Hurst Farm Supply Blog

During harvest season, we often encounter some of the hardest, most demanding tasks that we’ve faced throughout the entirety of any given year. The long days and back-breaking work will put even the most seasoned farmer through the wringer! And while we trust that you’re well-equipped to handle anything put in your way, we wanted to take a brief moment to remind you to take care of your most important personal tool: yourself.

We take great pride in what our customers can accomplish with our products, and we’re excited to see the fruits of their labor. After all, we succeed when they succeed!

In the nearly 70 years that we’ve served as West Texas’ local John Deere dealer, we’ve seen changes of all kinds come and go. But no matter what each change of the season brings, there’s one thing that has always remained constant: our community.

When it comes to monitoring soil moisture conditions, we think a “hands-on” approach is best!

Introducing the “feel and appearance” method, which consists of gathering physical samples of the soil on your land, firming them with your hand, and using your observations to estimate the amount of moisture that is available for your crops.

Here’s how it works.

Nothing is more important to the hard-working farmer during harvest season than their hard-working equipment. Just as important as that equipment, however, is that farmer’s ability to maintain it!

Giving your harvest season equipment the maintenance it requires is the best way to get the most out of your harvest and ensure worker safety and the lifespan of the equipment itself. Downtime, costly repairs, and accidents are just a few of the risks that you run by failing to do so.

Harvest season is upon us — follow these simple prep steps to ensure that your equipment delivers the best possible performance when it matters the most this fall.

Provided you’re diligent about caring for and maintaining your John Deere riding mower, there’s no reason it can’t provide you with several years’ worth of lovely yard work. While only using it for the jobs for which it was intended and making sure it’s properly maintained goes a long way towards extending the mower’s life, knowing how to troubleshoot and correct problems also reduces your stress and allows you greater independence. Let’s look at a few common problems and their possible solutions.

You may feel confident about how prepared your equipment is for the upcoming harvest, but that’s only half the battle when we’re talking about harvest season safety. Harvesting is busy and stressful enough without costly accidents, making the safety of you, your team, and your equipment paramount.

Here are some things to keep top-of-mind at all times.

As we make our way closer to yet another harvest season (can you believe it?), now is the perfect time to start thinking about harvest season preparation. What steps should you take to make sure that you’re adequately prepared? These are a great place to start:

A short trip around West Texas is about all anyone needs to tell that agriculture is a serious part of this area. For decades upon decades, it’s allowed us the culture-defining lifestyle that is ingrained in the fabric of all of our communities. And as a John Deere dealer that has been serving this area since 1955, we’ll be the first to tell you that there’s nothing quite like West Texas agriculture.

For over a decade, Hurst Farm Supply has partnered with John Deere and the National FFA Foundation to offer $2,000 scholarships to area high school graduates. The National FFA Foundation selects these students based on their leadership roles, academic performance, FFA and community involvement, supervised work in ag or ag education, and their future education and career goals.

Last year, more than 1,400 scholarships were available to over 6,200 applicants. The National FFA Organization awarded individual scholarships worth over $2 million during the last scholarship period, over $50 million for the past 36 years.

Congratulations to this year’s list of winners and to every other graduate who applied for this award. We are proud of your hard work, your academic accomplishments, and your commitment to being an important member of the West Texas ag community!