Joe Keller is the son and nephew of Louis and Cyril Keller, who invented the skid-steer loader, known as the Bobcat, which forever mitigated farming’s backbreaking labor. The Keller brothers are inductees to the Farm Equipment Shortline Legends Hall of Fame. Since 1997, Joe Keller and his sister, Marilyn Loegering, have worked to preserve their father and uncle’s role in the Bobcat’s history.  

Darren Foster (l) and Joe Keller (r) at the 2024 Farm Equipment Shortline Legends Hall of Fame ceremony in Dallas, Texas.

Editor’s Note: Farm Equipment magazine asked its Alumni Group (comprised of recipients of the Dealership of the Year Award and Hall of Fame) a thought-provoking question that we call the “It’s a Wonderful Life Question.” In the famed Christmas movie, protagonist George Bailey gets to see – via a dramatic intervention by an angel named Clarence Odbody – what the world might have been like had he never been born. Similarly, we asked our award-winning executives to ponder that same challenging question, and to consider how their communities might have been altered had their businesses “failed to launch” or perhaps failed to survive trying times. Here’s what we learned. – Mike Lessiter, editor/publisher.

Life is a string of what-if's ... 

This is no different in the development of the Bobcat or hundreds of other products. My dad, Louis Keller, and his brother, Cyril Keller, were in the right place at the right time when Eddie Velo expressed his barn cleaning concerns and looked for a solution. Many people hear issues other people have. Only inventors take the time to figure out a better way other than just to help a friend muscle through a tough job. 

Joe Keller, son and nephew of the inventors, was born 3 days after the first Keller loader was paid for in 1957.

Louis and Cyril did take the time to figure out a better way to clean barns and it became the Keller Loader and, soon after, the Bobcat. Once proven to work, the next challenge was increased manufacturing. Their hometown of Rothsay, Minn. turned down the opportunity to pay half the cost of a building to manufacture. Meanwhile, Fergus Falls, Minn. had the money but required ownership of the patent. 

Description of the units in the photo above, from left to right:

1. S250 Bobcat with Loegering VTS track system.
2. M610 Bobcat last produced late 1983.
3. M371 Bobcat introduced during the 3rd month of 1971. It is the first 3-foot-wide model Bobcat.
4. Serial number one (1001) Melroe Self Propelled Loader/Bobcat.
5. The seventh of the seven Keller Self Propelled Loaders. This is the unit displayed at the 1958 Minnesota State Fair with the Melroe and Keller families.

Then again, by chance, Les Melroe, of Melroe Manufacturing fame, stopped to visit Louis and Cyril's uncle, Anton Christianson. Anton introduced Les to Louis and Cyril and the Keller Loader. This introduction enticed the Melroes to invite the brothers to demonstrate their Keller Loader at the 1958 Minnesota State Fair. A manufacturing contract was signed shortly thereafter. 

Sales started out good until the poultry industry hit a downturn, and sales nearly stopped. A decision to stop producing loaders was nearly made. But yet again, the decision to “invent” was chosen instead of to “give up.” The new invention was converting the three-wheeled Melroe Loader into a four-wheel-drive, creating the first skidsteer loader, the M400. This four-wheel-drive design was quickly improved in many ways and is still being improved on yet today.

Impact 

When one thinks back at what the creation and sale of that first Keller Loader in 1957 for $1369 has become, and what it has done for the world is amazing:

• The employment of thousands of Melroe, Clark, Ingersoll Rand and Doosan Bobcat employees that have designed and fabricated new Bobcats and new models.
• The communities supported by the manufacturing locations in various parts of the world. 
• Supplier networks supporting the manufacturing locations.
• The worldwide dealership network with all their sales, parts, and service employees.
• Finally, all the labor savings for all the end users.

No one knows how long or if another inventor would have taken the time to figure out a better way to clean a barn. Likely, some inventor would have. But we will never know how many years of back breaking labor would have continued until another inventor came along.

Related Content

• Shortline Legends Hall of Fame: Cyril & Louis Keller
• [Video] 2024 Shortline Legends: Cyril and Louis Keller
• Documenting the History of the Bobcat and Its Impact
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