Owner: Bob Adrian
Location: Tahlequah, Okla.
History: “I was born and spent my early years in Minnesota. My 13-year-old brother David died from polio in 1958. My parents, Dave and Evelyn Adrian, decided to move to Oklahoma when an opportunity arose for my father to manage a Go Yo Mission dairy and hog farm in Oklahoma. He did so for a couple of years but the fit wasn’t good and led to buying a farm in Tahlequah and developing a cattle/feedlot operation. In Minnesota, he bought corn and old transportation equipment. He refurbished and sold that equipment first as a sideline. Later, sales of everything from feed grinders to grain drills became the only business. My dad was a master welder and fabricator and built one of the first hydraulic end loaders. In 1980, he decided to retire from farming and built new equipment sales facilities. When my father and I went into business, I promised he could work at the shop as long as he wanted, which he did for many years.”
Products and Services: “We sell both new and used equipment. Land in the local area is very rough and farm sizes are on the smaller side. I offer what best fits their needs. We sell two Branson tractors from 25 to 58 horsepower. Bush Hog and Land Pride are two available brands of ground maintenance equipment, tillers and lawn mowers, while Bushwacker provides rotary cutters from 5 to 21 feet. Boomless Willie Sprayers work well on our rough ground, with Stony Point providing caddies to facilitate using mowers on a smaller tractor. Because haying is important here, we offer Krone products including mowers and tedders from 7 to 21 feet. While mowers and tedders are kept in stock, other equipment is ordered and was typically delivered in two to three weeks. Unfortunately, COVID has made that time frame unpredictable. Many of our customers need or want refurbished machinery. We provide a variety with lots of life left in them and have even sold early Ford tractors from the 1940s. Assortments of equipment have gone to Mexico and once a Haiti mission group took equipment to assist farmers who knew nothing about mechanization. Most of my seven employees are involved with repair, refurbishment and replacement parts.”
Business Philosophy and Future: “I won’t sell what I can’t repair, and God put me here to help everyone as much as I can. Customer service is more than a smile. It means being honest and aboveboard while knowing people and their individual needs in order to help them make the best decisions for themselves. While we are doing a brisk business, my business is a dying breed because not many are willing to take the time and effort to make a business like this work. Not surprisingly, big business is squeezing out many places like mine.”
