Henry Everman

I am at Henry's farm near Dansville, New York. The corn is beautiful!

I first met Henry at a tractor pull and I am not sure which one. It has been a long time ago but I do remember the good chat we had in the pits at the Brown County fair several years ago.

Henry is an interesting guy with similar interests to me and is easy to talk to. Over the years I have followed his tractor pulling and corn championships and admired his farm on the way to Naples, New York.

Henry was out spraying so I got to talk to his son, David. David showed me his new pulling tractor, a 2500 HP beast of a 6 cylinder International Harvester modifed with Jerry Lagod parts known as Hypermax. It had one wild paint scheme on black paint and is called Over Ruled.

David asked me when we were going to hit $10 corn which is fair compared to the cost of everything we buy as farmers. I told him I didn't know but that this drought was really going to test the corn market pits. It sure is. He let it out that they average 225-250 bushel corn per acre and always have a spot that hits over 300 bushel which ususually puts them at the top of the New York State Champion Corn Yield if not the region or nation. There is a second place in the nation banner hanging on the shop wall and I believe it said 2003.

They had always won with Pioneer corn but always tried others and now DeKalb is beating their Pioneer varieties. I bet I could talk corn hybrids with Henry. The corn sure looked great and I told David it looked like it was all planted the same day. It wasn't but close, and they started May 2. Mine was just coming out of the ground good by then after the cold spell.

Mrs. Everman pulls too and has a twin Hemi Modified tractor. Henry drives a red CIH Pro Stock named Final Decision.

The soil on the farm was a lakebed and the family made their money growing potatoes until that industry went sour and Henry started perfecting corn production. He farms in a very nice valley with good weather and little disease. The big potato shed now houses semi tractors, trailers and all types of farm equipment. It is so darn in there you can only see the shiny front of a semi in the very back of the concrete block building.

It was nice to visit with David and maybe next time I will get to talk to Henry and the Mrs. It was hot but a great day at Everman Farms.

Ed