Greetings from Dyersville!

We’ve received very good responses on our 1:16^th IH 1460 Prestige Select™ Combine. We are nearing the end of the ordering period, you have until February 27^th to contact your local Case IH Dealership to get yours on order. If you would like to read more information on this project, you can view the flyer here.

We had some good “inside” information on this unit from Kendrin Geerdes. Kendrin is part of our Graphics team and her dad, Tom McCormick, owns and runs an IH 1460. Please enjoy reading about the history of his machine!

Stories from the Cab

It was the fall of 2020 and I (Kendrin) was on my way home from work with our one-year old son, Wilder. As I was rounding the corner of our gravel road, I could hear Wilder begin shouting from the backseat, one of the three words that were currently in his vocabulary, aside from Mama and Dada, “ride, ride, ride.” Which only meant one thing. My dad (Grandpa Tom) was nearby, and Wilder had spotted him! We pulled up to the garage and sure enough, Grandpa Tom was in the field near our house combining the corn. We waited for Grandpa Tom and his big red combine to come back around the field, and we climbed up for a ride. Wilder hopped up on my lap and started clapping and yelling “ride!” as the old combine came to life and made its way down the field.

At some point during our ride I took a video of us and sent it to my co-workers, who enjoy a good, farm equipment video. Bill, my boss, responded immediately asking what the model number was. The next morning when I saw Bill in the office he explained that he wanted the first Case IH Prestige Select™ unit to be an IH 1460 combine. As luck would have it, he now knew someone who owned one that could be used as a model. So on the last warm, fall day of 2021, Pat, an engineer on our team, made the trip to northeast Iowa to measure the combine’s every detail. He spent almost eight hours climbing all around, under and on the machine taking pictures, notes and measurements so a replica model of the machine could be designed.

The following fall, when the model finally came in, my heart swelled with so much pride. Looking through the window I could see where we sat as kids under our baby blankets and the levers we’d get to pull to swing the auger out and unload the corn. It was all a little part of my childhood. These feelings and memories are why collectors collect, to forever have a keepsake from those special moments in their lives.

I sat down with my dad and asked him some questions about the combine. Enjoy some long-ago stories from the cab of Tom McCormick’s IH 1460.

When and why did you buy the combine?

It was 1979, my brother and I had spent the entire day picking corn with our dad. At the time we were doing all our corn with a mounted 2-row IH 234 picker, and every time my brother and I came out to the field with a wagon, our dad was under the picker working on it. It was either plugged up or a chain had fallen off, and it was then that I realized that if we wanted to keep farming, this could not go on. That night I happened to run into a mechanic at the IH dealership in Waukon, IA. He asked me if we had one of those new IH combines yet, and if we didn't, we needed to go check it out because this new machine was revolutionary. It was going to change farming for the better! I started kicking the idea around in my head that night. Could I buy a combine, should I buy a combine? The next morning, I approached my dad and asked him, tongue-in-cheek, if I bought a combine, would he be willing to build a shed to put it in? He didn’t even stop walking or hesitate. He said, “You’ve got yourself a deal!” Game on!

Do you remember how much the combine cost?

Soon after that I went up to Burg Implement in Waukon, IA and sure enough, they had a brand new 1460 sitting on the lot, and wow, was she impressive. However, the $80,000 price tag on a new combine, with both heads, and nothing to trade was pretty daunting for a young farmer in 1979. We were in the middle of the farm crisis, and bank interest was approaching 20%, but International Harvester was offering financing at 13% for five years. Going that route, payments were going to be close to $18,000 a year. I knew I couldn’t make that much money just farming, but would people actually hire me to do custom combining? I signed all the paperwork, sent up a prayer, and the combine and I hit the road doing custom work. The phone started ringing, farmers asking me if it was true, did I buy a combine? How much do you charge? Can I get on your list? There are not many fields in Northeast Iowa’s Fairview Township and Paint Creek Township that she hasn’t been in.

Was custom combining hard on the machine?

During harvest season I would do the farm chores and try to get in the cab each day by 10 am, and sometimes, depending who I was working for, I would see the sunrise the next morning. One year I did the whole harvest and the only breakdown I had was a master link in the roller chain popping off. Lucky enough, I carried them with me, so it was only a 10-minute breakdown and we were back at it! We wore out the normal high-wear items, and as time went on I knew what to carry with me so I could fix her in the field and keep us running. I was always amazed that a machine like that could run for 18 hours straight and never break down, not to mention how economical she was on fuel!

Did you ever have any major breakdowns or accidents?

We were in the middle of a cold snap and had gotten snow early that year. I was headed out to a custom job and the combine hit a patch of ice going downhill on the gravel road. It was so cold the hydraulics in the machine were not warmed up, and the steering did not respond fast enough. I lost control, dropped off into a ditch, went through a fence and ended up in a pasture. Once the machine came to a standstill, I climbed out to inspect the damage, expecting the worst, but miraculously everything was fine, other than the fence. The engine was running and the tires were all good. I hopped back in and said let’s go!

Another time, I had gotten a piece of metal in my eye. My eye was completely bandaged up and the doctor didn’t want me in the combine, so my dad was running her. Dad had just finished combining for the night and was driving it home when he got rear ended by a drunk driver. The car hit the back side of the combine and flew up under the machine. That of course was before cell phones, so imagine my surprise to look out the window and see my combine on the highway with cop cars all around it! Miraculously, no one got hurt, but it was so frustrating to be broken down in the middle of harvest for such a senseless act.

What are the worst conditions you’ve combined in?

October and November snow storms! One year, Thanksgiving was the next day, and all the neighborhood custom work was done, but I still needed to finish our own harvest. A huge snow storm was predicted. We were under a winter storm warning, and the weather stations were saying it was going to be a record storm. I started combining at 8 am on Wednesday, and I went all day without stopping. All of sudden the neighbors started showing up with wagons to help. At 11 pm I re-fueled and then worked through the night, and at 9 am on Thanksgiving morning, I had to head out for one last tank of fuel. I fueled up and went right back at it, I was coming down the final four rows of corn when the snow started flying. And boy, did it snow. By the time I made it back out, the state patrol was getting ready to shut the highway down. He told me I’d never make it home, but we did! I ran that machine straight through, almost 36 hours and only needed to oil the chains and grease the head. I turned the key off that night, and said my thank you’s to the old girl for getting us through, again.

Favorite memories in the combine?

My 4 kids riding with me. They rode in that combine with me since they were babies. The hum of the engine would put them all fast asleep. Now, it is having my grandkids ride with me, looking down at them sitting where my kids sat, and teaching them how to swing the auger out.

How many hours are on the combine?

A lot! The hour meter actually physically burned up one day while I was out combining, smoke even! But that was 10+ years ago and she still runs hard today. The old girl has definitely earned her spot in history, and I’m so proud to be a little part of it. 

Thanks so much for reading! Remember the order window for the Prestige Select 1:16 CASE Ih 1460 Combine closes on Tuesday, February 27.

Until next time,

Bill