At Rovey Farms, chances are you’ll find Jerry Rovey in action – checking irrigation in Arizona’s 120-degree heat, baling hay while the moon shines, plowing eight rows at a whack in his 325 hp John Deere, creating computerized haystacks with his New Holland Roadsider, welding a broken implement in his shop, or tackling any one of a thousand other farm chores.

What he doesn’t have time for is broken engines or the hassle of storing and tracking lubricants for a hundred or so pieces of farm equipment.

That’s why Jerry – and his dad before him – has depended on Shell for more than 40 years. Shell ROTELLA T 15W-40 lubricates virtually every engine on the Rovey farm, from the lawnmower to the monster John Deere, and Shell DONAX® TD helps keep every transmission and hydraulic system clean and low on wear.

And when Jerry and his wife Dianna take off from farming in their Cessna 185, they count on AEROSHELL® Oil W 15W- 50 engine oil to keep them safely flying.

Rovey Farms is the story of an entrepreneurial, high-tech farming family that knows what it takes to succeed in a difficult business – and the story of a long-term relationship with Shell.

Making the Desert Bloom

Jerry’s grandfather moved his farming operation from Illinois to the Phoenix area in 1912, and Jerry’s dad took over the farm at the age of eight, when his dad died.

Jerry, too, started farming as a kid, and Jerry and Dianna look forward to their kids – who range in age from 23 to 10 – keeping the farm tradition alive.

But it takes technology to turn cactus-studded desert into lush fields of cotton, alfalfa, corn, wheat and barley. The key is water, which you see everywhere – but only in canals and irrigation ditches.

The trick is getting the water to flow evenly across the land. Jerry uses a laser-guided, computer controlled tractor to grade his fields precisely, and a collection sump and pump-back system to capture leftover water and recycle it.

“We can use the same water five or six times,” says Dianna. “We don’t let any of it go to waste.”

High Tech Farming

Jerry also keeps up with the newest farm equipment. His pride now is a New Holland Roadsider hay-bale stacking system that allows him to create stacks of 80 bales at a rate of five or six stacks an hour, all from inside the cab.

Under computer control, the machine assembles each layer of bales in a different pattern so that the entire stack locks into place like a jigsaw puzzle.

Then it up-ends the stack, sets it down, pushes it off, and gets ready for the next one – all without a human hand touching the hay.

One Oil Fits All

Jerry depends on Shell technology to keep his farm equipment running without a hitch. “I use Shell ROTELLA® T 15W-40 in everything,” he says. “Everything” is a lot – the John Deere equipment includes a 7410, 7610, two 4455s, an 8120, and a 9300, plus a 9970 cotton picker, a 4700 sprayer, and a road grader.

Then there are other tractors, a backhoe, hay balers, GMC and Ford service trucks, and even the lawnmower. Jerry says, “Those diesels, we get 8 to 10 to 12,000 hours on them before we trade them in. The gaskets go to leaking long before the engine wears out.”

For grease, Jerry depends on Shell RETINAX® LC, and for coolant, Shell ROTELLA® ELC. And for transmission and hydraulic fluid, there’s Shell DONAX® TD.

Jerry once tried an aftermarket transmission additive but gave it up. “This guy came around selling some additive that you’re supposed to add to your transmission to make it last for years,” he says.

“I had 6,000 to 7,000 hours on one transmission already, and I had no more put some of that stuff into it, when the clutch went out and I had to send it in for repairs. When they took it apart and looked at it, they said it looked like it was brand new inside – clean and not worn out a bit.

I figured, heck, if DONAX did that good for that long, why do I need any additive?”

Taking Off

Whatever the Roveys do, they are folks who don’t settle for less than the best, and that includes leisure-time activities. The Roveys and their friends often pile into the family’s Cessna 185 and take out for hunting trips to Wyoming, California or Canada.

In their adventures, Jerry and Dianna (who is a pilot as well as an experienced field hand) put about 100 hours a year on their plane, and they swear they’d never use anything but AEROSHELL® Oil W 15W-50.

“That stuff is incredible,” Jerry says. “We’ve gone up to the cold country, and we count on AEROSHELL to give us great protection for cold temperature stability.”

As for engine protection, the Roveys were able to fly their plane 700 hours beyond the recommended TBO (time between overhaul) of 1,900 hours.

“We check compression every year, and the last year we had two cylinders that were starting to get a little weak, so we felt it was time for an overhaul.

But we got about seven free years from using AEROSHELL® Oil W 15W-50.”