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Hesston will celebrate 100,000 windrowers produced this March, but I still recall the old 500 I drove as a kid.

Curt Arens, Editor, Nebraska Farmer

February 5, 2016

2 Min Read

I wish I had a photo of our old Hesston 500 windrower. I spent a lot of time on that machine. When I was quite young, I rode along with my Dad as he cut hundreds of acres of alfalfa and oats on our farm and for neighbors. Then, from the time I was a teenager through college and into my own beginnings on the farm, it was our main swather.

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We cut bromegrass pastures, oats and alfalfa and in dry years, CRP grass with it. By today’s standards, the old 500 was tiny. Our unit had trim steering, which helped a young teenaged boy build up his arm muscles, and a 42-hp Wisconsin engine. The 500 was unique because it had a new hydraulic vari-drive speed control that was operated with a foot pedal, so you could change ground speed without changing engine speed. It was innovative for the day.

I’m not sure what year Hesston first released the 500, but I know that the company generally claims to have commercially produced the first self-propelled windrower. I have learned through a number of antique farm machinery sites that Versatile, Owatonna and Killberry may have produced swathers earlier than Hesston, but I don’t have the facts to back it up. I’m guessing our 500 was a 1965 model. Hesston windrowers like the 500 were very popular around our region because Hesse’s Inc., the local implement dealership, was also a Hesston dealer.

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I was reminded of the Hesston 500 this week when I read an AGCO newsrelease about the 100,000th Hesston windrower rolling off the production line on March 29 in Hesston, Kansas. There will be more than a little fanfare surrounding that event. The company continues to honor Lyle Yost, who invented and introduced Hesston’s Model 100, the company’s first self-propelled windrower in 1955. It was touted at the time with greater versatility for harvesting hay and grain crops and brought about a new level of maneuverability, which was also a benefit of the 500.

By the way, that 100,000th windrower at Hesston will be an AGCO WR9860 with a 4.9-liter engine and 195 hp. That machine will do 17.5 mph in the field and 24.5 mph on the road. I guess we’ve come a long way since that old 500.

Be sure to follow local farm news at Nebraska Farmer online and at our new Facebook page. You can follow me on Twitter @HuskerHomePlace.

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About the Author(s)

Curt Arens

Editor, Nebraska Farmer

Curt Arens began writing about Nebraska’s farm families when he was in high school. Before joining Farm Progress as a field editor in April 2010, he had worked as a freelance farm writer for 27 years, first for newspapers and then for farm magazines, including Nebraska Farmer.

His real full-time career, however, during that same period was farming his family’s fourth generation land in northeast Nebraska. He also operated his Christmas tree farm and grew black oil sunflowers for wild birdseed. Curt continues to raise corn, soybeans and alfalfa and runs a cow-calf herd.

Curt and his wife Donna have four children, Lauren, Taylor, Zachary and Benjamin. They are active in their church and St. Rose School in Crofton, where Donna teaches and their children attend classes.

Previously, the 1986 University of Nebraska animal science graduate wrote a weekly rural life column, developed a farm radio program and wrote books about farm direct marketing and farmers markets. He received media honors from the Nebraska Forest Service, Center for Rural Affairs and Northeast Nebraska Experimental Farm Association.

He wrote about the spiritual side of farming in his 2008 book, “Down to Earth: Celebrating a Blessed Life on the Land,” garnering a Catholic Press Association award.

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