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New farm implement store goes against the grain

John Oncken  —  7/26/2007 3:51 pm

In an era where farm implement stores have disappeared from most communities, it's rare when a new one opens.

But a brand-new CaseIH store bucked the trend when it opened on March 1 in Columbus.

The store was built by Farmers Implement of Allenton, located near West Bend in Washington County. Allenton Implement is a former cooperative that was bought by Jack and Jamie Danner and John Krielkamp on Jan. 1 of last year.

About the same time, Engrson-Eggen Implement in Cambria went out of business. The owners of Allenton Implement saw the opportunity to fill the void left by the demise of the Engrson-Eggen CaseIH dealership in Cambria and decided to extend their own reach.

"We saw it as a real opportunity." Jack Danner says of building in Columbus. "It's a great farming area so we designed a new facility that provided space, business flow and layout."

Rod Kazmerzak of Sun Prairie, a CaseIH territory manager for 33 years, was hired as store manager. An open house in early March drew some 900 visitors and the new operation was off and running.

"We're very pleased with the response of farmers," Kazmerzak says. "We have a great group of employees, including Mark Jacob and service manager, Paul Kastenmeier, who had worked at Cambria.''

Kazmerzak points out that one of the new store's strengths is selling grain bins and grain drying equipment. "Two of our salesmen came from Engrson-Eggen and were well known in the grain equipment area," he says.

In addition to expanding their nearby sales and service territory, there are other reasons why Allenton Implement built a new store.

"It means more inventory of new and used equipment for our customers and a centralized administration," Jack Danner says.

The owners realize they went against the grain in the farm equipment business by opening a new store. The trend has been to close, consolidate and merge dealerships in the name of efficiency, loss of farmer numbers and cost control. Most existing and successful farm equipment suppliers have expanded and modernized their facilities in terms of buildings and technology, but a new store in a new location is very rare.

Agriculture, as with most other businesses, has undergone major changes over the years. It has moved from many small stores owned by families or individuals to fewer and bigger stores often owned by the same people and families . Today most owners have several or many stores.

There is a lot of history and tradition involved in the farm equipment business.

Older farmers will remember the "golden" era of farm mechanization -- the 1950s and 1960s -- when the post-World War II boom brought farm industrialization and the end of horse- drawn plows, grain binders and hay loaders. It was a time when almost every farm community had at least one and maybe several locally-owned farm equipment stores.

Those outlets featured major tractor lines such as Allis Chalmers (orange); International Harvester (red); John Deere (green); Ford (gray), and a host of other names including Oliver, Massey Harris, Case, Minneapolis Moline among them. They fought for the business of farmers who had served in the military and were back on the farm for life.

Many of these once-grand companies -- including major power Allis Chalmers -- fell by the wayside with John Deere and IH emerging as the leading tillers of land and harvesters of grains and forages on America's farms.

Meanwhile, the foreign invasion began as German, Italian, French and Japanese farm equipment began carving out pieces of the ag business. They came and went, with some staying and building their own following.

Today, the major tractor lines and the foundation of many of the major farm equipment dealerships are U.S.-owned John Deere and AGCO, and New Holland and CaseIH (both owned by Fiat in France). Of course, they carry many other brands of tillage and harvesting equipment.

While the little farm implement store where farmers came for coffee and local news has pretty much disappeared, today's dealerships are strong and key to farm sales.

No longer does a local dealer sell in a limited nearby area. Farmers now compare prices in faraway stores and on the Internet.

Tom Argall of Ritchies in Cobb is a CaseIH and AGCO dealer. He's been selling farm supplies and equipment for 40 years and has experienced the changing farm economy.

"We sell in a 150-mile area," he says. "Farmers want modern technology, big equipment, satellite guidance systems and service. We have truly seen a technology explosion."

While farmers may buy a new tractor from a dealer a hundred miles away, they still want service and they want it fast.

That's why you see the big buildings with the high doors at all the farm implement stores. Tractors now are computer operated and contain parts that fit no traditional description. No longer will a couple of wrenches, screw drivers, some baling wire and a bit of mechanical knowledge get a farmer very far in fixing a modern tractor.

Dealers have service departments with highly trained mechanics. Today's tractor mechanic has to be a real technology whiz.

Not only must a dealership do the repair in their shop but they must do it quickly. Today's farmers, even the smaller ones, must keep the equipment working before the weather changes or the crop spoils. In days gone by, a few days either way seemed to make little difference; the hay was put up later and was probably already past its prime, corn was cultivated crossways or the farmer probably could solve the problem himself. And, even the big farms weren't very big.

Will the new facility that Allenton Implement built in Columbus be a long-term success?

As always -- and this hasn't changed over the years -- it depends on selling to farmers and servicing what they sell. It's a fast-moving, high-tech world out there, a world that has cast aside many traditions but in which farmers by and large try to have faith in and will reward those who fill their needs. The changing farm equipment business, whatever the tractor name or color, will do that, but change is sometimes painful.

John Oncken is owner of Oncken Communications, a Madison-based agricultural information and consulting company. He can be reached at 222-0624, fax 222-7775 or e-mail jfodairy@chorus.net

John Oncken  —  7/26/2007 3:51 pm