Special Report

Contest teaches restoration, organizational skills

One the many contests culminating in Louisville has young people making what is old new again.

The Delo Tractor Restoration Competition motivates those with the mechanical chops to restore old, neglected tractors that seem impossible to fix. There’s more, said Austin Hiebert.

“Besides the mechanical part, you have to have communication skills to be able to get the parts, to be able to get your name out there, to be able to become a part of this program,” said Hiebert of Newton, Kansas, during an interview with Brownfield Ag News on Wednesday in Louisville. Hiebert described for judges in great detail what he did to get a rusted 1958 Oliver 770 looking and running as if it’d just come off the showroom floor.

Supervisor Rick Elmore, from the Dubiski Career High School in Grand Prairie, Texas, brought a team of young men who aim to take their skills to the next level.

“This is more than a contest for us, this is a preparation for their career,” Elmore told Brownfield Ag News.

Tabetha Hammer won the contest two years in a row and told Brownfield Ag News that in the addition to learning restoration and mechanical skills, she gained much more from competing.

“You’re learning time management and project management, financial budgeting, how to reach out to your community and ask for support and really kind of be that cheerleader for your own project,” said Hammer, “so the contest itself goes so much deeper than that.”

A winner will be announced from a dozen finalists from around the country.

AUDIO: Austin Hiebert (3 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Rick Elmore (2 min. MP3)

AUDIO: Tabetha Hammer (7 min. MP3)

 Photos (top down): Austin Hiebert, Rick Elmore, Tabetha Hammer