They used to fix 'em up with baling wire …

Over the two-plus decades that I've written about agriculture, I've interviewed hundreds of farmers. I've been consistently impressed by their character, intelligence, work ethic and optimism. I've found farmers to be "can-do" people.

Another trait weaves its way through the personalities of farmers - ingenuity.

I've seen ingenuity manifested on the farm in so many ways, among them: how farmers work a new crop into the rotation; how they prepare the all-important seedbed; how they control weeds and pests. But no area reflects the ingenuity of the farmer better than the shop.

I'll comment here on just three of the many farm-conceived and -built innovations I've run across in recent years. One - from North Dakota - is a simple yet effective solution to a sunflower-harvest problem. Another - from Idaho - provides multip

Idaho farmer Ryan Pearson developed the 'Sugar Beet Manager' to thin plants and aerate the soil.

le benefits from a single machine. And the third - from Michigan - is an excellent example of a large, complicated machine whose conception, design and construction emanated solely from the skills and energies of the farm's operators and their employees.

One of the blessings of my work is the opportunity to meet and visit with farmers like these. They, like so many of their counterparts around the nation, continually amaze me with their ingenuity as they meet challenges large and small.

Fixed the hole problem
Like so many other sunflower producers, Barnes County, N.D., neighbors Maynard Satrom and the Winters - father Richard and sons Steve and Mark - found themselves with a penetrating problem in the 1980s.

While strong stalks are beneficial when sunflower plants are growing and maturing, those same hard, fibrous stalks can - during and after harvest - gouge and even penetrate the tires of combines and tractors. Satrom and the Winters came up with a simple, ingenious solution: hang a heavy pipe from chains in front of the combine or tractor tires and let that pipe push the stalks away from the oncoming tires, making the stalks harmless. If extra weight was needed, they'd simply fill the large pipes with sand or gravel.

Double your pleasure
While most Upper Midwest sugar-beets are produced in 22-inch rows, the majority of those in Michigan and some other states are in 30-inch rows. So when Bischer Farms of Ruth, Mich., decided to plant in 15-inch rows (similar to its corn and edible beans), it definitely caught peoples' attention. The biggest challenge would come at harvest, because there are no commercial beet harvesters for such narrow rows. So Bischer built its own machine. Constructed around a high-powered tractor, the harvester features six sets of lifting wheels - each set 30 inches apart - on a frame mounted ahead of the tractor. Trailing the tractor is a standard commercial harvester, again with six sets of lifter wheels 30 inches apart - but offset by 15 inches from the front set, allowing the entire machine to harvest 15-inch rows. Other features, including a two-section elevator and a complex hydraulic system, complete the ingenious harvesting system.

Think thin
Past generations of sugarbeet growers commonly planted high populations of seed and then, following emergence and early growth, thinned back the plant stands to the desired spacings within each row. Some of today's beet growers "plant to stand," meaning they space the seeds at desired intervals while planting. Others still overplant. South-central Idaho farmer Ryan Pearson developed an ingenious thinning machine for his own use, and now his "Sugar Beet Manager" is marketed nationally by Pickett Equipment of Burley, Idaho. One of its key selling points is its multiple functions: Not only will it accurately thin the plants; it also provides crust-busting and soil-aeration benefits. And, through its cultivation activity, it also helps eliminate weeds within plant rows.

Ag writer Don Lilleboe hails from West Fargo, N.D.