Ag research lab gains new director

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A veteran of almost three decades has gone from temporary to permanent leader of the agricultural research laboratory in Bushland.

Terry Howell, who has filled in as lab director since the retirement of Nolan Clark on Aug. 1, 2009, and Dan Upchurch, area director of the Southern Plains Area of the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, announced last week that Howell will take on the leadership post. He is the sixth director since the lab was founded in 1938.

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Terry is class of '69, has a BS, MS and PhD in AgEng from Aggieland. I'll let him expose his TexAgs handle if he wants.

Good guy. Congrats, Terry!

Thanks, Canyon. One of my Spider classmates from Panhandle just called to heckle me too. Drop in some time. We could use your advise!

Yeah, you need my advice about as much as Coach Sumlin needs me to tell him what plays to call.

Did you drive our popin Johnny 620, I think, when we had it? Have a 3020 in the shop you could fix, maybe.

Didn't mean the red emicon, a typo.

I don't recall the 620, 3020 is more the era of what I drove growing up. I did put a lot of hours on a 730 "back in the day" so I definitely have the 2-cylinder and hand clutch experience.

I'm pretty familiar with both, these days. Dad was a collector of old tractors.

post some pics of the tractors

....and congratulations to Terry, though I don't know him

Canyon, I grew up on Farmalls, but my Dad was a JD dealer when I was in HS & A&M. Never drove the hand clutch much. Which JD 2 cylinder had the small gas engine starter?

This is where I spent much of my summer back in high school.

Spider, some of the early diesels couldn't be started with an electric motor, didn't have enough ooommpphh. Batteries weren't big enough and starters weren't powerful enough. So they put a small gasoline motor on it. You started the little gas motor, then used it to rotate the diesel until it started. In the tractor world, they called them pony motors.

I believe the first JD diesel was the model R, and when they went to the number system of naming tractors, there were diesel versions of the 720 and later the 730. I think there was even a bigger tractor the 820/830. Will look at some of my references.

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 3/9/2012 8:27a).]

I was sort of close, Wikipedia has a pretty good discussion.