Kearney Planters celebrates 45 years

What began as a way for Barry Kearney to supplement his income has turned into a successful business, spanning 45 years, building and selling planters.

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Kearney Planters began on Barry’s 100 acre family farm in Chatham-Kent. In late 1978, he worked on the farm part-time with his dad Robert as well as part-time as a truck driver with the roads department in Chatham-Kent.

But his part-time job grading roads and plowing snow was dependent on government programs, and Kearney said he knew the program money was drying up – and he’d lose one of his sources of income.

Out of necessity, he made some modifications to their IH 6r24 planter. In early 1979, he bought a couple of IH planters, which were becoming more available thanks to the growing popularity of John Deere’s new MaxEmerge planter.

Kearney said the greater flexibility and narrower soybean planting ability of the MaxEmerge at that time meant farmers were trading in their old planters. So he purchased several planters from a local dealer to modify.

He said a couple of other guys in the area were also modifying used planters, but he didn’t want to copy what they were doing.

“It was a real easy switch from a six row 30-inch planter. Put on a row and you have seven 24-inch rows real easy.”

Barry thought he’d try to do something else. The planters he purchased were units that could plant four rows from either 28 to 40 inches.

“I worked on it. Everything I touched I had to change and when I was finished, I had a planter that would plant seven rows at 21 inches,” he said.

He said after putting an ad in the local paper, he sold all three modified planters within two days.

“So I was in business whether I was ready or not,” he said.

He also made a profit.

With help from his father, brother and neighbours, Barry was able to sell 10 more units that year.

Kearney wasn’t the only one who realized that there was a market for custom built planters, and he wondered ‘what is my edge?’

So he decided to charge a bit more than his competitors, but add a warranty, which he backed up with his own money. He also modified the planters to what his customers wanted.

“I could get more money, and I had something that no one else had.”

His strategy worked and by the early 1980s he and his team were producing two custom planters a week, all seven row 21-inch built from IH56 to IH455s.

By 1985, Kearney had started building custom double-frame units as well that could plant both corn and soybeans.

Two years later, and with “strong encouragement” from his dad, Barry moved the business from the family farm to its current location on Turin Line in Thamesville.

This allowed for the construction of a paint shop and front office, to better service customers.

In 1989, Kearney said the business was incorporated. Prior to that, each planter built just had a sticker on it that said ‘made by Barry Kearney’, he said.

By the early 1990s, Kearney said it became clear “someone had to start making some contacts in the U.S.” So he hit the road, and through contacts made ended up becoming a dealer for Dawn trash wheels.

He followed that success a couple of years later becoming an OEM distributor for Kinze, becoming a full dealer in 2005.

Today the business employs over 20 people full time, has its own sales team, logistics, shipping and receiving to service North American and global customers.

Kearney said the business has “always focused on service” and he’s always tried to keep innovating.

Celebrating 45 years

To celebrate its 45-year milestone, Kearney Planters hosted a customer appreciation day June 20.

Kearney said to see so much support from customers and partners was “unbelievable. It’s means a lot.”

Attendees were treated to lunch and a speaker program that included Greg Peterson, also known as Machinery Pete, who gave an entertaining talk on some of his interesting auction finds.