Lorne is the primary manager for field operations and equipment. Together, he and his father manage herds of about 100 commercial cows and 75 buffalo cows. Lorne's mother, Evelyn, is very active in the local farmers' market, selling eggs, homemade cottage cheese and baked goods.

Changing management styles, as the farm shifts from father to son, led to the need for more powerful equipment.

To handle the expansion, Lorne and Eugene upgraded to a Flexi-Coil 3450 air cart with a 45' wide 5000 Series air drill in 2001. It has paired row, Stealth boot openers on 9" spacing.

"There was more land to be running over. We'd been doing two or three passes. We had to cut costs for fuel and equipment, and that was one way to do it," Lorne says.

The no-till drill improved crop performance, but soon it was obvious that they needed a tractor with more horsepower. It was taking every bit of power they had available on their existing 4WD tractor.

"It was a little bit too small. We had a lot of slippage, and the tractor was getting up in hours," he says.

Drought hit the area hard in 2002. They escaped a grasshopper infestation in 2003, but a cool wet season in 2004 set back crop quality across the Prairies.

Still, as 2004 came along, Lorne knew he wanted to continue upgrading production practices. The time was ripe to change field tractors and add a 45-foot land roller to the system, behind the air drill. He and his father agreed to do both.

"We decided to roll all our crops last year," Lorne says. "I think it paid off. Just about every crop was lodged. We had to swath everything. We have some rocks, and it did save on the swather by rolling everything."

The TJ375 is able to handle all of the Lamash's big jobs including pulling their Flexi-Coil 5000 air drill system.

Lorne and Eugene Lamash decided they needed a more powerful tractor, too. Other than land, it's the biggest purchase they've ever made. "Price and fuel were the big issues," he says. "We considered a TJ425, but Dad figured out that we'd get by with the TJ375, and he was right. It's working great for us." With 375 horsepower, pulling the air seeding system and land roller also worked well. "We had an ample amount of horsepower left (with the TJ375) and there wasn't much slippage. With our other tractor, we had a tough time just pulling the drill alone, never mind hooking a roller to it."

The first 400 hours on the TJ375 really were a break-in period, says Lorne, and the question about fuel economy will really be settled this year. He didn't observe any issues with fuel economy, but he did observe a big power increase.

"We did increase our seeding speed," he says. They had been seeding, without a land roller, at about 4.2 mph. They increased the seeding speed to 4.7 mph without a problem. It was idling at about 1,600 RPM. "You just hit the cruise control to set RPM and away you go. That's a nice feature."

Inside the cab, Lorne found a big improvement in visibility and comfort.

"You sit high enough in the cab so everything is visible. You can see right around. Hooking up is very easy; you can see exactly where the hitch is. You can see very well at night, too. You kick the lights on, and you're seeding as long as your eyes stay open. I do at least 14-hour days at seeding.

"With the TJ375, our fan RPM is constant. You don't worry about plugging the drill because of lack of fan speed. We have the odd small hill, but no problem. The hydraulics are very good. Seed placement stays very even."

The first season performance was excellent. He says, "There's always something wrong with new machines, but this one's been good to us. We just did the ordinary maintenance; nothing major showed up."

Generally, Lorne says servicing is easier on the new TJ. "Everything is fairly handy. The method for cleaning the air filter is a nice feature."

Now, looking ahead, he sees a few further changes coming as he works to keep the family farm in sustainable practices.

"I've had a GPS mapping system for two years, mainly for custom spraying that I do, and I plan to use an autosteering package. It may require a bigger TJ eventually, with more horsepower, but we're going to upgrade to a bigger drill, hopefully with a 500-bushel tank and eventually we may switch to liquid fertilizer if it shows a big cost difference.