Full steam ahead for Threshermen’s Reunion

GRAYMONT, Ill. — In between fungicide and insecticide applications, making preparations to host two field days and replacing a hot water heater at the local Humane Society, Aaron Rients and numerous other volunteers are getting ready for the 76th annual Central States Threshermen’s Reunion.

The event, located on Route 23 north of Pontiac, runs Aug. 29-Sept. 2 and is touted as the second oldest steam show in the United States, drawing visitors from across the nation.

Rients has served on the Threshermen’s Reunion board for over a decade and is currently second vice president.

John Deere will be the featured brand this year, with a special focus on the 60th anniversary of the popular 4020 tractor.

“We’re working with a John Deere club from the Streator area and they’re spearheading the 4020 gathering to try to get as many as we can,” Rients said.

Volunteers have been sprucing up the Threshermen’s Park grounds over the summer in preparation for thousands of visitors.

“We had a work day Aug. 10 and we had one in July. We needed some poles replaced. Corn Belt Energy gave us some poles and we got those replaced. We replaced some yard lights that weren’t working. We put up a new ticket booth this spring. We had a tent and that was kind of precarious to put up and keep up sometimes with the winds we get,” Rients said.

“Things are shaping up. We’ll be doing the final mowing this week and people will start bringing stuff in Sunday.”

The Threshermen’s Reunion features daily working displays including saw milling, threshing, rock crushing, sheep shearing, power parade and plowing.

There also will be a stock tractor pull and pre-1935 tractor pull, horse pulls and sanctioned tractor pull.

Visitors also will travel back in time with the new Alvin H. Immke Jr. Farm Museum, 1900 country schoolhouse, 1910-era blacksmith shop and 1920 Conoco gas station.

Grandfather’s Legacy

One of the regular displays at the Threshermen’s Reunion keeps the memory of Rients’ grandfather, Lowell Sidfrids, alive.

Sidfrids was an engineer at Roof Manufacturing Company in Pontiac and on the ground floor of developing innovative mower designs.

Rients has collected and refurbished Roof mowers over the years and is proud of his grandfather’s contributions to the mower’s development.

“Kind of his crowning achievement was he took my Uncle Dean’s toy Tonka Jeep and upscaled it to a lawnmower size and put a 60-inch belly mower under it. It was ahead of their time, a precursor to a utility vehicle because of the fact that since it was like a Jeep, it had storage space in the back and you could have a passenger,” he said.

“They sold them to state parks, sold them into Canada and sold them to golf courses and other places. Roof also had a myriad of other products between the weed mower, the 60-inch mower and push mowers.”

Rients is working on a Roof Palomino mower’s drive shaft.

“This Palomino, which looks like the World War II Willys Jeep, was built sometime between the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Palomino was one of the first rear-engine riding mowers in the U.S.,” he said.

“The Palomino was later redesigned with a large engine and gas tank to add more utility capabilities. Unfortunately, doing that took away some of the bed space. That model was called the 60 because is still had a 60-inch deck. A few years later they built the 60 Deluxe with a hydraulic dump bed on it, giving it more utility use. I have one of each of those.

“I also have a Palomino that was gifted to my grandfather by (Roof Manufacturing founder) Earl Roof for all his years of service, and we’ve got sheet metal from an early one that was probably the test bed for a lot of things. Grandpa farmed, so he had a yard that could be utilized to test things to see whether or not they worked on the farm.

“We think we’ve got every variation of the weed mower. There we multiple engine choices so we don’t have every chassis design with every engine style, but we have every chassis style they produced and we’ve got a prototype of the last one that could have been manufactured before they close and sold-off to the California company.

“My grandpa also designed a three-wheel version called the Roof Ranger Rider. I’m not sure how much he contributed to the Roof VP75 brush mower, but he was there as the hired farmhand when Earl Roof designed the first one. I’m sure he had a decent amount of input into how that worked.

“The later version of the Palomino had a 2-speed hydro and the 60 and Deluxe also had 2-speed hydros. I’ve run both of those down the Threshermen’s tractor pull track and I was clocked doing 23 miles per hour on a lawnmower, and it’s factory. It’s not even tuned up.

“For the technology difference compared to a Toro, it’s not too bad for 50 years difference.”

Farm Update

When AgriNews last met with Rients, he was planning to scout fields once the ground dried up after some rain.

He found some aphids and was concerned about the potential for tar spot.

“I’d already bought some fungicide at our FFA auction for both corn and soybeans. So, I had them booked. Even though commodity prices are low, I thought it was probably worthwhile with the threat of tar spot coming in,” he said.

“From what I know of tar spot through seed company meetings, there’s usually some other disease that’s causing the most damage, and tar spot comes in when the plant is weak and then it robs yields. If the plant’s healthy to start with, tar spot may come in and do a little damage, but it’s not that one-two punch.

“So, we decided we were going to spray both corn and soybeans with fungicide to protect it, corn specifically from tar spot so that it doesn’t have that one-two punch for yield-robbing.

“Some of the neighbors found aphids right before my fields were going to get sprayed. We did a little scouting and found some and decided it was worth throwing in an insurance policy for the acres, even if they didn’t have large amounts of aphids.

“After that, other people who didn’t spray it seemed like populations started to blow up. It was probably a good thing that we made the application.”

Next Up

Once the Threshermen’s Reunion is done, Rients will shift gears to oil changes and other projects in preparation for harvest.

“I had my combine inspected at the dealership and there really wasn’t too much that needed to be done. They needed to replace the feeder house floor, and I just let them take care of that. So, not too much expense there, and I’m really happy about that,” he said.

“I don’t think there will be too much to repair. Last year, we did the sickle on the bean head, so it should all be good. I’m switching the GPS monitors from a tractor to the combine.”