Farming on the cutting edge

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April 28, 2018 - 4:00 AM

Shawn and Kylee Geffert and their son, Wade. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON

Just inside the the 40-foot-wide fold-up door on Shawn Geffert’s machine shed — if you can call a building large enough to hold a basketball court a shed — sits a tiny John Deere riding toy, the apple of son Wade’s eye.

Nearby, poised for dispatch as soon as ground dries, is a tractor sporting wide, hard-rubber tracks rather than wheels and tires. The machine, a John Deere 9520RX, is large enough easily to run over and crush a small pickup truck. More importantly, it is capable of cruising through a field of corn stubble drawing a 40-foot disk at 10 miles an hour.

Wade, who turned 18 months this week, is years from making the decision, but if he follows the Geffert pedigree and becomes a farmer, he may never step foot in a tractor, but instead oversee field work and harvesting by way of a computer terminal.

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