I always tell folks that I don’t sell the Walkabout Mother Bin, I sell the concept of the Walkabout Mother Bin. Less is more and equals efficiency. The Mother Bin allows an operation to keep up if they are not currently keeping up. Or, if the operation is keeping up they can run fewer trucks, hire less labor, add a mother bin and have a much more efficient harvest than ever before. It’s a concept that’s being proven again and again by growers choosing to think outside the box.
I am recently home from a trip to Mississippi. While there I visited the Ross Plantation, home to the very first Walkabout Mother Bin (the original WMB4000 model) and also two of the most recent mother bin purchasers. The common theme among those three visits was simply the mindset of efficiency. With labor shortages at an all time high, having all hands on deck for harvest often finds farmers with, quite literally, not enough hands. They are left with idle trucks and equipment they don’t have operators for. Changing an operation’s mindset to less is more, once folks understand the concept of a mother bin, is easy and a game changer for them. Less trucks and labor, plus the addition of a mother bin, will result in a faster, more efficient harvest because the combines and grain carts will never stop.
To illustrate, let’s talk about the first mother bin in Greenville, Mississippi, owned by Peyton Potter, at the Ross Plantation. That bin is coming up on her sixth harvest season and Peyton and his crew are as happy today as the day they bought her. This trip was my first time meeting those guys and I hadn’t seen the bin since delivery. After a quick walk around the bin to see how she’s wearing (she’s wearing really well) I asked how the mother bin has changed their operation. I got a textbook response; a line out of my very own playbook when I sell a bin, and I regret not catching it on video!
“The Mother Bin allowed us to reduce the number of trucks we own and combine more grain faster than anyone around us because the combines never stop,” said Peyton. “We farm more than our neighbors, with less equipment, and still finish before the neighbors do and it’s because of the Mother Bin. We run like clockwork.” Peyton is always thinking outside of the box. We’ve found that innovative thinking is a common thread in our customers that sets them apart in the agriculture industry.
Auger wear after six years of use.
Post walk-around, we talked about some of the bin improvements we have implemented since the original Walkabout Mother Bin. The group was happiest to hear that the WMB4000+ includes a steering indicator and quick release clean-out doors to further advance the clean out option.
As for the two newest mother bin owners… To take that efficiency mindset one step further, one of the new owners is switching from primarily cotton and throwing some corn into the mix. Instead of buying numerous grain trucks he doesn’t have drivers for, he purchased a Mother Bin. The mother bin will allow harvest to start on his own time, and not wait for the hired trucks to arrive; and when everyone else has to shut down because the elevator closed, he has an extra 4000 bushel of temporary storage allowing him to harvest longer.
And the other… he is in the same boat as you. Help is hard to find and good help is even harder to find. He had spoken to a friend of his who owns a mother bin and the bin came highly recommend as the problem solver for harvest. With that, his options were chosen to fit him with a bin that suits his needs, and we shipped her out.
My trip to the Delta was great. I have had a few weeks back in the office and now, to make sure my luggage doesn’t collect dust, I am gearing up for a trip to the Palouse Region of Oregon, May 12, for a Mother Bin field day. The Palouse is a major agricultural area and is mega wheat country! Acre per acre no place can match the wheat production from the Palouse. Mother Bins is represented in the Palouse region (Washington, Oregon and Idaho) by FEI, Inc. FEI will be facilitating the field day with Mother Bin presentations. There will also be two mother bin owners on hand to explain how the concept of a mother bin made sense for their operation and how they’ve benefited from owning a bin. If you are in or near the Pacific Northwest and would like to attend the field day, please contact me (text or call Crystal at 605-530-4346) and I will get you the details.
I don’t sell the product I sell the concept. And a Walkabout Mother Bin, with her quality steel construction and 4000-BU, in-field, portable storage capacity, is truly the next natural, evolutionary concept for agriculture in North America.
