As the German government now allows us to have more contact with friends, I decided to visit an old friend of mine who lives in a village near the city of Lueneburg, Germany.
Those who have served in the Army or Air Force during the Cold War know that Lueneburg Heath, because a part of this beautiful landscape is also known as a NATO exercise area.
Jens Boettcher lives in Kirchgellersen, a village with a population of about 2,500 people.
I met Boettcher during my first years of collecting farm toys, as a 20 year old with the same passion as I have for farm models.
At that time, he had just completed his three-year training as a mason and was working in his profession.
Now 44 years old, the collector shares his passion for farm toys and the real tractors and machinery. 
During the first four years of his life, Boettcher lived on the farm of his grandparents which was the cornerstone for his passion.
On his fourth birthday, his grandfather gave him a Britains set containing a Massey Ferguson 595 and a barge wagon.
Living in a small village has some advantages and one of those is that all the kids know each other.
Moreover, all the kids had their farm toys - mostly Britains in 1/32 scale, because other brands in 1/32 scale were not available in those years.
His collection started to expand when he was 15 years old, as he started buying toys from the past from his friends and other kids who needed money to buy gas for their mopeds.
When his class made their graduation trip to Brighton in the United Kingdom, he discovered a small toy store that was closing. With more than a 50% discount on all the Britains items, he bought the whole lot after making a call back home to have his parents make the money transfer.

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As tractors began emerging in the early 1900s, kids copied their farm's tractor chores with a pedal toy.
In the late 1940s, Inland Manufacturing Company started producing a pedal tractor called the Tractall. The welded, stamped-steel toy was labeled as a Farmall H.
The Eska Company was formed in 1945, and die-cast pedal tractor manufacturing soon followed. In 1949, the John Deere A coffin block pedal tractor came onto the market. This Eska pedal tractor holds the record for the highest price paid through a public sale.
Since those early models, pedal tractor interest has grown exponentially. Through that growth, pedal tractors have become a major sector of the farm toy hobby. As with smaller scale hobbyists, craftsmen have built models not offered by the commercial manufacturer. Still others have made equipment for pedal farming. And through customizing, greater detail has been added to enhanced pedal tractors. 

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When it comes to collecting farm toys, Dave Klassen has a golden touch. His collection includes many of the gold versions released, glinting alongside the red, green orange and white of the other models.
"I love putting collections together, so when you have every one in the collection, then you think you might as well try to find the gold versions of the specific toys in those collections, because I think they look kind of cool settn in the cabinet and it's neat to have those hard-to-find pieces mixed in with those collections," Dave says.
Dave is well-known in the farm toy hobby as a collector of gold tractors, but he puts one myth to rest. No, his collection isn't complete.
"There are lots I don't have. A lot of collectors talk like I must have all of them, but I don't. The more you collect, the more you realize how many you don't have," he says.
​
FARMING IN HIS BLOOD
Dave grew up on a farm in central Manitoba, Canada, and wanted to pursue farming as a career there, but circumstances wouldn't allow it.
"My folks couldn't help me get started on a farm. They had tough times in the early '80s. They just could not get me started on the farm. When I was in my late teens, that's all I wanted to do. I wanted to get involved in farming," he says.
​Instead, he started working for a trucking company, but when bad luck struck again, he decided to take his future into his own hands.

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If June 6, 1944, was D-Day for Normandy, then Aug. 30, 1960, was D-Day for John Deere to introduce the "New Generation" tractors. The new multi-cylinder John Deeres were a dramatic departure from the venerable Johnny Popper, requiring a dramatic introduction to John Deere dealers.
The introductory show had to be spectacular, for corporate advertisers had to sell the 4010, 3010, 2010 and 1010 to the dealers, so the dealers would sell the new, multi-cylinder tractors to skeptical customers. Indeed, tradition is important to Deere and its customers: Legend has it that some folks cried when they learned that the two-cylinder was gone. And among all four new tractors, the 4010 and 3010 represented the greatest departure from tradition.
After seven years of Deere's engineers developing the new tractors in the secret "Meat Market," a closed down grocery store, Deere executives set their D-Day for Dallas, Texas (Miller 13). Deere chose Dallas for the big event based on the logistics: exhibit space, lodging, weather - the whole bit.But long before the show started, in Moline, Deere planned with care, right down to a 1/16 scale mockup of the show layout using wooden human figures and Ertl 630 and 430 toys. After all, Deere's extravaganza had to accommodate over 6,500 people. The big show started at 10 a.m. in the Dallas Memorial Auditorium with entertainment and John Deere films in the round.

