Hoobers a third-generation family owned business that is essentially a mechanic shop but for large farming equipment. They gave us a tour of the facility, where we got to see tractors, combines, planters, and sprayers. Combines in particular are absolutely ginormous – one tire is taller than me. We talked about the different attachments you put on the front to harvest different crops. We got to see some farming equipment currently taken apart because it was in the process of being fixed. They showed us their main office and there were books and binders a plenty- they had manuals dating back 50 years and claimed that even the old ones get used on the regular.

Hoobers doesn’t just fix and sell to farmers, they also sell equipment for construction purposes. We saw a Quadtrac, which moves sand for things like dune building and beach reclamation. The advantages of the Quadtrac is that it can move more sand than a bulldozer and a dump truck could do, and that the Quadtrac is relatively fast. It can drive on a road unlike a bulldozer, which would have to be loaded on a truck.

I knew that farming equipment was big- I didn’t realize how big. I knew that farming equipment was expensive- I didn’t realize how expensive. The combine alone was about half a million, but it needs the attachments too so together it can be three quarters of a million dollars. That’s more than a house which is crazy.