Trevor Alberring woke up bright and early Thursday morning.
Well, it wasn’t actually bright outside. It was still dark at 6 a.m. when he and his younger brother, Ethan Alberring, fired up their tractors.
The lights on the tractors, however, shone bright as they left their home in the Jonesville area of Bartholomew County and headed to Seymour High School to join fellow FFA members for Drive Your Tractor to School Day.
While Ethan was comfortable in the enclosed cab of a John Deere 4650, Trevor wore appropriate clothing while behind the wheel of the John Deere 4020 that has an open canopy.
“A little cold,” Trevor said, smiling, when asked how the hour-and-a-half drive went. “It was pretty good, actually. We had a few cars behind us, but not that many.”
He was among five chapter members who made their way down State Road 258 to go to the high school parking lot.
“This is actually my first year doing it,” the SHS senior said. “The last few years, it has just not fit in my schedule, and this year, it fit perfect, and it was fun.”
As the 12 large tractors of various sizes and colors pulled into the west end of the student parking lot, they drew the attention of students and others driving by.
“It just represents our program, shows a little what it’s about,” Trevor said. “Everybody else doesn’t get to see this every day, and it just shows them what it’s like.”
Growing up on a farm, Trevor said the tractor he drove has been in the family for a while.
“We had Cory Arnholt and Curt Carothers help us restore that tractor,” he said. “We drove it in a couple parades. It’s the first tractor our family started with, so it was kind of like foundation. We just wanted it restored so that we could preserve our family’s history. It’s the way they started our farm.”
The tractor was the main one used on the family farm in the past, but now, it’s more of a showpiece.
“Now, it looks pretty in the shop,” Trevor said, smiling.
Fellow seniors Wyatt Wischmeier, Dylan Peters and Trevor Wiesehan also had unique stories behind the tractors they drove.
In past years, Wischmeier has driven a Farmall H to school as part of the FFA chapter’s annual tradition. This year, though, he mixed it up and drove an early 1940s Farmall M.
“My dad and my grandpa bought it about 10 years ago or so, and it sat in the barn unrestored for a while,” he said. “They bought it as a project nonrunning, and they disassembled it and had everything ready for about five or so years. Then this past summer for my SAE (Supervised Agricultural Experience), me and my dad and my grandpa all took it, painted it, pieced it back together, sanded it, sandblasted, the whole nine yards on it.”
They took it to the 2022 Jackson County Fair in Brownstown, where it was on display in front of the county FFA chapters’ Young MacDonald’s Farm building.
“That was the goal for it,” Wischmeier said of showcasing it during the county’s largest event.
The tractor is used to pull wagons to bale hay and other purposes, he said.
“It was the first year I was able to drive something different,” Wischmeier said of Drive Your Tractor to School Day. “I really like just driving it to school and seeing everybody’s looks on the way to school and getting here with all of your buddies and seeing what they drive.”
Peters couldn’t share much about the John Deere 8420 he drove because his family had just bought it two days before.
A friend drove his family’s John Deere 4450 to the school on Thursday, and that’s the one Peters brought in the past.
“I wanted something different,” he said. “All the other ones (on the family farm) were hooked up, and I didn’t feel like unhooking them.”
He has liked participating in Drive Your Tractor to School Day during his tenure at SHS.
“I just like driving a tractor to school. It’s something different that we’ve always participated in,” Peters said. “This is the biggest turnout we’ve had since I’ve been here. I just think it’s cool hearing people talk about it, knowing you’re out there and we’re the ones doing it.”
Wiesehan drove a John Deere 8630 on Thursday.
“That was our COVID project,” he said. “The whole interior is redone on the inside of it. The outside needs redone, too.”
He was among the five FFA members who drove from Cortland on State Road 258. Chugging along about 12 mph, they had a line of cars behind them, but that was OK because it drew people’s attention of the FFA’s annual event.
Wiesehan said he has liked being involved with that over his high school career.