Page 224 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

CORE VALUE: EXCELLENCE
Top to bottom: Boyles 760 Lexion Combine Harvester; Don & Ryan Boyle in 2020
The Boyles also run yield monitors on their combines, which gives them harvest stats in real time. And weekly fly-overs deliver real-time, near-infra- red images of their fields. “We get four different images of our fields once a week. Then our software guy analyzes the data so we can see the problem ar- eas and improve them. I’m not satisfied with just going out and getting a good crop,” says Ryan. “I want to see how I can improve on that crop, year-in and year-out.”
Today, the Boyles own a variety of Cat and AGCO machines equipped with Trimble navigation. But before that—going back to 1969—they were Case-IH through and through. “There was no [AGCO/Cat] presence in this area until Peterson came along,” says Ryan. “We were all Case-IH for a long, long time.” But in 2005, the father-son team brought the first modern track machine into the Madras area with the purchase of a Challenger 765B and introduced the valley to GPS technology. “Nobody around here had a clue about guid- ance systems,” states Don. Ryan adds, “One of the reasons we went with the Challenger 765B track machine is because I had rented one before from Peterson. We needed to get the grass planted, but the field was too wet. And the only way to dry it out was to go in there and till the field. It was September, when the nights are cold and things don’t dry out very fast. So we took that track tractor in there, and it went through the mud—no problem. With a wheel tractor, we’d have been at least another week behind.”
222 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG