Richard Unverferth’s entry into the ag equipment manufacturing space started like many of his contemporaries — finding a solution to a problem on the family farm. In 1935, Richard, his father Lawrence G. Unverferth and other family members refined and tested a mechanical sugar beet-thinning tool they called the Beet Blocker and received a patent later that same year.

While the Beet Blocker was the first product the family created together, it wasn’t what ultimately set Richard’s mark on the industry. The pair opened L.G. Unverferth Manufacturing in 1948 with a loan from family members cashing in their war bonds. 

A deep thinker, you can rest assured that all the decisions Unverferth made were well thought out and analyzed. 

“He would run things through his mind a lot, check it out. He’d always say, ‘Well, think about it, and then let it go away for a little while, and then get back and think about it some more,’” says son Steve Unverferth. “He was what I call a deep thinker. And he was very good at analyzing, whether it was products or whether an acquisition or investment in a piece of equipment. It was always well-thought-out. Once in a while we might’ve waited a little too long, but there’s a lesson there too.”

He had passion for the business and it quickly became more than just a job. “Business was not only his vocation, it was his avocation. He loved being a business entrepreneur or manufacturer,” Steve says. 

The Early Years

The first product the new manufacturing company produced were combine shucker control levers. They saw a need to help local farmers become more efficient, so they began manufacturing innovative combine shucker door control levers for Massey-Harris combines. After manufacturing enough to fill the trunk of a car on the family farmstead just south of Kalida, Richard set off across the Midwest selling them. The Unverferths would then use the money they made from these sales to secure raw materials for the next truckload of products, and then would hit the road and do it all over again. 

Making a Mark

Unverferth would make its mark on the industry in 1949. Seeing a need to increase flotation in wet field conditions and make better use of available tractor horsepower, the Unverferths developed the first bolt-on dual tractor wheels, using a cast “hat-style” extension to attach the dual wheels to the drive wheel weight holes. 

“What he realized is if you took a tractor and put duals on it, you could actually pull more and it was a smart way to go,” says Titan International’s Morry Taylor. “Most tractors back then didn’t have long axles. They were stub axles — whether MF, Ford, JD or Case, IH. He worked on a kit making duals. So you could buy the rods and roll a piece of steel. Categorized every bit of it and went all around the country.

“The big boys (Deere, IH, Case, A-C, Ford, MF) were only interested in selling tractors — they weren’t interested in adding duals. There was never a big push from them. So he did that and when an area would grow, they’d look at producing and warehousing to store truckloads. And then manufacturing all those parts to sell a kit.” 

In 1949, Richard Unverferth and his father, L.G. Unverferth, introduced stovepipe hat-shaped wheel extensions for adding dual wheels to tractors. By the 1950s, the company began manufacturing dual wheels, while still operating from the family’s farm. These products firmly established Unverferth in the agricultural wheel business. Unverferth Mfg.

In addition to dual extensions, the company began manufacturing dual wheels, all from the family’s farm. These products established the company in the agricultural wheel business, which continues today. In those early years, the family’s farm income contributed to keeping the young company going. 

The success of the duals didn’t come without challenges — mainly from the major OEMs. “The majors always tried to void their warranties if dual wheels were added,” says Steve. “Well, eventually the majors decided that we were right and dual wheels were a good thing.”

An Expanding Business

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Unverferth began to expand, and entering the grain handling business and later the tillage business was a turning point, says Larry Unverferth, Richard’s son and current president of the company. 

In 1972, Unverferth added gravity boxes and box augers to its product mix through the acquisition of McCurdy Manufacturing in Ada, Ohio. Throughout Unverferth’s history, its growth has always been strategic.

“That was one of Dad’s strong points. He always said that you don’t grow for the sake of growth, you grow for the sake of strategic things happening,” Steve says. “We turned down a lot of acquisitions and product designs because of his foresight, and knowing what was best for the business, what was best for farmers.”

Of course, there were mistakes along the way, Steve says. “Once in a while you stub your toe. We did make a year and a half to two foray into a particular business that we bought that just didn’t work,” he says. 

Steve says his father recognized it wasn’t working and the company backed out. “We were competing against some really big boys and as a small manufacturer we couldn’t get the efficiencies of purchasing to compete … For every success there was maybe one or two that weren’t quite as successful.”

But, a lesson was always learned from those missteps, adds Larry. “Dad always said, ‘You always learn something from those processes,’” he recalls. “Whether it’s a manufacturing process, engineering process or marketing. He was very big into — and we still are today — listening to what the customer needs, not us telling the customer what they need.”

In this particular instance, Larry and Steve say Richard gathered everyone — from engineers to shop employees — to explain why the decision was made. 

“The marketplace got fairly depressed at that point, but he made sure our folks understood that they didn’t do all this work in vain,” Larry says. “Again, it’s all about learning, and we learned new ways of engineering things, whether it’s hydraulics or power driven. From a marketing standpoint, we learned from almost every aspect of that business which helped us going forward.

Lasting Lessons

Like all parents, Richard taught his children the importance of working hard and working smart. But perhaps the biggest lesson his sons learned in working with their father came from the way he conducted himself. Steve says his father always managed a calm demeanor when faced with a “crisis situation.” 

“He would always tell us, ‘Be the cool head in the crowd of people that are dealing with an issue,” recalls Steve. “And he was always able to do that. I seldom saw him get angry. The biggest lesson he taught me was to be the calm in the storm because you can think a whole lot better, maybe a whole lot smarter than others if you keep a calm head.”

Steve recalls a time when he was about high school aged when Unverferth was a growing company. A customer, who accounted for a very large percentage of the business, decided they wanted to do some of the manufacturing themselves, removing Unverferth from the equation. “He talked them down and out of that and the importance of us maintaining manufacturing of all our products vs. them becoming our competitor,” he says. “It was a rough time for him and for them. They finally got it worked out and they remained lifelong friends.”

Having a cool head and thinking things through helped save nearly 50% of Unverferth’s business in this instance. 

Steve recalls his dad was there to guide them and correct their course when needed but gave him and his brothers the freedom to think things through on their own. “It wasn’t easy, but it was the best thing for me that ever happened,” he says. 

“He allowed that to happen,” Larry adds. “Like Steve said, he was there in the background saying, ‘Now, hey, did you think about this?’ Or ‘I don’t think I would approach it like that.’ It helped us all immensely.”

Unverferth Today

Now under the leadership of Larry, the business has grown to include 12 different product categories and celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2023. Since getting its start in 1948, the company has acquired over 11 brands and currently markets 7 different brands. 

Read about the other Shortline Legends

Howard Martin

Richard Unverferth

Al Myers

Cyril & Louis Keller

Wilf Degelman