The latest Day in the Cab installment takes us to the northwest corner of Illinois, where precision specialist Dave Thompson holds down the fort for Johnson Tractor in the small town of Amboy — one of 11 locations for the Illinois and Wisconsin Case IH dealer. 

Dave is putting the finishing touches on his first harvest season as a full-time precision specialist when we meet up in late October. The former farmer and longtime technician is excited to give us a peek behind the curtain as he begins to close the book on 2024 and look ahead to a new year.

9:46 a.m. 

It’s a beautiful morning in Amboy and judging by the “Go Clippers” signs I’m seeing everywhere, the high school football team must be doing something special. Memories start to bubble up of my days as a high school football reporter in Illinois. Few things compare to the excitement of a small-town community rallying around a winner in the fall. It turns out Amboy High School was in the middle of a championship season as they’d go on to capture the state title in 8-man football a few weeks after my visit. 

The Clippers weren’t the only ones enjoying success on the field. “It’s been a textbook harvest, you’re not going to get much better conditions,” Dave shares as we rendezvous in his Johnson Tractor office.  

“We’re way ahead of schedule,” he adds. “Most of my customers are done and it’s not even November yet. It’s been sunny and dry almost every day. Soybeans went fast. Guys were able to combine beans all day long. What a nice year. I have yet to talk with anybody who’s not happy with their yields, but they’re not so happy with market prices, of course.”

10:17 a.m.

Dave closes his laptop and walks outside to load up his work truck. It sounds like we’re headed a couple miles down the road for an installation job. With harvest ending early, Dave will soon shift from service to sales mode. 

“You’re kind of like a Swiss Army Knife, right?” I ask. 

“Yes, I do service and sales,” Dave says. “I work out of our Amboy and Rochelle locations. We do a lot of service work during the spring and fall, and then we concentrate more on sales during the slower times of the year.”

Dave’s only been in this role for about a year. He worked in the service department as a technician for about 5 years before transferring to the precision farming division. 

“What was the motivation behind the switch?” 

Thompson could be pulled in a different direction at any moment with one phone call. He has just about everything he needs for any on-farm job in this mobile tool cabinet. Noah Newman

“Mainly just age,” he says. “I’m 50 and was climbing up and down combines and stuff all day, every day. I just figured this would ease up a little bit on the physical requirements of the job. And it has.” 

50? I never would’ve guessed. Dave looks good for his age, and he’d much rather be out in the field then cooped up in the shop all day. He’s enjoying it. Plus, his experience as a farmer and technician prepared him well for this role, as he’s accumulated a wealth of equipment knowledge over the last several years. And when questions do pop up, he can always call his Johnson Tractor precision teammates — Jason Pennycook, Anthony Milanko and Joe Anderson. 

“We have guys that are well versed in different brands, and when you get a hold of them, they’ll always help you out,” Dave says. “It makes a huge difference. Also, the support from these equipment companies is actually really good. They are very helpful when you call with an issue. Granted, there are some companies we may be competitors with, but at the end of the day, it’s still their product and they do want us supporting it for the customer.”

10:25 a.m. 

We’re on our way to Dave’s first stop of the day. The short drive gives us enough time to talk shop. 

What are the latest farming trends in Dave’s neck of the woods? He says the reduced tillage practice of strip-till is gaining steam, which means implement guidance is also increasingly popular because strip-tillers need it to follow their strips when planting. 

“Strip-till is starting to catch on in this area, but maybe not as fast as it has in other areas of the country,” Dave says. “Drones, not so much around here. More guys are getting into prescriptions and variable rates with planting and fertilizing.” 

What’s the biggest barrier to precision technology adoption? 

“Cost,” he says, without hesitation. “I run into that more than anything. ‘Good idea, that sounds good,’ they’ll say. Then you tell them what it’s going to cost and they’re kind of done at that point. 

“I’m not going to speak for anyone else, but my sales are down this year, and I believe it correlates to the market prices. Farmers aren’t going to spend money on things they don’t feel they absolutely need.”

Dave says his service calls are also down a bit as purse strings tighten. Customers are finding any way they can to save money, which Dave, as a former farmer himself, understands completely.  

10:36 a.m. 

We arrive at the customer’s farm, where a Case IH combine is parked front and center on a recently harvested soybean field. Dave opens his trunk and rolls out a black U.S. General toolbox. It’s equipped with several drawers, compartments and all the tools needed for the job ahead — essentially a precision workshop on wheels.   

“This customer bought this combine from us a couple months ago,” Dave says. “The combine came equipped with a TrueSight row guidance system. I’m here to install the sensor so he can use it for corn next year.

“I did quite a bit of installs like this when I was a technician. They can be a bit complicated sometimes, but they’re mainly just tedious. Routing wiring sometimes can be a pain, but this isn’t too bad. Pretty cut and dry.”

10:49 a.m. 

Dave crawls under the corn head and begins the installation. 

“The biggest benefit of this system is guys don’t have to guess where they’re at. This keeps them dead on the corn rows,” Dave says. “It helps if they’re having issues with downed corn.” 

