The agriculture industry is one that we as humans will always need, which is why it is so important that people continue to enter that field — no pun intended.
Engineers are a vital part of said field, which makes things like student design competitions important for today’s workforce.
Students are able to design and build their own tractors, and once a year they take them to compete against other universities across the nation. These competitions are very beneficial to students, as they gain experience in both the design and presentation aspects.
The official name of the competition is a bit of a mouthful: The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers’ International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition.
Out of the last 26 years of this competition, the Kansas State University Quarter-Scale Tractor Team has finished among the top two teams 18 times. It continued this tradition last June, when it took second place at the competition in Peoria, Illinois.
This year, two locals were on K-State’s team and helped lead them to second-place victory once again.
Hayden Peirce and Cale McCabe are both Kansas State University graduates in biological systems engineering as of last May.
Peirce, 22, originally from Reno County, initially joined the tractor team because it seemed beneficial to his major.
“I want to design farm equipment, so it seemed right up my alley,” Peirce said.
This year, the K-State tractor team had 15 members, including him and McCabe. He noted how well the team worked together on the shared project.
The competition is international, putting K-State against other teams from across the United States and Canada. Only four or five of the teams were from Kansas, as many came from places like Nebraska, Missouri and Tennessee.
The team worked together on one tractor, with different members working on the different parts, such as steering and transmission. Peirce and McCabe both headed the design portion of their team’s tractor.
The student-made tractors are not full-sized, but instead a quarter of the size of a regular tractor — hence the name of the competition.
“They’re about the size of a garden tractor,” Peirce said. “We build as much from the engine to the ground as possible.”
McCabe, 22, is originally from Buhler. He was introduced to the tractor team during a campus visit to K-State and joined in order to assist his career.
“It seemed like it would be good for my resume,” McCabe said.
He explained that there are many different factors in which the tractors are judged.
The main event is the tractor pull, where judges see how far the student-made tractors can pull weighted trailers. The student-made tractors are also criticized based on steering, durability, marketability and design.
But the most challenging part about the competition, McCabe said, is the process of building the tractor itself.
“They pretty much give you an engine and say ‘Here you go,’” McCabe said. “There are a lot of late nights if things don’t work.”
When asked about their favorite part of the competition, both McCabe and Peirce said the same thing — watching their team’s tractor run for the first time.
“After all the time we put into it, it’s so rewarding watching something you dreamed up running for the first time,” McCabe said.
Since graduating, both Peirce and McCabe are pursuing careers in design engineering.
More information about the event can be found on the International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition’s Facebook page.
