Russ Reinke: Building on Tradition and Innovation at Reinke Manufacturing
Reinke's modern manufacturing facilities in Deshler, Nebraska.
F
ew things embody the American spirit as well as farmers. Their dedication, work ethic, integrity, perseverance in the face of adversity, and commitment to the lands and waters that feed them, their families, their country, and the entire world should serve as a great example to everyone. Russ Reinke has lived those values both as a farmer and as part of a family business that supplies irrigators with the equipment they need. Reinke Manufacturing is a leader in irrigation pivots and pipes and now is branching into smart, automated irrigation technology and even robotics. In this interview, Russ Reinke tells Irrigation Leader about his family’s deep roots in agriculture, Reinke Manufacturing’s commitment to farmers and the community, and how the company is leading the way in bringing modern technology to irrigation. Irrigation Leader: Please tell us about your family history and how the company got started.
8 | IRRIGATION LEADER | July/August 2021
irrigationleadermagazine.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF REINKE MANUFACTURING.
Russ Reinke: The company was started by my father, Richard. It began out on the farm, near Byron, Nebraska, about 10 miles south of the current location, in 1954. Throughout his early days, my father had an ingenious mind and a love for building and improving things. He modified the large chicken house on the farm, and through that, he got into the business of building laminated rafters for buildings. He eventually got a few guys to help him.
That expanded into constructing the buildings themselves. They built over 500 buildings, including farm buildings and houses and eventually several churches, banks, and commercial buildings. He also branched out into other construction products and a variety of other inventions to make farming easier. From the farm, they moved to Hebron, Nebraska, for a few years and then came across an opportunity in 1957 to purchase an older oil pumping station just west of Deshler, Nebraska. My father got out of farming around 1957 because he was busy with the building business. In 1966, he got a contract to build some machines for the Olsen brothers. He built 50 machines for them. That was when it started to look like irrigation was going to be an important thing for the farmers. Numerous companies were trying to get into the business at the time, but he didn’t like what was on the market and always felt there was a better way to do it. Most people tried to use water drive, oil drive, air drive, and even different mechanical drives. He felt the way of the future was to use electricity. In 1967, he began working on building the first reversible, electric, gear-driven, rubber-tire circular irrigation system. He made it work, and that’s the way 95 percent of all machines are built today. My father filed for many patents. His work brought many features and benefits to the machine, including making it versatile and operator friendly. The first one, known as the Electrogator, was shipped to a customer in spring 1968.
