Our Humble Beginnings

The story of DICKEY-john began in the mid-'50s when Bob Dickey, a farmer in Chatham, Illinois, concluded that he had no guarantee the planting taking place behind his tractor was actually occurring correctly. Bob Dickey on the farm during the 1950's The only way to verify the seeding process was to physically turn around and observe the seeds dropping or periodically get off his tractor and perform spot checks. Bob considered options that might help simplify this process, but then, wrapped up in the business of farming, he shelved the budding idea.

An incident in the mid-'60s became the catalyst that would bring monitoring to the world of farming and change the direction of not only Bob Dickey's life but also that of modern farming. An unfortunate accident caused the loss of sight in Bob Dickey's right eye, making his previous thoughts on monitoring a necessity to continue his livelihood in farming. Together with his close friend and brother-in-law, Jack Littlejohn, he developed the basic plans for building a planter monitor.