Fourteen Greene County High School students got some hands-on experience with changing an integral farm equipment.

High School Agriculture Teacher Steve Kehoe and student teacher Maddie Vansickle took their horticulture and ag product students to Rueter’s Red Power in Grand Junction to learn about their new six-row planter. Earlier this year, the Greene County School Board approved $40,000 from the agriculture account to purchase the equipment that will be used for seed testing going into next month on the test plot that is located next to the high school.

Conner Sackett is the Precision Farm Manager for Rueter’s and he explained that the students on Thursday got the opportunity to change out an older system on the planter with vSet vDrive DeltaForce technology that allows for independent planters to vary their speeds of planting and know exactly how much force and the amount of corn seed is planted. He pointed out that Rueter’s is going to lease the tractor to the students to use for planting.

Sackett added that after the planting season, he will show the students what worked well, what didn’t and what can be fixed moving forward. He will also go through the stand practices and the yield potential. 

Additionally, Kehoe noted that their other major renovation is with the greenhouse, which will begin on May 10th, following the approval from the school board of $63,000 from the Max Johnson Educational Trust.