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Terry Johnson, East Lansing, Mich., describes his life as having moved "from hoof to mouth." He elaborates, saying one must roll with the changes in life.
Terry spent several years working for Michigan Glass Lined Storage, a dealer for A.O. Smith Harvestore Products, but after investing more than 11 years into what he thought was a lifelong career, the agricultural economy nosedived in 1984.
"I could have remained with the company and moved from Michigan to Texas or Washington, but Michigan is my home, and my wife, Diane, and I wanted to raise our children around family. So, I accepted a position selling dental supplies. Although I had always felt weird in a coat and tie, I decided to give it my best, and in 2018, I retired after 34 years," Terry said.
Retirement has allowed Terry to begin his second childhood. He travels and does yard work, which he truly enjoys. "The farmer in me bought a new John Deere X738 garden tractor to help mow, haul mulch and plow snow. It's the largest tractor in my subdivision"" he said. But his days and dreams are filled with toys.

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From crafting a homemade scooter to salvaging toys from the sandbox, an early mechanical aptitude eventually led Paul Henry to collecting and building scale models.
"When I think back over the eight-plus decades of my life, I discovered a pattern for mechanical interest.
I loved riding on the tractor with my dad when I was knee-high to a grasshopper. At about age 8, I grabbed the steering wheel on the John Deere Model B and drove it for the first time. During my seventh grade, I started building a motor scooter. That mechanical interest has continued into my years as a seasoned citizen," Paul shared.
Paul's mechanical aptitude has been expressed in a special form - scale models built from scratch. An early project was a scale model racetrack built some 50 years ago. He expanded on that interest by constructing a 1/32 scale slot car racetrack that measured 4x16 feet. Paul's true passion is building 1/16 scale farm tractors and equipment models from his home in Moorhead, Minn.

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While not everyone who grows up in farm country falls into the temptation of the farm toy world, Jason Shireman still prefers to blame growing up in west central Illinois as the gateway to his favorite affliction.
"From riding a New Holland 9882 with my dad dis ripping to tagging along in the grain truck with my grandpa or spending hours in the combine with my uncle, it seemed like few days went by when I was not around a piece of farm equipment. Due to space and budget reasons, it is hard to collect the real thing, so I have found farm toys to be a suitable substitute," he said.
Like most farm toy collectors, Jason started carpet farming as a child.
'I had a plethora of Ertl tractors and implements growing up, and every one covered some serious acres on the carpet. Of course, I wanted to make the miniatures look just like the real thing, so customization was the key. My first custom was a Case Agri-King. We took the tires off another tractor and glued them on to make duals. Those duals didn't last long carpet farming, but a passion was born nonetheless," he shared.

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During the 43rd National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, Iowa, Amanda Schwartz, director of the National Farm Toy Museum, said the museum has been busy updating and changing displays!
The National Farm Toy Museum was open during the show and is open for collectors to stop by on a regular basis. Of course, it is always prudent to check ahead in case hours change during this turbulent time.
The first display that Amanda discussed was "100 Years of the Nebraska Tractor Law."
The law was passed in 1919 by the Nebraska Legislature requiring that any agricultural tractor sold in the state must have its advertised performance claims verified. Prior to this time, tractor manufacturers could (and did) make a lot of claims that their tractors could not meet. This law helped protect farmers to ensure the tractors met the reliability standards.
The actual working states, "No person shall be permitted to sell or dispose of any current tractor model of the hundred or more horsepower in the state of Nebraska without first having (a) made application for a permit and obtained a permit to sell the tractor model (b) the model tested by the University of Nebraska."

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Sean Weed invests a piece of his heart and soul into each 1/16 scale customized model pulling tractor that he builds, as he finds solace in a hobby that has bittersweet memories for him.
Living in Harriston, Ontario, Canada, with his wife, Raechel, Sean grew up in southwestern Ontario, where both sets of his grandparents farmed. A neighbor who farmed near his paternal grandparents competed with an unlimited modified pulling tractor, and Sean often tagged along with his father when his father went to help with the tractor.
Sean remembers playing in the farm shop, surrounded by the smells of grease and diesel and the sounds of ringing metal and roaring engines. There, Sean also became friends with the neighbor's son, Billy Douglas Jr., who as 12 years older than Sean. Sean also vaguely remembers accompanying his father and the crew to tractor pulls.
But tragedy struck the family when Sean was 8 years old and his father committed suicide.
The grief-stricken family moved closer to Sean's maternal grandparents and Sean began working at a young age, including milking cows on his uncle's farm by the time he was 12 years old.
Sean attended college and pursued a career as a diesel mechanic, now working on motorhomes at an RV dealership in Harriston.
Through the years, Sean also collected farm toys, first getting toys as childhood gifts, then starting to collect them as an adult. His collection totaled about 500 pieces at one point, but he has let most of them go. He now focuses his collection on resin Gottman Toys built by SpecCast, with a collection of about 120 now.

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