Articles by Mike Lessiter

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Farm Equipment Magazine’s ‘Origin Story’

A farmer dabbling in trade publishing & an unpaid printer bill brought Johnson Hill Press 2 key opportunities in the late 1960s
A publishing genealogist could argue that the family tree of Farm Equipment dates back to 1957, 47 years before Lessiter Media acquired the publication.
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Looking Back on ‘A New-Era Contract’

This year marks 55 years of Farm Equipment magazine and 20 years of ownership by our family-run company, Lessiter Media. Below is my first column (“A New-Era Contract”), from the August/September 2004 edition, written weeks after acquiring the magazine.
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A Labor Day Message: What Work Has Taught Me…

This morning, as part of a Labor Day message at church (“The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard,” Matthew 20), our pastor recapped the jobs he had in his lifetime. It spurred a conversation with my 17-year-old, Hayden, as he starts his senior year of high school.
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Manufacturer Hall of Fame

The inaugural class of Farm Equipment’s ‘Shortline Legends’ made a permanent dent in the ag equipment universe

Earlier this year, we announced a program that would properly record — for posterity — the individuals whose innovations impacted the machinery and dealer distribution industry in North America over the last 55 years.


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Shortline Legends

Celebrating the Innovations of Independent Farm Equipment Manufacturers: Roy Applequist

With a curious mind & a wood-carved model, the founder of Great Plains Mfg. built a manufacturing empire for ag implements that would eventually help Kubota fast-track its entry into production ag
The quiet, unassuming Roy Applequist, founder of Great Plains, was the subject of many Farm Equipment interviews since Lessiter Media acquired the magazine in 2004.
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Shortline Legends

Celebrating the Innovations of Independent Farm Equipment Manufacturers: Don Landoll

A failed Air Force physical redirected a prodigious welder to answer the calls that led to a vertically integrated & diversified manufacturing giant that bears his name
Don Landoll, one of 8 children raised on a farm in Hanover, Kan., was destined to be a manufacturer. With the encouragement of his parents, he graduated from Tinker Toys to an Erector set at age 7, before the farmstead even had its own electricity.
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