DYERSVILLE, Iowa – Toy collectors headed to Iowa for the National Farm Toy Show, Nov. 5-7, in Dyersville. The show was again in Beckman High School and the auditorium at the National Farm Toy Museum and Commercial Park.

While gas prices were a bit higher this year, the weather couldn’t have been better. Balmy weather made brisk sales for outside vendors who said they had great sales during the event that kicked off before the indoor event opened at 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

This was the 44th year for the National Farm Toy Show. This year’s National Farm Toy Hall of Farm inductee was Neil Fisher, a collector from Winston-Salem, N.C. The national farm toy for this year’s show was the John Deere 3010. Due to supply chain issues, the toy was not available for pick up at the show and will be delivered with a small up charge.

As always, there were new things to see at the show. The 2021 show brought an updated farm toy price guide. Another new item available was vendor Lee Friesen’s farm book for kids, If A Farmer Gets A Pickup, a story about a farmer who buys a truck and all the purchases it led to from there. Lee said, “It is a circular tale about a farmer that gets a new-to-him pickup up and one piece of equipment leads to another.”

Friesen, who lives on a farm outside of Olivet, S.D., raises cattle, sheep and goats and knows firsthand the story he wrote. In fact, he said that adults have enjoyed the tale of how one piece of equipment leads to another almost as much as children. Besides the educational aspect about farming, each page has a rubber chicken that kids enjoy trying to find. This is a great Christmas present to add to the family farm. The artwork is done by Varton Ter-Avanesyan. The book is $12.99 and may be purchased at www.ifafarmergetsapickup.com. The website also has activities for children.

Each year at the National Farm Toy Show, farm layouts are part of the Saturday morning line up. This year, Marvin Errthum’s brought a beautiful John Deere 420 crawler that his children and grandchildren built for him. They created this amazing machine for his 75th birthday before COVID-19. Marvin was proud of the lovely machine and brought it to the show to display. “I went to a toy show and was going to bid on a crawler. It went too high, so the kids’ bells started ringing,” he said about the idea they came up with to build the amazing model.

Darryl Cox created an amazing display of cotton and the John Deere machinery that accompanies it. Several other displays were also quite eye catching.  Machinery was everywhere at the show, even a few salesman samples were found, such as a grain elevator that had been in personal collection for years, as well as a combine salesman sample.

Dyersville, besides the show itself, also has many draws. Vendors had tents filled with toys, literature and memorabilia. Downtown is the beautiful Basilica and the Dyer Botsford House Doll Museum. One new addition to the Dyersville area is the cool Textile Brewing Company. This former textile factory offers food and locally made beer and hard cider.

The farm toy hobby was going strong at the National Farm Toy Show. This is the kick-off to the farm toy show season that gets rolling as the snow flies.