"My brother Dale and I farm together, raising approximately 1,800 acres of corn and beans near Wellington, Ill. We're both more than 55 years old so we can't rely on pure strength anymore to accomplish some of our daily chores. That's why we can up with this winch on our anhydrous applicator," says Delmar Graham, whose invention recently won Farm Bureau's national inventor contest.

"Aligning and hitching up anhydrous tanks was becoming difficult. It takes only one person to hitch up with the help of our electric tank winch. Here's how it works: You back the applicator up to within 5 to 10 ft. of the tank. Then pull the winch cable out through the receiver hitch, hook up to the drawbar and pull it in. Then you just insert the locking pin into the receiver hitch. The hitching attachment can be simply unpinned from wagon tongues, but the receiver hitch is welded to the applicator frame.

"To set up this winch system we had to place it at the correct angle to receive the wagon tongue. We used a 9,000-lb. winch, shortening up the cable to 25 feet for maximum pull. We ran heavy-duty electrical cable from the winch to the tractor battery.

"This hitching system saves 8 to 10 min. on each hookup. That's significant when you figure we use up about 60 tanks each fall. The time saved is enough to cover an additional 200 acres and it makes the job a lot more pleasant with less chance for injury or back strain."