May 2, 2003 cont'd
Irv's dealership designed and builds its own manure spreader. He used to sell Do-All spreaders, but that company went out of business. There wasn't another spreader being built that was heavy-duty enough to meet the needs of Irv's customers in the Cuming County. The livestock operations in the area needed a manure spreader that could stand up to heavy use. "We had worked with Do-All when they designed their spreader," Irv said. "When we went to design ours, we asked some seventeen customers what things they liked about their present spreader, and what things they didn't like. Then we tried to design a spreader around those likes and dislikes. We were able to incorporate a lot of their information into our design. We tried to make it extra heavy-duty. A portion of the composite material was made of ground up milk cartons, which worked well because it didn't rust or corrode. We used chisel-plow teeth for the distributor, they wear very well. We had good response from our customers, which allowed us to grow beyond Cuming County. We've got spreaders across the midwest, in California, in Washington."
The manure spreader is manufactured by a part of the business called West Point Design. Most of the spreader's success has been due to word-of-mouth. The company also does some national advertising. "We have one person doing sales throughout the midwest," Irv said, "but much of the business is call-in, marketing directly to the individual." The manufacturing work has added eleven or twelve employees to the business, full-time, year 'round. It provides some good solid jobs.
"You get feedback from farmers - we listened to what they said and designed the spreader accordingly. I grew up on a farm and I like to meddle with designs and different types of equipment, and with building things. I like that kind of thing."
The consolidation of farms is a challenge for an equipment dealer like Irv. "You have fewer people on the farms," he said. "It's harder for the rural community to keep its population. Our population has been stable, but it hasn't grown."
"If there are fewer farms," Irv said, "you have to grow your business geographically - to keep your volume up. You have to have a certain volume to run one of these places efficiently. As farms consolidate, you have to keep looking for new customers. There are very few new farmers starting up; in fact, I couldn't tell you of a single one in the past five years."
"Does that scare you?"
"It does if that's all you think about." Irv said. "With West Point Design, with the manure spreader, we've broken the geographic barrier and that's effective - going national with the spreader. Our implement business isn't so easy to expand like that but we're making efforts to do that."
"It's hard to look fifty years into the future," he said. "Looking five or ten years in the future, I think there will be fewer farms, they will be larger. There may be fewer equipment dealers. The equipment today is much more productive than the equipment it is replacing. It isn't just that the guy is getting a new combine; the new combine probably does twice the work the old one did."
"Case and IH merged in 1985," Irv said. "They were two well-established companies over the years. Here's an example of manufacturers consolidating, leaving fewer manufacturers. This is probably as good an example as there is - two companies that had been in business for a hundred years, but had to merge to survive and compete."
Characteristics of the people in West Point? "Visionary," Irv said. "Innovative. Hard-working, a good work ethic and that in itself will generate a flurry of business - if you're working, you're using fuel, you're using feed, you're buying groceries, you're doing things that consume goods and services. That creates a good business climate in the area."
West Point, Irv thinks, is striking for a community of its size because of the ingenuity of the people here. "We have a chance of survival that other communities don't have, because the people are able to adapt and adjust to the different businesses, and they adapt and adjust to the needs of agriculture."
"If communities are going to survive in the future," he said, "they've got to make it easy for people to find jobs and make a living in the area."
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