Farm Collecting

Farm Collecting. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

I’m a collector. When my son was growing up it was baseball cards and now it is Hopalong Cassidy memorabilia. People collect all sorts of things. Pencils, campaign buttons, glassware, stamps and who knows what all. Leslie McManus, editor of Farm Collector magazine says that there are a lot of people who really enjoy collecting farm items.

MCMANUS: Well it’s really tied to anything old from the farm. And in the context of Farm Collector magazine it is more specifically anything old from the farm outside of the farmhouse. So we don’t so much get into primitives and collectibles that we would find inside the house but anything outside whether it’s a tractor, steam engine, stationary gas engine.

My wife keeps a tight reign on my collections so that they don’t spill over into other areas of the house but it’s hard to watch TV over the top of an old tractor. But seriously…

MCMANUS: You know one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. I think it’s like collectibles of any type, it’s rooted in nostalgia. The kinds of things people remember from their childhood, from their youth and if they grew up on the farm then we’re talking about antique farm equipment and related pieces; tools, implements, machinery of all kinds.

McManus says there are a number of collectors that just love the historical aspect of it and she talks about what makes it a collectible.

MCMANUS: Within tractors, within any aspect of the hobby anything that was made in small numbers is going to be considered rare and so if you are looking at it from a dollars and cents value, a tractor that perhaps only 5 were made that’s going to be a very rare piece and it may also be highly sought after by collectors.

If you have an interest in starting a collection or maybe you need a little help or advice, McManus says a good place to start is with Farm Collector magazine.

MCMANUS: There is a great sense of community within farm collectors. Our subscribers really interact with each other to learn more about the hobby, about their typed of collectibles. It’s not uncommon at all for someone to come up with an unidentified piece of equipment and use the magazine and our website as a means of learning what they’ve found.

Visit them on the web at www.farmcollector.com.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.