This is a YouTube video titled "The Kilmers Ep. 1 - Meet the Kilmers | John Deere Tech at Work" created in December 2016. It features multiple members of the Kilmer family—Dan, Tim, Darrell, and Sam—discussing their multi-generational farming operation in north central Illinois. The content focuses on their experiences adopting new agricultural technology, such as auto track and section control, and how it has improved their farming efficiency and lifestyle. The video provides insight into the challenges and benefits of integrating technology into traditional farming practices.
Sam.
My name is Dan Kilmer. I'm a farmer in north central Illinois along with my father, Darrell Kilmer, and my brother Tim Kilmer. I'm at least the sixth generation farmer in this area.
We're Kilmer Farms and we grow corn and soybeans in north central Illinois. I've worked on the farm my entire life. At a very young age, I started out pulling weeds and now I plant, I harvest. Basically from the beginning to the end, I'm involved.
I don't know if I ever was not working on the farm. Ever since I was very small, I had a pedal tractor in the yard that I wore the tires off of. And now my brother and I handle the majority of responsibilities on the farm.
I love the pride of starting a crop every year and watching it grow and watching my hard work evolve into a final product at the end. Well, when we decided to adopt the technology, my brother and I were a little more anxious.
In the past, our opinion was that we didn't need it, that we could get by and do an excellent job without it.
Accepting technology as we get older, it's something us older guys are going to have to do. But farmers have to watch their expenses and things have to be able to pay their way in order that you accept the technology.
Yeah. So there was some reluctance on Kilmer's behalf to adopt the technology. Something that they didn't necessarily identify as a need. It's something that can be intimidating. As I got to know the Kilmer family, it instantly identified them as a candidate and folks that were needing to be more technologically enabled.
As the technology's gotten better and we've seen more of a need for it, we've decided to kind of jump from not having very much at all into really adopting and taking a lot of it on.
The initial challenges that Kilmers faced early on this spring were the trust and having confidence in the system.
During the spring season, we started using auto track and section control and they made a big impact on our spring.
Auto track and section control provided Kilmer farms efficiencies that they had not experienced in the past.
I see us staying with the technology in the future. The section control and the auto track, we've seen tremendous benefit from that.
Yeah, actually, I've seen their desires and requests to utilize it to more facets in 2017 than they have this year. We've created some monsters.
In the past. I feel that technology on my operation was more of a minimal requirement. And now we've really tried to learn how to maximize it. Because it really helps us maximize every acre.
Farming is more than just getting the farm work done with the technology. If you can go home and you can enjoy some quality time with your family after work, it makes life easier.
We work tirelessly to produce the most crops that we can, and it's a lot of hard work, a lot of good management and a lot of dedication.
Our hope is that future generations will always want to be a part of the farm.
Farming's a good way of life. We have a lot of love for the ground. We appreciate to take care of the farm, and I hope the grandchildren do also. Some.
