In September 2012, Calvin attended the Kansas Cooperative Managers Association meeting in Wichita. The conference hotel had a carpet patterned in colors no farmer would ever choose for a kitchen, and the meeting room was full of people discussing capital efficiency, financing costs, and fleet modernization. Calvin had known many of them for twenty years. Several approached him with the forced cheerfulness of people who wanted to ask a difficult question without seeming rude. They asked how the refurbishment was going, whether he regretted canceling the sale, and whether Greeley County was planning to return to the market once the machines finally wore out.
Doug Sellers, manager of the Western Kansas Tri-County Cooperative, was not interested in forced cheerfulness. Doug had signed a $14.8 million John Deere fleet order for forty-two units in April, just six weeks after Calvin canceled his own. The purchase had been celebrated locally, and Doug believed it would place his cooperative ahead of neighboring organizations for a decade. He was a capable manager with an energetic manner and an unfortunate habit of treating disagreement as evidence that someone else had failed to understand the obvious. He knew Calvin's reputation and resented the unspoken implication that the older man might have spotted a risk he had missed.
During a panel on agricultural capital investment, Doug described the Greeley County refurbishment decision as a misunderstanding of modern operational efficiency. He did not call Calvin foolish by name, but everyone in the room understood whom he meant. "There comes a point," Doug said, "when holding on to yesterday's machinery becomes a more expensive sentimental decision than buying tomorrow's productivity." Several managers nodded, and a few glanced toward Calvin to see whether he would respond. Calvin continued making a note about interest rates in the margin of his program.
Afterward, Doug approached him near the coffee station. "No hard feelings, Calvin. I'm talking about principles, not personalities." Calvin stirred his coffee.
"Then we don't have a disagreement about the nature of the conversation," he said. Doug smiled, pleased that his remarks had not provoked a quarrel. "You'll come around when you see what those new machines can do," he added. Calvin thanked him and asked how the delivery had gone, and Doug happily described the new fleet's comfortable cabs, guidance systems, and excellent early productivity.
Calvin listened carefully. The machines were performing well, just as he expected new machines to perform well, and pretending otherwise would have been a disservice to the analysis. Doug's operators were pleased, and his cooperative's fuel use appeared to be improving on several operations. None of those facts answered Calvin's long-term service question. He congratulated Doug on a successful first season and returned to Tribune without mentioning that his folders contained a model of precisely the financial exposure Doug might face several years later.
Margaret heard about the panel before Calvin reached home. A neighbor had attended and telephoned a friend, who told another friend, who was sitting with Margaret at a church committee meeting. "Apparently Doug gave you a very public lesson in modern management," she said when Calvin came through the kitchen door. He set down his bag and loosened his collar. "He gave a persuasive description of what new machines can do," he answered.