Dave says this type of guidance system has won over customers who were previously skeptical of the value of precision technology. 

“I’ve had customers who were very hesitant, thinking they don’t need this,” he says. “A couple years ago, we had a tremendous amount of downed corn in the area from storm damage. They didn’t want to buy the system at first, but at the end of the year, they were very happy they had it. You might not need it to drive across that perfectly straight row of corn, but when you get into some adverse conditions, it’s very helpful.”

Thompson spends most of his morning and early afternoon installing a TrueSight row guidance system for his customer’s Case IH combine. Noah Newman

This is exactly what gets Dave out of bed every morning at 4:30. He loves making his customers’ lives easier with new technology. 

“These people spend a lot of money on this stuff, it’s not cheap,” he says. “The older generation feels like they don’t need it, and the younger generation wants it. But the money becomes less important when they realize it works well. That’s one of the best things — getting the customer to enjoy using what they paid for because it makes their life easier.”

11:01 a.m. 

Dave informs me this installation job could take up to a couple hours. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I keep distracting him with questions. 

“How many miles do you usually rack up on a typical day during busy season?”

“I would say 150-200 miles would be an average day,” Dave says. “Sometimes I’m out in the field as early as 6 a.m. If a customer has an issue, we like to get it resolved before they get up and going for the day. It might be 8 p.m. before I get home for the day. It just depends.”

“You always have your phone on, I’m assuming?”

“Correct,” Dave says. “We have a customer support line that rings for quite a few of us at one time, and whoever is available to answer will respond to the call. I know ‘Cooker’ (Jason Pennycook) works as late as midnight sometimes. I haven’t worked much later than 10 because I try to start early in the morning. But that’s just my personal choice.”

11:12 a.m.

Of course, before Dave can finish answering my question about phone support, his phone starts ringing. A customer wants to know how to change some settings on a monitor. Dave provides the answer they need in less than 5 minutes. 

“That’s a big part of this job. You’ll be working on something, everything will be moving along smoothly and then you’ve got to stop to answer the phone,” Dave says. “That’s what we’re here for — to always take care of the customer. A lot of the work we do is over the phone.”

The phone hasn’t been ringing too much this morning. At least not yet. Dave’s schedule is relatively light today, but he tells me that can change in the blink of an eye. 

“You could be having an easygoing day, and it can flip instantly,” Dave says. “I could have 6 calls out of nowhere. Things can change so fast. I’ve had days where there was nothing on the books, and then by noon, I’m already 2 days out just that quickly. But that’s usually at the beginning of planting season, not now.” 

11:43 a.m. 

Dave continues to grind away on the installation job, crawling underneath the combine to make sure everything is where it needs to be, occasionally pausing to answer a phone call or grab a new tool from the truck. He’s clearly comfortable with the equipment. But sales are still a work in progress, he says.  

“I’m probably not the greatest salesman in the world, so yeah, I struggle quite a bit with that,” Dave says. “I’m of the mentality that if you want it, you want it. If you don’t, you don’t. I’m here to present it, and you decide if you want it or not. I’m not going to convince you that you must have it. And that’s the way we were when we farmed — if we wanted something, we’d reach out to you for it.” 

Thompson puts the installation job on hold as he answers questions from technicians and customers about combine issues. Noah Newman

I disagree with Dave on one thing here — that he’s not the greatest salesman in the world. I’m just an editor, but I don’t think you have to be pushy to be great in sales. Sometimes the opposite approach works just fine. My dad, back in his day, was one of the top salespeople in his entire company and consistently outperformed everyone else by taking a similar approach to Dave’s. Be honest. Build a relationship. Present the facts. Don’t twist arms. 

12:19 p.m. 

The phone calls start to pick up, just as Dave predicted a few minutes ago. A technician back in the shop needs help with combine sieve calibrations. 

“I’m familiar with a lot of the techs because I worked in the shop for so long,” Dave says. “I probably speak with them more than anybody.” 

Shortly after his conversation with the tech wraps up, a customer calls with another combine-related question. Dave once again works his magic while getting a face full of dust underneath the corn head, talking the customer through the problem successfully. 

“Shut your combine off completely. Go to diagnostics. Go to settings. Go to clean. Go to self-levelling sieve. Hit ‘graph’ over to the right of the bottom, next to settings. It’s going to bring up a set of controls … touch that clockwise arrow … this will keep you running at least.”

“How does he know exactly where everything is without looking at it? Pretty impressive,” I think to myself. 

12:31 p.m. 

Dave completes the installation job in just under 2 hours, as he accurately forecasted when we first arrived at the farm. He packs up his toolbox and hops in the truck. 

During our ride back to the office, before going our separate ways, I ask Dave about what’s next now that harvest season has ended so abruptly. 

“It’s going to be a long winter because we’re used to harvest going much later than this,” he says. “Our workload will drop. I’ll do parts inventory here soon, which we do twice a year. Other than that, sales calls, clinics, training and making sure we’re ready to go once planting season rolls around.”