THE INNOVATORS
Besler Industries’ Durable Pickup Flatbeds A pickup equipped with Besler Industries’ flatbed.
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Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about Besler Industries and its history. Cliff Kester: Besler Industries is located in Cambridge, Nebraska. Herb Besler started the company in 1973. He started out making loading chutes and corral panels. What
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really got him going later on was stover wagons. At the beginning, the company was just Herb and one other guy. He also had two investors. Now, we average around 25 employees. Irrigation Leader: Herb, would you tell us about your background? Herb Besler: I grew up on a family farm near Bison, South Dakota. I came to Cambridge, Nebraska, in April 1963, when I was 19 years old. I got a call from Walt Dewey, the manager of the new alfalfa mill being built in Cambridge, who asked if I would come work there and help get the mill ready for the first cutting of alfalfa. After that, I worked as a mill operator for a year and then as a field foreman, keeping the equipment running in the field. I did a little welding, both on the farm and when I worked at the alfalfa mill. I moved to Grand Island, Nebraska, in fall 1966. While I was there, I worked for the New Holland Combine Factory as a welder. I joined the Army Reserve in February 1967 and did basic training and advanced individual training. After
PHOTO COURTESY OF BESLER INDUSTRIES.
ebraska-based Besler Industries is a family-owned company that builds bale loaders, pivot track closers, tillage equipment, and other machines well known to irrigated farmers. Another of its most popular products is its pickup truck flatbed. The flatbeds are customizable and can accommodate a number of modular boxes according to the user’s needs. Best of all, they’re so durable that they often outlive the trucks they’re installed on. Besler’s flatbeds will be of interest to any irrigation district or organization with a fleet of pickups. In this interview, Herb Besler, the owner of Besler Industries; Roland Besler, the production manager; and Cliff Kester, the inside sales manager, speak with Irrigation Leader about the many advantages of the company’s flatbeds.
