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LOUISVILLE — For nearly a decade, a 42-foot-long miniature farm display has anchored the South Wing of the National Farm Machinery Show, fascinating onlookers of all ages. And those looking closely might even realize that the display changes from one year to the next, so no two shows look the same.
The miniature is the collaborative creation of Tennessee farmers Colby Counce and Chase Long, and they debuted it at NFMS in the Kentucky Expo Center in 2016.
“ We didn’t realize it was going to be that big of a hit that first year — and neither did the farm show,” Counce told AGDAILY. “So it was initially kind of a one-year thing, but once all the dust settled, they decided that everybody and their brother had talked about it and was interested in it. The show wanted it back next year.”
Counce, 28, said that he and Long got their first exposure to miniatures when he was about 10 years old and Long received a model train set. Fast-forward a few years to when they were teenagers, and both agreed that a farm setup was more appropriate. They then began working on the new miniature agricultural display on a 4-by-6-foot table at Long’s house.
Yet Counce wanted a miniature at his place too, so they built a second one, meaning they were now able to keep busy no matter whose house they were hanging out at.
Once the sets began to grow, Long opted to bring his display to the popular Crossroads of Dixie Antique Tractor & Engine Show in nearby Lawrenceburg.
“ We took his display down there, and it was a huge hit,” Counce said. “So the second year, we took mine down there and put them together. That’s when they united.”
The creative farmers kept expanding the model, and though it began as two separate pieces, they have worked on each other’s side seamlessly. They even built a backstory into the piece — Long’s is a 5,000-acre row-crop farm that includes cattle, while Counce’s is a 15,000-acre operation that has morphed into a commercial granary. They built a creek between each side so that there could be a distinction between each piece of the agricultural vision, without actually feeling like it was two separate entities.
”Chase has been really good with imagination and creating the detail,” Counce said.
While they have purchased many of the models in the display, Counce said they like to make as much of it as they can by hand or by using a 3-D printer. The road, for example, is wood that they have meticulously painted to run almost the full length of the display. Long worked as a machinist coming out of high school, and during his free time, he used a lathe to make pieces like the grain bins.
Even today, Long expertly crafts pieces for the display on the machines at Counce’s shop.
”He still does it that way,” Counce said. “I don’t, because my patience is a little thinner than his. But he has turned out a lot of grain bins using the lathe — just getting a piece of aluminum and start turning.”
Creating a miniature of this size — officially it measures 42 feet by 8 feet — has been a momentous undertaking, but one that both Counce and Long are immensely proud of. The tables live on an enclosed trailer most of the year, ready to be worked on or showcased when needed.
As the farmers have gotten older, it has become more difficult to find time to work on it. Sometimes they gather spontaneously to brainstorm ideas; other times, it means carving out a specific weekend to get to work.
“Since we farm for a living, we don’t ever know what’s going to happen in the next few minutes, so lot of times, we just fly by the seat of our pants, even on the farm display,” Counce said. “But when we can, we get together and start throwing ideas out, drawing, and if we don’t like it we throw it out. If we do like it, we’ll keep at it.”
Every piece of this set has meaning to the Tennessee farmers. Counce admits that he doesn’t really play favorites with any single part of the display.
“If I had to pick one table to keep forever, I mean, that would be almost impossible for me to do,” he said.
Ryan Tipps is the founder and managing editor of AGDAILY. He has covered farming since 2011, and his writing has been honored by state- and national-level agricultural organizations.
