What finally triggered the decision to proceed with this
book was the realization that there was also an important
story that needed to be told about the roots of agricultural
innovation in our region. This story leads to and includes
the history of the Bobcat loader and also the history of the
Steiger tractor. Steiger is the other prominent name that
invariably emerges when anyone talks or writes about the
immense amount of agricultural innovation in the Fargo area
that has taken place over the last century—and is now
accelerating.
While most people today readily recognize the names “Bobcat”
and “Steiger,” far fewer know the name “Melroe.” It was the
company that first manufactured the Bobcat loader, and the
Melroe name was borne by the hundreds of thousands of Bobcat
loaders produced from 1961 to 2000 when Ingersoll Rand,
which acquired the brand five years earlier, removed
“Melroe” from the loaders and changed the company’s name to
the Bobcat Company.
Although the Melroe name has faded from memory, E.G.
Melroe’s inventions and the company he founded have had a
profound and lasting impact on our region. E.G. was my
maternal grandfather. In 1947, he established the Melroe
Manufacturing Company, which later dropped “Manufacturing”
from its moniker. After E.G.’s untimely passing in 1955, his
four sons (Les, Cliff, Irv and Roger), along with his
son-in-law (Eugene “Gene” Dahl, my father), took over and
grew the company. The Melroe Company’s Bobcat loader is
North Dakota’s signature to the world in that there are
Bobcat loaders found in every country around the globe.
After the Melroe family sold the company in 1969, my Uncle
Les Melroe acquired majority control of the Steiger Tractor
Company. The following year, my father made a major
investment and came on board to run the company as it
pioneered the high-powered, four-wheel-drive (4WD) tractor
industry.
At TEDx Fargo in 2018, Barry Batcheller—my father’s favorite
engineer at Steiger and my long-term friend—spoke “about a
region in this nation that is developing technologies that
are so profound that their implementation will change the
course of humankind. Now you may think that I’m talking
about Silicon Valley, but I’m not.” Instead, Barry referred
to the Fargo region, which he said had developed so many
similarities that it might become the Silicon Valley of
agricultural technology.
Six years later, Barry spoke at an “Ag Innovation Corridor”
event at North Dakota State University (NDSU) in which he
drew a straight line from the Bobcat loader (the Melroe
Company) through Steiger Tractor and the companies Barry
founded in Fargo (Phoenix International and Appareo Systems,
LLC, which were acquired by Deere and AGCO, respectively) to
Grand Farm, asserting that “we are doing the exact same
things as the founders of Silicon Valley, although we just
don’t notice it.”
Barry could only have proposed such a seemingly outrageous
claim because of the legacy initiated by E.G. Melroe. This
legacy must be understood to comprehend what’s happening in
the Fargo area today.
As chronicled in Chapter Twenty-Six, dozens of companies
were founded here to service the building of Bobcat loaders
and Steiger tractors, and many more companies were founded
and prospered as the ag-equipment and
research-and-development (R&D) ecosystem grew in the
Fargo region. Major equipment manufacturers acquired both
companies and continue to operate in the area. The Bobcat
Company is currently owned by the Doosan Corporation, and
Steiger Tractor was acquired by CNH Global N.V., one of the
world’s largest farm machinery manufacturers. The other two
top equipment builders, Deere and AGCO, also have a strong
manufacturing presence here.
Fargo is home to the world’s largest Deere dealer, RDO
Equipment Co., and another of Deere’s largest dealers,
Brandt Holdings. Fargo is also home to the largest retailer
of CNH equipment, Titan Machinery. The second largest AGCO
retailer, Butler Machinery, is headquartered in Fargo. In
addition to manufacturing and retailing, many other
companies have emerged to create a robust infrastructure for
agricultural innovation.
What started in E.G.’s barn in Gwinner, North Dakota (about
86 miles southwest of Fargo), evolved into a family tree of
invention and manufacturing that eventually blossomed into
the vibrant innovation forest flourishing in the Fargo area
today.
If E.G. Melroe had never been born, would this plethora of
agricultural development and growth have occurred? Yes, of
course, but not likely here. Fargo was not a natural
powerhouse of agrarian invention, innovation and
manufacturing. Although the region’s rich soil made the Red
River Valley a highly productive farming area, there was no
dependable, navigable waterway, nor was there any major
urban center in the region.
However, the story of E.G.’s inventions and the company he
founded is anything but an easy, smooth tale of success.
Many times, all seemed lost—but for indomitable
perseverance. This story of never-quitters repeated
throughout E.G.’s endeavors, throughout my father’s
involvement in Steiger Tractor and throughout the struggles
my brother, Brian, and I endured establishing Concord, Inc.
Without the never-quitter ethos, none of these companies had
a prayer of succeeding.
Please note that the stories of the Melroe Company and
Steiger Tractor are not intended to be comprehensive
histories but, instead, chronicles and reflections based on
the personal experiences of my father, my brother, me and
several key individuals who were interviewed at length. I
apologize for leaving out so many people who helped make the
companies so successful.
For additional details, please consult books by Lee
Klancher, Peter D. Simpson, Martin Padgett and others.
When I began working on this book, I had no intention of
referencing my private journals. However, I believe some
entries from Concord’s critical period—October 1987 to the
end of 1989—shed considerable light on both my personal
struggles with Concord’s seemingly impossible challenges and
the challenges every executive faces in running a business
according to Christian principles.
This generational story, dedicated to those who never quit,
I feel compelled to tell.
