Farm-Tested, Farmer-Built Parts

Farm-Tested Farmer-Built Parts DRILLS Hizey Farm Service makes replacements for parts that don’t work like they should makes them better and makes them for less than OEM manufacturers Owner Bob Hizey knows they’re better because he uses many of them in his farming operation He sees no reason to pay $735 for a Deere no-till drill seed boot arm when he can repair it for $12 “The first machine shop job we did was to bore out a no-till coulter pivot and install a hardened steel bushing in a Great Plains drill ” recalls Hizey “We started advertising it and soon added a similar service for Case IH drills and other brands We would get calls from people about a problem wondering if we could do something about it ” Today 80 percent of the company’s business is with Deere equipment The remaining business is spread across a wide variety of brands In addition to a full line of aftermarket replacement parts they also machine many of their own Upgrades include replacing bushings on parallel linkage for Deere/Kinze and other brand corn planters Cast seed closing wheels for Deere/Kinze planters and Deere no-till drills are reconditioned for only $10 each a quarter of the replacement part cost The list goes on with reconditioning of worn parts with superior after-market components and fabrication The key is to be able to do it at a lower cost than OEM replacement “We look for opportunities where we can improve on the original part and update it for 25 to 30 percent of the OEM replacement ” says Hizey “As long as the companies keep making their equipment the way they do we’ll have business ” Currently Hizey Farm Service is experimenting with transforming worn out cast iron closing wheels into spiked closing wheels Hizey notes that manufacturers are charging as much as $130 for a spiked closing wheel “We can make them out of the cast iron wheels for as little as $25 ” says Hizey In the case of the $735 seed boot arms Hizey sends customers a repair kit that includes 24 of the $12 parts “Because we farm we can relate to the customer service we like to receive ” says Hizey “We don’t take credit cards We ship on a guy’s word We just shipped $8 000 in parts to a customer in Texas We had spoken with him by phone twice ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Hizey Farm Service LLC 3755 Stringtown Rd Lancaster Ohio 43130 ph 740 756-4810; hizeyfarmservicellc@yahoo com; www hizeyfarmservicellc com or www greendrills com

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