James River Blog

James River Equipment now has a training farm, and it is just down the road from our Tappahannock, VA location. The training farm will allow our Large Ag sales team to operate more equipment and get more hands-on experience in the field. We also plan to add our parts and service teams to the training farm rotation so they too can get more experience working with the newest technology in agriculture.

We believe to best take care of our agriculture customers, we need to test and understand the latest in equipment technology, including Hagie sprayers, John Deere 8R tractors, 2660VT vertical tillage implements, dry box spreaders, sprayers, and combines. According to Integrated Solutions Manager, Marcus McDonald, new equipment allows us the opportunity to grow in our skill sets and in our ability to help customers

"I am excited to see what is in store for Hagie and John Deere as they continue their journey together," said McDonald, speaking of the new relationship between the two sprayer manufacturers.

We are now able to offer both Hagie and John Deere sprayers - both of which are great sprayers, although they complete tasks differently. While the Hagie has higher front-mounted booms to spray tall corn, our John Deere sprayers have rear-mounted booms with heights closer to the ground to get better coverage on more minor crops.

We currently have the 100-acre farm planted in hard red winter foundation seed wheat and are looking forward to a big harvest in a few weeks. After the wheat comes off, we will plant soybeans and corn for a fall harvest. By partnering with a local farmer near one of our locations, we can use all the most modern equipment and techniques to maintain his land. We believe this training farm will allow us to connect with our customers on a better level and help them grow even more in the future.