One of Iowa’s great county fair traditions will be taking place on campus, albeit on a smaller scale.

The students in the Agricultural Engineering Design courses 445 and 446 will participate in a tractor pull today at 5 p.m. in the parking lot south of the Molecular Biology Building.

The instructor, Graeme Quick, adjunct professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said the building of these tractors is the courses’ entirety. However, the pull is not part of the grade.

“It is a tractor pull run-off between two quarter-scale tractors that were designed and built from the ground up, and also driven by ag engineering design students,” said Carl Bern, professor of agriculture and biosystems engineering.

The two tractors that are in the contest also were in a national contest sponsored by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers. The contest is based on the design of the tractor and how far the tractor actually pulled.

The tractor entered in 1998 placed first in the design category while the tractor entered in 1999 placed first in the pulling category.

“It was a lot of hard work, team experience, and a lot of hours were spent trying to come up with innovative ideas, but mostly it was a lot of fun,” said Brian Hollatz, graduate student in agricultural engineering.

Hollatz also said the tractors in the contest are treated as a real product and are judged on the safety and serviceability of the tractor itself. He said it was a great learning experience to actually design and build the tractor.

The tractor pull is free and open to the public.