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Combine Collectors Stage Harvest Rally
Do you have an old combine parked back be-hind the barn in the weeds?
If so, you might want to clean it up, bring it inside, and put it under lock and key. Be-cause if Illinois farmer Frank Waterman gets his way, that old hunk of steel may one day be worth a small fortune.
That'll only happen if combine col
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Combine Collectors Stage Harvest Rally AG WORLD Ag World 21-5-21 Do you have an old combine parked back be-hind the barn in the weeds?
If so, you might want to clean it up, bring it inside, and put it under lock and key. Be-cause if Illinois farmer Frank Waterman gets his way, that old hunk of steel may one day be worth a small fortune.
That'll only happen if combine collecting goes the way tractor collecting has gone the past few years. Many antique tractors - and even not so old tractors - now sell for much more than they did when new.
Waterman started collecting old combines about 20 years ago when he got the chance to buy a Deere 30 pull-type at an auction. It was fitted with an after-market platform auger instead of an apron. It was a combine his father had always wanted but had never bought.
He had so much fun "playing" with the old Deere machine that he started looking for other "old timers". He now owns another 10 pull-type machines that he bought at bargain basement prices ranging from $5 to $50.
Included in his collection is a 1955 Massy-Harris pull-type, a Case No. 50, a Massy-Harris Clipper, a 1950 Allis Chalmers 50, an Oliver 18, and a 1942 IHC with a 4-ft. header.
One problem with collecting combines is that they take up a lot of room although, as Waterman notes, older model combines are really not that big. He has an empty building where he keeps all 10 machines.
This past 4th of July, Waterman held a first-of-its-kind antique combine harvesting rally. Conditions for harvest were perfect so he called a number of friends to see if they'd like to take the old machines to the field. The men ran six old machines, harvesting 10 acres of wheat in about 3 hrs. with plenty of rest stops for fun and conversation along the way.
Waterman notes that collecting is popular in his family. He is the father of Jane Aumann, the wife of well-known auctioneer and publisher Kurt Aumann, who publishes the "Belt Pulley", an antique tractor magazine.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Frank Waterman, 23128 N. 21st., Nokomis, Ill. 62075 (ph 217 563-2192).
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