John Deere Presents New Tractor to ISU Faculty, Students

AMES, Iowa — A new John Deere tractor will bring the latest equipment technologies into Iowa State University classrooms and laboratories. Dean Wendy Wintersteen accepts the tractor keys from Jim Wienkes, Deere's manager of tractor engineering. The model 7920 tractor was presented by the Deere and Co. to the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering in a ceremony Monday outside Davidson Hall on the Iowa State campus. "Over the next year, the tractor will be used to help train more than 200 students in our agriculture and engineering colleges so they'll be well-versed on the state-of-the-art technologies they'll face in their careers," said Ramesh Kanwar, chair of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. "Iowa State has one of nation's leading agricultural engineering departments and John Deere has great success in recruiting employees from its graduates," said Tony Kajewski, a project engineer in charge of continuous improvement of tractors at John Deere in Waterloo. "That's why we see this donation as an investment in the training and development of those who'll not only be working for our company, but also those entering the workforce across the agricultural industry," he said. The 7920 tractor's state-of-the-art information technology and control systems represent the present and future for agricultural machinery. "Agricultural equipment continues to become more complex, efficient and responsive to the user," said Kanwar. "We're constantly evolving our degree programs so our graduates are able to integrate the latest technologies into seamless systems like those represented in this tractor." Iowa State faculty and graduate students will use the tractor in research on field automation as well as harvesting biomass for energy. "With this latest technology, we'll enhance research to help improve agricultural productivity and efficiency and explore new areas of opportunity in the bioeconomy," said Kanwar.