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.

A visit to the American Foundry Society’s Metalcasting Congress last week in Milwaukee turned up equipment design news for Nebraska-based Orthman Manufacturing, and ductile iron casting supplier Lethbridge Iron Works of Alb., Canada.

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.