At The Farm Gate: Parts Runs Keep the Farm Running
The farmer’s wife handed my husband a stick-style drawing. “He told me you will know what he needs,” she said of her farmer husband, while my husband paused at the brain teaser before him.
At the time, my husband worked behind a parts counter for a farm equipment dealership. The era pre-dated smart phones with capabilities of taking and sending photos, but we did have flip phones. So with a phone call to talk through the drawing, my husband figured out the farmer’s need.
’Tis the season for the inevitable parts run. In Grubhub style, the run includes a designated person driving to a retail location to pick up a part and deliver it to the farm. The act’s level of urgency generally falls into one of two categories:
The “rainy day parts run” includes less-urgent parts related to general maintenance or fixing something non-critical to the machine’s function while the rain prevents farmers from harvesting. It likens the pre-harvest repair and maintenance intended to prevent down-time.
The “emergency parts run” indicates a machine-down situation. The parts runner immediately abandons what they’re doing to fetch a part with no opportunity to piggy-back extra errands on that trip to town. You get there. You get back. And then hope the part fixes the problem.
Getting there could take 20 minutes or it could consume a four-hour roundtrip that’s still faster than Next Day Air. In the meantime, our mechanically minded team members prepare the machine to receive the part. If that repair exceeds our expertise, we call a professional technician for help.
Ideally, the fix is as simple as fetching the part. But sometimes, parts runners return with the wrong parts due to human error in the ordering process. Occasionally, runners unknowingly retrieve an incomplete order that requires a return trip. Worse yet, the fetched part doesn’t fix the problem.
Technology generally improves the accuracy of parts orders as farmers can review web-based parts schematics to identify the exact part numbers. Sharing smartphone photos helps parts departments with diagnosis and identification. Bringing in the broken part is almost a sure win for an identical replacement, so blown hydraulic hoses often make the trip.
My husband recalls an unusual parts pickup in which a farmer who lived hours away by car landed a helicopter in the dealership’s parking lot. The farmer ran inside for his parts and left within seconds. It’s an extreme case, but machine-down times call for machine-down measures to keep the farm running.
About the author: Joanie Stiers farms with her family in West Central Illinois, where they raise corn, soybeans, hay, beef cattle, backyard chickens and farmkids.