Everyone and everything works hard on this farm

The Schulers of Roann, Indiana, like to keep their equipment current, so they trade combines every year. This season, they used a New Holland CR940.

Farm begins 2003 harvest with CR combine

When they were newlyweds in 1956, John and Geri Schuler started a hog and row-crop operation in Roann, Indiana. Today, with an 8,000 head finishing space for hogs and a couple thousand acres of row crops, it’s a real family affair. Their two sons, Mike and Scott, got into the business the same way a lot of farm kids do.

“We just kind of grew into it,” says Scott. “Dad always farmed, and when Mike was old enough to get on a tractor he did, and I was the same way.”

All along, New Holland equipment has been a part of their farming operation. Like the equipment, everyone on the farm is hardworking and has a specific job and a specific strength. Scott manages a couple of finishing buildings and does planting and harvesting. Farm employee Tim Draper also helps with the hogs and does tillage and trucking. Mike buys inputs and does the marketing while John spends most of his spring and fall doing tillage and his winters running trucks. Geri keeps the farm records and does the bookwork.

Scott Schuler

Expertise at work

The Schulers put their expertise and strength to work all year long. Starting in the spring, they use their 60-foot Flexi-Coil 9000 planting system. The Flexi-Coil unit plants 24 rows on 30-inch spacing for corn. It also has interplant units to do 47 rows on 15-inch spacing for beans. “It’s pretty versatile,” says Mike.

Their TJ275 4WD tractor is pretty adaptable, too. They use the tractor to pull the Flexi-Coil planting system during the seeding season. In the fall, it’s either doing tillage work or pulling a grain cart. In the spring and summer, they also use it to sidedress nitrogen.

The Schulers also rely on New Holland combines. The original Twin Rotor® combine, the TR™70, was the first New Holland combine they used on the farm. For the 2003 season, they traded their TR99 for a new CR940 model.

John Schuler (left) with his son, Mike, and grandson, Eli.

One feature they really like about their new CR940 combine is the spacious cab. “They’ve come a long way,” says Scott, “there’s lots of room in the cab.”

During harvest, they use a yield monitor in their combine cab to make yield and moisture maps. They have put in a lot of drainage tile over the years, and they can really see the difference it makes on the maps. “If it’s a wet year, we’ll pick up 20 bushels of corn,” says Scott.

The Flexi-Coil 9000 planting system they use also has high-tech capabilities to do variable-rate planting. They hope to use that some day, but it takes time to gather enough information about a field before feeling confident about the technology. When done correctly though, the Schulers think varying the planting rate could make a big difference in efficiency and cost.

Let’s make a trade

This fall, the Schuler family worked to harvest and gather more information about their fields, and were happy to have the CR940 to help them. They like the two-year warranty from New Holland and trade combines every year because they like to keep current and up-to-date with what’s new. Another reason they stay with New Holland is because they like the dealer support and service they get.

Usually, it works out that they keep their previous combine for a couple weeks, so they have two combines running at the beginning of harvest, “but this year, with the new CR model, we’ll just have one,” says Mike.

Scott adds, “A lot of years, we have more beans than corn. We’re a little heavier on the corn this year, so there’s not the crunch time.”

When farming a couple thousand acres, they say it’s important not to have any downtime. With the CR940’s capacity and efficiency, the new combine should fit right into their operation.


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