waved pool noodles to represent hurricanes and storms and wind turbines; jump ropes held aloft became power lines and an Angry Bird figure (from the popular video game) turned into a predatory bird; another student wore a pair of costume cat ears to represent cats and other predators, while water squirted from a spray bottle represented pesticides that can endanger migrating birds; a honking bicycle horn stood in for a car horn to show the threat to birds faces from vehicles.

Hula hoops represented safe spaces, yards, parks and sanctuaries where migrating birds can find shelter, water, food and rest.

At a signal from Miller, the rest of the students “migrated,” running among the obstacles courseto make it to their seasonal home on the other side.

“How many of you failed to migrate?”

she asked after the session. Only a few hands went up.

Miller also offered some tips for students to take home.

“What can we do, what can you do, to help our birds migrate safely? Each of you can create a safe space. You can put out water for them and food. A pine cone rolled in peanut butter is a great snack for a migrating bird,” she said.

Miller also encouraged students to educate themselves about the dangers, birds face.

“What about pesticides? We can educate ourselves and be careful when and where we use them,” she said.

Just over the hill from Miller’s station was Todd Johnston, with Northern Illinois Raptor Rehabilitation in Loves Park. Two of Johnston’s co-presenters showed the consequences of the dangers that birds face.

Johnston had with him two permanent residents of the rehab center.

Athena, a great horned owl, was hit by a car and underwent a partial amputation of her right wing.

Hudson, a red-tailed hawk, collided with a power line and injured a bone in his wing that can’t be restructured.

“We use our permanent residents for educational purposes, but our main purpose is to get injured birds, whether they were poisoned or hit by something, rehabilitated and returned outside,” Johnston said.

He said that while some birds can be helped, others cannot.

“Between our avian vet and our volunteers, we try to get them put back together and out in the wild if we can.

Most of the time it’s successful. Sometimes, especially if we are dealing with pesticides — especially rodenticides — it doesn’t have a good outcome,” he said.

Johnston, who is a falconer and hunts with falcons when he’s not helping them get back on their feet and in the air, said students are fascinated with Athena and Hudson.

“They’ve never seen an owl or a hawk up close and their eyes get huge when I open the doors to the birds’ cases,” he said.

Johnston said student involvement ranges from wanting to pet the birds to questions about their diet.

“They ask, can I touch them? And do they eat licorice?” he said.

Jeannine Otto can be reached at 815-410-2258, or jotto@shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @ AgNews_Otto.

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Playing games until the cows come home Budding dairy farmers fire up their tablet to get some hands-on training on handling herds

By MARTHA BLUM Shaw Media’s AgriNews publications MADISON, Wis. — A video game could help dairy operations train employees on how to properly handle cows in their operations.

“The research I do is driven by stakeholder needs and the most common request I got was to go to dairy farms to train employees on proper cow-handling practices,” said Jennifer Van Os, assistant professor and Extension specialist in animal welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Animal & Dairy Sciences.

Van Os was a little surprised by the request since there are already a lot of well-designed resources that teach proper cattle-handling practices, and many are free. “So, I got the idea that maybe we needed something that is more hands-on, interactive and engaging than videos,” she added. That idea became the video game Mooving Cows.

“There is a growing field of serious gaming and these games have been shown to produce positive learning outcomes,” she said. “Now, the military, workplaces and classrooms are using them.”

The reason these educational games work, Van Os said, is because they are interactive. “People are more engaged when they go through the experience,, and you have opportunities to learn concepts, apply them

and practice skills.” game, you’re participating, engaging and learning by As a result, the games can produce better learning doing. Games allow you to incorporate visualization and retention compared to more conventional instruc- to help convey concepts that might be invisible in tions like lectures or watching videos, real life.” she said.

Games also give players immediate More info “Cow handling is critical and some- Go to filamentgames.com/ feedback. “They allow you to mimic sitthing that affects both animal and uations that are challenging to experiproject/mooving-cows/ employee well-being,” she said during ence in real life because it’s too expenan educational seminar at the World Dairy Expo. sive, there’s not enough time, or it could be “Research shows when you handle cattle properly dangerous,” Van Os said. “They provide a controlled, it can reduce the risk of injuries to personnel and inju- safe environment where you can deliberately make ries to cattle as well as cattle stress levels,” she said. mistakes and learn from those in a way you can’t do “That in turn can affect the efficiency of the milking in real life.” parlor operation as well as the cows’ productivity.”

While Van Os doesn’t think a game can replace Van Os started the development of Mooving Cows hands-on, real-life experience, “there are certain situin 2021. “We hired a local video game programming company in Madison that specializes in educational ations that you might not encounter [with] hands-on training.” video games,” she explained.

“We are expecting to release the game publicly in During the development of the game, different focus groups evaluated it, including Wisconsin dairy app stores by the end of the year and ideally it will be farm owners, bilingual consultants and veterinari- free,” she said.

Mooving Cows may be just the beginning for eduans. “We had them play the game and we got feedback cational games. “We have a list of where this could go on ways to improve it,” Van Os said.

Mooving Cows is available in both English and in the future — sorting cows, getting cows into headlocks, loading trailers, and more.” Van Os said.

Spanish and is played on a touch-screen tablet.

Martha Blum can be reached at 815-410-2254, ext. 117, or mblum@ A video game provides active rather than passive learning, Van Os said. “When you’re playing the shawmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.

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