Display connects century of ag technology

NORMAL, Ill. — The old 10-20 gets a second chance as it connects a century of agriculture history and technological advances.

Heartland Community College’s Agriculture Complex is now the home of a restored 1927 McCormick-Deering 10-20 tractor, donated by Dave Bishop, part-time agriculture faculty member who developed the college’s regenerative agriculture certificate program.

An unveiling ceremony in front of the Agriculture Complex was held July 30.

The 10-20 was owned by Bishop’s grandfather. It sat in a shed on his family farm from 1955 to 2021, when it was given a second life.

The restoration process began in 2021 under the direction of Allison Bode, Lincoln Community High School’s agriculture educator and FFA adviser.

Joe’s Towing transported the tractor from the farm near East Peoria to Lincoln, where students disassembled the tractor and sandblasted the individual parts.

In 2023, agriculture educator and FFA adviser Molly Schempp took over supervision of the project.

Students replaced broken bolts and made minor repairs as they pieced the tractor back together. Enlisting the help of LCHS metal fabrication students, Schempp’s class refabricated the rusted fenders.

They then prepped the tractor for paint and hosted a painting workshop for interested agriculture students. Students used a rust-converting paint with UV protectant to ensure that the tractor wouldn’t fade in direct sunlight.

“This represents the transition from horsepower to machine power in American agriculture,” said Bishop, who operates PrairiErth Farm with his family near Atlanta in central Illinois.

“It represents ironically 100 years of history. The tractor dates back to about 1924 and the new ag facility came online in 2024.

“So, there’s a whole century of change right there staring at each other. The old 10-20 gets a second chance.”

In his remarks during the ceremony, Bishop reflected on the changes and challenges in agriculture during the past 100 years.

“Here we are today, looking at ‘state of the art’ agriculture technology — state of the art in 1924 and state of the art in 2024,” he said.

“It’s really pretty amazing when you think about it. Throughout all of human history until the early part of the 20th century, all the labor to grow our food was provided by people and animals. And then one day, these things show up — noisy, smelly and completely uncooperative.

“With the horses, when you want to go somewhere, you climbed on the seat, picked up the reins and said, ‘Git-up,’ and away you went. Completely automated process with ‘voice recognition technology.’ With the tractor, it didn’t quite work that way.

“My grandfather was a middle-aged farmer in 1927 when he bought this tractor, and he really struggled, like most farmers of his generation, to metabolize the amount of change this represents.

“For my dad’s generation, the World War II generation, no big deal. They had no problem with the new technology. Although I can’t help but wonder what dad would think about auto-steer and tractors driving themselves around the field.”

The 10-20 model was built by International Harvester from 1923 to 1939 with 215,551 produced over that time. Its 284-cubic-inch, four-cylinder engine was powered by a combination of gasoline and kerosene.

“There are two fuel tanks. The big one is kerosene and the little one is gasoline. You started the tractor on gasoline and as soon as you get it running there’s two levers and you had to pull one and push the other one at the same time and that switched it over to kerosene. This was really complicated stuff for somebody back then. It was quite a big deal at the time,” Bishop told AgriNews.

“This is how we got where we are today. It was no walk in the park.”

Legacy

“The McCormick-Deering tractor display touches on so much of what our Heartland Community Ag Complex is all about,” said HCC President David Cornille.

“The 10-20 presents a nod to the past, but has been painstakingly restored by the Lincoln FFA students who represent the next generation of ag leaders. Likewise, our complex brings together community, tradition and technology to carry on the agricultural legacy of central Illinois.”

“The 10-20 we have in this display transitioned Dave Bishop’s grandfather from one age to another, bringing technology to the family farm,” said Heartland Community College Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Rick Pearce.

“We thank Dave for sharing not only a piece of agricultural history, but his own family history with the college and our students. And we thank the students and staff of LCHS for all the hard work they put in to restore this tractor into a showpiece for the next generation.”

Heartland’s 29,500-square-foot Ag Complex, located on the west side of the main campus, opened in January, serving career pathways that include agronomy, agriculture business, regenerative agriculture, precision agriculture and others.