L&D Ag Service growing its business in Hartland

Published 9:14 am Thursday, November 6, 2008

The lunchtime crowd at the Village Inn in Hartland included several busy workers from L&D Ag Service, including volunteer fireman Travis Routh. He had been called from his job as a sales and service representative to help put out a cornfield fire south of town Tuesday morning. Lunch had to be quick, because Routh would soon need to respond to a service call from an area farmer.

Harvest time is always busy for the staff of L&D Ag Service, the Hartland-based manufacturer of farm sprayers and and reseller of high-tech control and monitoring equipment. Larry Nelson, the company’s founder and president, started the business on his dad’s farm west of Hartland in 1979. L&D is now the largest employer in town, with 21 full-time workers. The company works out of three buildings in Hartland, plus a warehouse in Freeborn.

L&D started as a reseller of sprayer parts, and began its sprayer manufacturing operations in 1985. Reselling makes up two-thirds of L&D’s business in a five-state area, including Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. The company also sells products in Canada. Nearly all of L&D’s sales business is conducted via telephone or the Internet.

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L&D makes tractor-pulled sprayers and models that attach to a three-point tractor hitch. All design and drafting work is done in-house and Nelson says his people build through experience, not blueprints.

“We hire skilled people and work hard to keep them,” Nelson said.

The recent boom in high-tech farming has given the company a big boost, but things have not always been this good. The company’s early progress was hurt by the farm crisis of the 1980s.

“There was a time when I was so poor I couldn’t pay attention,” Nelson said with a grin.

Farmers searching for ways to maximize their income can turn to L&D for GPS systems, auto steer, data logging, yield monitoring and rate-control equipment, among other products. L&D has eight sales and service representatives who average a combined 60 service calls at peak business times in the spring and fall. L&D sends its service people to training programs with the manufacturers of control and monitoring equipment, such as Ag Leader and Trimble.

In-house training programs at L&D are used for the company’s own products, but hands on experience in the field is also important, said Nelson.

“We believe in learning by doing.”

So why does L&D stay in Hartland, a town of 280 people, when it could be in a bigger city?

“If we need to calibrate one of our sprayers or test other equipment, we can do it right here on the streets of Hartland, because there’s so little traffic,” Nelson said. “That’s tough to do in a city.”

Another member of the Hartland business community is delighted at the success of L&D and said it helps her restaurant.

“Several of their workers stop in here for lunch and breakfast,” Judy Hendrickson said.

Customers going to L&D often stop for a meal at the Village Inn.

Expansion may be as much of a necessity as it is a desire for L&D, Nelson said.

“We are just about maxed out in the buildings we now have. You can only stack the boxes so high,” he said.

Informal talks have begun with city officials concerning L&D’s need for more workspace. Larry Flatness is a city councilman in Hartland who says he understands Nelson’s business needs.

“L&D is a very important business here. We are willing to work with Larry on this,” Flatness said.