Welding Business Is Geared To Farming

2022 - Volume #46, Issue #4, Page #09

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When Brent Greden and his son Adam quit dairying, a welding business was a natural next step. It used skills they had honed doing welding around the farm and that Adam learned in school. When a local welding shop came up for sale, they jumped at it.
“Adam left the farm about a year before me,” says Brent Greden, Greden Welding Service. “He and his wife met with the owners and were interested. He worked with them for about 3 mos. to try it out, and then we bought out the owners.”
Three years later the Gredens are enjoying their new trade. Brent handles the orders, quotes and bookwork, helping out in the shop as needed. Adam is the backbone of the shop and does the more technical work.
They like the variety, with every job being different. They also like having weekends off, even if they are always on call for emergency work.
Although local farm repair is their bread and butter, they get plenty of larger commercial jobs. “We had 48-ft. and 52-ft. trailers taking up most of our bays as we put new racks on them,” says Greden.
“We built a 20-yard dump truck box with new a tailgate, sides and bed, and we’ve replaced axles and steering axles on 7,200 and 8,000-gal. manure tankers.”
Sometimes jobs can be similar and at the same time very different. They’ve fabricated steel posts to repair local pole sheds and built 27-ft. stainless steel posts for a food processing company 80 miles away.
Little jobs aren’t turned away either. “We’ve repaired walkers, made a piece for a broken recliner and fixed yard ornaments,” says Greden.
When they get the chance, the Gredens get busy with their sideline, building attachments for skid steers. These include mega log splitters, loader buckets and grapples, tree/post pullers and more, everything built from scratch. The product line is based on what they used when farming or would like to have had available. As such, the attachments are extra heavy-duty and tested first on the family farm.
“We use them all ourselves and make any improvements needed,” says Greden. “We built a splitter with a 36-in. stroke and a 5-in. bore and tried it out on some knotty oak at home. We brought it back to the shop and reinforced the 12-in. I-beam.”
They built their first tree/post puller nearly three years ago for their own use. Since then, they’ve gone through multiple revisions, each one improved.
They’ve built skid steer buckets from 50 in. widths to 100 in. with headache racks. What they don’t do is build up a big inventory of any single attachment.
“We have the equipment we need, and as a farmer, you are always thinking about how to do things or make things better,” Greden says.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Greden Welding, 15687 County Road 25, Rollingstone, Minn. 55969 (ph 507-689-4200 or 507-450-7499; gwswelding@hotmail.com).

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Welding Business Is Geared To Farming WELDERS/TORCHES When Brent Greden and his son Adam quit dairying a welding business was a natural next step It used skills they had honed doing welding around the farm and that Adam learned in school When a local welding shop came up for sale they jumped at it “Adam left the farm about a year before me ” says Brent Greden Greden Welding Service “He and his wife met with the owners and were interested He worked with them for about 3 mos to try it out and then we bought out the owners ” Three years later the Gredens are enjoying their new trade Brent handles the orders quotes and bookwork helping out in the shop as needed Adam is the backbone of the shop and does the more technical work They like the variety with every job being different They also like having weekends off even if they are always on call for emergency work Although local farm repair is their bread and butter they get plenty of larger commercial jobs “We had 48-ft and 52-ft trailers taking up most of our bays as we put new racks on them ” says Greden “We built a 20-yard dump truck box with new a tailgate sides and bed and we’ve replaced axles and steering axles on 7 200 and 8 000-gal manure tankers ” Sometimes jobs can be similar and at the same time very different They’ve fabricated steel posts to repair local pole sheds and built 27-ft stainless steel posts for a food processing company 80 miles away Little jobs aren’t turned away either “We’ve repaired walkers made a piece for a broken recliner and fixed yard ornaments ” says Greden When they get the chance the Gredens get busy with their sideline building attachments for skid steers These include mega log splitters loader buckets and grapples tree/post pullers and more everything built from scratch The product line is based on what they used when farming or would like to have had available As such the attachments are extra heavy-duty and tested first on the family farm “We use them all ourselves and make any improvements needed ” says Greden “We built a splitter with a 36-in stroke and a 5-in bore and tried it out on some knotty oak at home We brought it back to the shop and reinforced the 12-in I-beam ” They built their first tree/post puller nearly three years ago for their own use Since then they’ve gone through multiple revisions each one improved They’ve built skid steer buckets from 50 in widths to 100 in with headache racks What they don’t do is build up a big inventory of any single attachment “We have the equipment we need and as a farmer you are always thinking about how to do things or make things better ” Greden says Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Greden Welding 15687 County Road 25 Rollingstone Minn 55969 ph 507-689-4200 or 507-450-7499; gwswelding@hotmail com

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