Russ' Vintage Iron

Large, farm-place Christmas light displays always impressed me as a kid. Seeing Christmas lights on buildings, fences, and even farm machinery was remarkable. For a few years, roughly three decades ago, we did the same thing on our farm.

The 100th annual National Cornhusking Championship was held this month near Macomb, Illinois. While very few people around today have much experience picking corn by hand, family stories and history bring this lost practice back to life.

This month's edition of Russ' Vintage Iron is a look at grain storage in the past. The corn crib was an essential farm building.

In this month's edition of Russ' Vintage Iron, we take a closer at some of the lesser-known tractor variants. Some vintage tractor manufacturers had slight differences in their versions of the same series of tractors, while other makers had more complex different versions of the same tractor.

Russ' Vintage Iron column about John Deere potentially ending production of the moldboard plow prompted stories about the past from readers. This month, we present three of their interesting tales of plowing.

There has been some talk on social media recently of John Deere ending production of the moldboard plow, the implement the man John Deere founded his business on 150 years ago. Years of using John Deere plows created many memories for generations of farmers.

I have worked at DTN for 25 years as of May 5. We look back at my time at the company and how Russ' Vintage Iron came to be.

A birthday party in a friend's dad's farm shop led to an interesting discovery: a vintage De Laval portable milking machine from the 1920s. This small engine allowed dairy farmers to milk cows, separate cream and even run light in their dairy barns with the use of equipment for the first time.

When someone you love has dementia/Alzheimer's disease, there's a long goodbye, such as for someone who is a beloved wife, a mother, and grandmother -- and so much more.

In this month's edition of Russ' Vintage Iron we have perhaps solved the mystery of what implement a vintage cast iron seat came off of. In addition, we also look at vintage iron listings on Facebook Marketplace.

DTN Staff Reporter Russ Quinn pays tribute to his uncle who passed away this fall and shares some memories of him.

Most farmers and ranchers are not ones to waste things, which might be why some farmers have a steady supply of "items" and sometimes they might not know what exactly they have. One Iowa farmers asks for help identifying a vintage implement seat he found in a building on his farm.

Ford Tractor Company, as part of an ad campaign, tried to pump up sales of its new Select-O-Speed transmissions in 1959; Ford Tractor dealers were supposed to paint at least one of their tractors gold. Russ Quinn asks if anyone owns, or has stories about, these rare golden tractors.

DTN Reporter Russ Quinn shares one reader's snow story.

DTN Reporter Russ Quinn shares one reader's snow story.

DTN Reporter Russ Quinn continues to ponder how people pushed snow in the past, as well as shares one reader's own snow story.

DTN Reporter Russ Quinn is pushing snow this winter with equipment his family has used for generations.

DTN Staff Reporter Russ Quinn compiled a list of what he considers to be the all-time top 10 best series of tractors.

DTN Staff Reporter Russ Quinn compiled a list of what he considers to be the all-time top 10 best series of tractors.

Today, Vintage Iron looks at some stories sent in by readers.