Just off route 301 in Middletown is a tractor and farm equipment dealership called Hoober Inc. On our field trip here we met two employees who showed us around and told us about what Hoober Inc does. In 1941 Charles “Bud” Hoober started selling International Harvester tractors and equipment in Intercourse Pennsylvania. As tractor technology expanded so did Hoober’s company. Hoober Inc. currently has 9 locations and is still owned and operated by 3rd generation of Hoobers. The show room in the dealership and the parking lot had many Kubota products such as zero turn mowers and RTV buggies. While they do sell land scape equipment Hoober is a Case IH dealer. We got a tour through the shop and saw sprayers, tractor, loaders, and combines being worked on. After seeing the shop we walked outside to all of the tractors, sprayers, combines, planters, and more. We got to see how a combine works, from the different kinds of heads to how it grinds up and spreads the unwanted parts of a crop. Did you know a new combine with new heads can cost over half a million dollars? Tractor driving was up next. The group was split in to two groups, one for learning about drones and the other got to drive the sprayer or tractor. The tractor was a Case IH 315 Magnum with duals front and rear. The sprayer was a Case IH 4430 Patriot. The tractor had auto steer which allowed the operator to remove their hands from the steering wheel and the tractor would steer its self. The drone demonstration showed how drones are used in precision ag for birds eye view observation. At the end of the trip we all got Hoober hats and got on the bus, It was a lot of fun.
