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Record year for Half Century of Progress

A co-organizer of the biennial “Half Century of Progress” vintage farm machinery show says 2025 was a record year.

Russell Buhr says the volunteer-run event, hosted in Rantoul, Illinois, the weekend before the Farm Progress Show, has consistently grown since it began in 2003.

“There was about 4,000 pieces of equipment that was there wanting to do something.”  He says, “They was either plowing, or combining, or picking, or hauling in, or hauling cobbs. They shelled about 21,000 bushels of corn.”

He tells Brownfield that an estimated 70,000 people from across the country and the globe attended this year’s show for a chance to step back in time.

“There’s steam engines plowing, so they’re 100 to 115 years old, some of that stuff.”  He says, “So people get to see that compared to something maybe, you know, 50 years old. It’s amazing. I know there’s tractors from the state of Maine, and I know there’s truckloads and truckloads from Arizona, too.”

Buhr says planning is already underway for the 2027 edition of the “Half Century of Progress.”  

Brownfield spoke with Buhr at the 2025 Farm Progress Show.

AUDIO: Russell Buhr – Half Century of Progress