Encouraging Implement Orders | Video

Cliff Naylor | 2/25/2013

Drought severely damaged most crops in the Midwest last year, and even though 2012 was also dry in North Dakota, the state`s farmers harvested better than expected yields due to an abundance of sub-soil moisture. That income is now helping to fuel a surge in implement sales for one unique farm equipment assembly plant.

Total Ag Industries is hammering out lots of cultivators, chisel plows, headers and air seeders this winter.

"A lot of iron has been sold for this coming year. It`s starting to come in already," said Pat Muller.

Muller started this business on his farm in 1997 so he could keep employees busy after the harvest season was finished. His hired hands became experts at assembling field equipment for implement dealers during the winter months. When a surplus of orders began piling up, Muller decided to move the seasonal business off the farm and into a new state-of-the-art building.

"In the new shop we can have six different crews working all at once, all in climate controlled area. Air conditioned in the summer, heated in the winter," said business manager Justin Risovi.

The Mullers still farm around 3,000 acres of land but Total Ag has expanded to 24 employees and business continues to grow. Some crews now travel to Texas, Ohio and South Dakota to assemble implements on site, and some of the equipment they piece together comes to them from other countries.

"We got one this year from Russia or Germany that was kinda difficult because the book was in every language except English," said Rob Knodle with Total Ag Industries.

A crew of three or four men can put together one implement a day, but productivity is expected to go up when technicians don`t have to work out in the cold on pieces that are too large to fit into the existing shops. Over 200 implements were assembled here last year and with a stack of new orders and a new facility, 2013 is already shaping up to be a very good year on this farm.

Total Ag Industries hopes to move into their new facility in early March.

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