How many songs can you name about tractors? The Keno Tractor dealership in Keno, Oregon lists what they consider to be the top five tractor songs. They are:
- Big Green Tractor by Jason Aldean
- A Man on a Tractor by Rodney Atkins
- International Harvester by Craig Morgan
- I Want My Tractor Back by Lianna Rose
- Tractor by Granger Smith
I sort of like Kenny Chesney’s “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”. I have never heard a song about the John Deere Waterloo Boy Model N but it does occupy a space in agricultural history.
During my teaching career I learned that my students were rabid defenders of their favorite tractor brand. Early in my teaching career I also learned that Nebraska was famous for a specific tractor related activity – and that was the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory (NTTL).
In this Footnote we will learn more about the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory (and the John Deere Waterloo Boy). Next week we will look at FFA related tractor activities in Nebraska.
The Founding of the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory
According to Roger Hoy, Former Director of the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory:
The Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory (NTTL) began with a farmer who purchased a tractor that did not perform as advertised. In 1916, Wilmot Crozier, of Osceola, Nebraska, bought a Minneapolis Ford Model B. He found this tractor to be unreliable and had trouble getting parts and maintenance; no such services were available in Nebraska. In 1919, Crozier was elected to the State Legislature, where he teamed up with Nebraska Senator Charles Warner to write the Nebraska Tractor Test Law. They were aided by L. W. Chase, chair of the Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Nebraska. The bill passed easily and was enacted into law in 1919.
Shortly after, NTTL was established. A building was constructed and equipped with the necessary tools and office space; an outdoor test track was built. Professor Chase convinced Claude Shedd, a former student, to serve as the first Engineer-in Charge. As required by the law, a board of engineers was established from department faculty to approve the test procedures. The first tractor test, involving a John Deere Waterloo Boy Model N, was completed on April 9, 1920.
Figure 1. The first tractor tested at the NTTL in 1920 was the John Deere Waterloo boy Model N. Image from the NTTL web site.
In the early years, tractor testing consisted of validating the manufacturer’s claims for drawbar horsepower and belt horsepower. Fuel consumption was also measured. For belt horsepower measurements, the flat belt drive on the tractor was connected to an electric resistance dynamometer, which provided the load. For drawbar testing, a load car was built by adding a traction dynamometer to a tractor frame that was pulled in reverse. This load car was attached to the drawbar of the test tractor using a hydraulic cylinder with an internal spring. As the spring was compressed by the pull of the tractor, the increased hydraulic pressure was measured with a pressure gauge.
During the 1920s, various load cars and load units were developed for drawbar testing, and many changes in tractor testing have occurred due to changes in tractor technology. Measuring drawbar pull using the pressure in a hydraulic cylinder was an excellent early choice; this test method was used until 2011.
The Tractor Test Law had the intended effect of eliminating disreputable tractor manufacturers. Even outside of Nebraska, where the law did not apply, lack of successful NTTL testing became a barrier to sales. Further, the Great Depression caused consolidation, and elimination, of many tractor manufacturers, resulting in fewer tractor models. A major change occurred in 1934, when the first rubber-tired tractor, the Allis Chalmers WC, was introduced. For the next several years, the NTTL often tested the same model on both steel wheels and rubber tires. By 1937, the last of the steel-wheeled tractors was tested. A new load car, designed by Charlie Adams, was implemented in 1938 and remained in use until 2003, although it was extensively modified over time. The Adams load car was equipped with precision pressure gauges for the hydraulic cylinders, among other features.
With the advent of World War II, the NTTL discontinued operations because tractor manufacturers converted to war production. Carlton Zink, one of the NTTL’s long-serving Chief Engineers, spent the first two years of the war teaching farmers how to keep their equipment running. He left the NTTL in 1943 to work for Firestone and then Deere, where he retired in 1968. At Deere, Zink pioneered the development of rollover protective structures (ROPS) for agricultural tractors.
In 1946, operations resumed with Engineer-in-Charge Lester Larsen, who led the NTTL until 1976, a period that saw much tractor development. In 1956, a change was made to the Nebraska Tractor Test Law to refine the definition of a tractor, which created a more modern definition of an agricultural tractor. Although steel-wheeled tractors were once widely used, by 1956 all agricultural tractors ran on rubber tires. NTTL constructed a new concrete test track that required less maintenance than the original cinder track and provided more consistent testing conditions.
Figure 2. The new NTTL test track. Image from UNL.
In 1984, hydraulic lift testing was added to the testing procedures, and in 1988, the NTTL began measuring and documenting the hydraulic power of tractors. Larger tractors created challenges. A new lab was built with doors 24 ft wide to accommodate larger machines; but, the concrete test track was only 15 ft wide and it was occasionally necessary to perform tractor testing at Lincoln Airport, which had a paved surface wide enough for the largest tractors.
Since the NTTL’s first test in 1920, tractor technology has changed enormously. The staying power of NTTL can be explained by our consistency in supplying accurate, unbiased, and relevant performance data. Without our reputation for integrity, we would not have survived. At the same time, if we had not adopted new testing procedures with the changes in tractor technology, we would not have survived.
As the NTTL begins its second century, those two qualities define our mission. The NTTL also serves a secondary mission in educating agricultural engineering and agricultural mechanization students. Each semester, up to 30 students are employed part-time and provide much of the labor required for tractor testing. Our students work with NTTL staff and with engineers from various manufacturers, gaining hands-on experience that is an excellent complement to their classroom studies. Today, former NTTL students are working at all levels of the equipment industry.
Figure 3. Tractors have certainly changed over time. UNL photo.
Concluding Remarks
The Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory has existed for over 100 years because it has provided a valuable service to farmers in Nebraska and the United States. Agricultural education programs in Nebraska have also existed for more than 100 years. What types of services have agricultural education programs in Nebraska provided their communities? A partial list includes:
- Poultry Culling
- Soil Testing
- Seed corn testing
- Milk testing
- Seed Treatments
- Pruning and Spraying
- Plant disease id and control
- Planting orchards
- Crop variety plots (corn, potatoes, fertilizers, soybeans)
- Bulk ordering of limestone and fertilizers
- Landscaping
- Controlling erosion
- Weed ID and control
- Adult classes for farmers
- Providing education for returning Gis after the world wars and other armed conflicts.
So the question is what has your agricultural education program done lately for your community?
References
Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory website , https://tractortestlab.unl.edu/.