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Mike Lessiter

Mike Lessiter

A second-generation ag journalist, Mike Lessiter has been Editor/Publisher of Farm Equipment since 2004. He has covered business-to-business operations, manufacturing and marketing topics since 1992. He has also served in several capacities with the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Assn., Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers and is a frequent industry speaker. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he was named president of Lessiter Publications Inc. in 2007.

Contact: mlessiter@lessitermedia.com

Articles

ARTICLES

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To The Point: A Dose of Perspective

By Mike Lessiter posted on September 5, 2016
Perspective often comes when and where you don’t expect it, including faraway lands. Our staff returned recently from our 3rd Annual National Strip-Tillage Conference in Bloomington, Ill., which drew a crowd of 351 from 22 states and 4 countries. Among the international attendees were two farm managers who traveled from Thailand to learn how to leap-frog their operation forward (farm practices in Thailand, they say, lag the U.S. by 50 years). The pair found us via Facebook, and reached out ahead of time so we could help them arrange on-farm visits ahead of the conference.
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What Vermeer Is Doing to Be a Manufacturer of Choice

By Mike Lessiter posted on August 4, 2016 | Posted in Manufacturer & Dealer Issues
Farm Equipment asked hay and forage equipment manufacturer Vermeer, Pella, Iowa, to expand on some of the things they’ve been working on in recent years to achieve best-in-class ratings from its global dealer network of 500. Among the ag segments in the Equipment Dealers Assn. 2016 Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey (full-line, tractor and shortline manufacturers), Vermeer was the highest rated manufacturer in 6 of the 12 categories.
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From the Desk of Mike Lessiter

Showing Off the ‘People’ Side of the Farm Equipment Business

By Mike Lessiter posted on August 1, 2016 | Posted in Best Practices
With Lessiter Media’s 35th anniversary celebration next week (we’re taking our staff and their spouses out for an overnight stay in the city), our team has been working on some special things here to commemorate the milestone. They’ve been chronicling memories, philosophies and visions from that tough start-up by my parents (Frank and Pam) in 1981, and how they got through that daunting first decade during a horrendous ag economy.
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2016 Equipment Dealers Assn. Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey

Dealers ‘Grade’ Their Equipment Suppliers

EDA’s 2016 Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey rates equipment manufacturers on 12 categories of dealership operations and support.
By Mike Lessiter posted on July 18, 2016 | Posted in Manufacturer & Dealer Issues, Dealer News, Manufacturer News
In June, the Equipment Dealers Assn. (EDA) released the results of its annual Dealer-Manufacturer Relations Survey. Through this study, equipment dealers rated the companies whose products they represent on 12 key categories of dealership operations and support.
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Precision Specialist Comes to the Rescue on First Day of Planting

Precision Specialist Comes to the Rescue on First Day of Planting

Go behind the scenes with Leo Johnson and his son, Patrick, as they plant corn into strips for the first time on their 1,000-acre farm in Clinton, Wis. Jason Pennycook, precision specialist for 9-store Case IH dealer Johnson Tractor, comes to the rescue with remote support when Patrick runs into a problem with the planter in the field.

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