Grainswest - Tech 2025

Tech 2025 Grains West 36 CUSTOMER RELATIONS Darcy Penner farms in the Acme area and met McGhee when he worked at a dealership. Penner was impressed with his skills, and when McGhee launched his own business, he hired the independent mechanic when he needed in-season repairs. As Penner’s equipment aged, he also saw the value in having a single mechanic service his combines from year to year. “It was nice to have the continuity of one person working on your equipment. And the reality is the cost factor played into it, too,” said Penner. Dealership mechanics usually cost him an extra $15-$20 per hour and he has found they are often not as timely. Penner recalled a combine breakdown he experienced during harvest that the dealership told him would take two days to fix and require the combine to spend time in their shop. To Penner’s relief, McGhee and a fellow independent mechanic repaired it in the field the same day. Penner values the fact he can work alongside McGhee and handle the tasks he is capable of while leaving the more complicated aspects of the job to a trained professional. “He’ll walk me through the different aspects of repairs that need to be done. I’ll do the more mid-range servicing on the combine. That saves me hours of his labour that doesn’t require his expertise.” Brad Schmidt, a 31-year-old journeyman mechanic, also operates his own business, and he takes a similar approach to working alongside his customers. He works mainly in their shops rather than his own. This saves them road hours on their equipment and helps them learn along the way. “I want to get customers familiarized with their equipment again. I feel that has been lost in the advancement of the equipment,” said Schmidt. “Customers got scared of their equipment once it had sensors and controllers, and guys backed off doing their own repairs.” Schmidt himself learned on the job, so to speak. “I grew up in Youngstown on a large grain farm. We always had lots of equipment around, and we did a lot of our own maintenance and repairs,” he said. “I was always interested in the mechanical side of things.” After high school, Schmidt trained as a heavy-duty mechanic at NAIT in Edmonton. Now, based in La Crete, he welcomes customers to work alongside Independent mechanics such as McGhee are often able to carry out repairs in the field quicker and cheaper than their dealership counterparts. “My rule is I like to work for people that I can sit and have a meal with.” —BradMcGhee FEATURE