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KIRKSVILLE, MO -- Meet 18-year-old John Newland of Kirksville. He has been involved with buying, selling and trading used farming equipment for the past five years. He, his dad, and older brother are owners of the successful Newland Agriculture Equipment business just north of Kirksville. 

“It started out when my brother got in FFA and we started buying and selling equipment. When he was a freshman, he got involved and I kind of joined in with him. Then when I became a freshman, I joined FFA. Now I’m doing it along with him,” Newland said.

After deciding to do the business as part of his FFA project, Newland started restoring old John Deere tractors.  “I have a 1951 John Deere that’s fully restored that I showed last year in the FFA 4-H Building. I got 1st place on it. Then I took it to some tractor shows in town.”

Newland says that there is a lot of hard work, dedication and long hours to his business, but at the end of the day, it is all part of a rewarding learning experience,  “Just the enjoyment of getting to know how to work on stuff, I can take apart a tractor and put it back together on the old tractor. Just being able to have the ability to know how to work on equipment is going to help me future in life when I get further into agriculture,” Newland 

Newland has been through some funny moments as well.  “We went down to Columbia; we bought a load of equipment at a sale. My dad always taught me it’s better to over strap then under strap. We got outside of Columbia, where it gets really bumpy. We lost a grain drill off the back. We were wondering why cars were following us real slow. So we pulled over. That grain drill was following us, straight behind the trailer by one strap going 70 mph.”

Other than his tractors and business, Newland loves to go fishing at night.  “It’s just the enjoyment of sitting outside at night, not having anybody around, just fishing. I don’t eat the fish, I throw them back. But it’s just fun to be out there.”

John wants to continue in the agriculture business.  He wants go to college at Northwest in Maryville and become an Ag teacher.