In 1968 I began to look toward starting my own business, but it didn't begin to come together until 1973. In my part of the world, we are major growers of rice, soybeans are our alternate crop. It is very dry in Arkansas during the mid and later summer months and in order to glean a profit from our grain, much water is needed. I began my first real business by pioneering laser surveying in my area. This grew until I was working neighboring states surveying levies for farmers.
As I got to know the farmers, I moved into working with grain storage equipment. Out of all the products I sold dealing and erecting grain storage, I always had a problem selling sweep augers and grain spreaders with a clear conscience. Sweep augers were almost a must, even if they were dangerous and didn't do much of a job sweeping grain, at least they were a little help. But spreaders did more damage than good. These factors led us to invent the Grain Diverter. Jack Anschultz, a friend who had worked for me for several years, became my partner in producing The Ultimate Spreader. It was hard enough to keep good customers, I didn't need try to sell a spreader to drive them away.
Then came the Sweep in 1998. This idea had been in my mind since we built The Ultimate Spreader, but I hadn't done anything with it. One day I talked with a friend who detailed how ten years earlier a sweep auger almost killed him. I knew I had to get to work constructing the Drag Chain Sweep, which turned out much better than I myself ever expected. Even the first test was far better than the auger sweep. We can now say that we have one of the best and safest products on the market today.
It seems to take lots of things to make the world go around, but we at Daay Mfg. feel we can make the grain fall easier and better through our means of delivery by the Grain Diverter, then make the grain fall out of the bin as our Drag Chain Sweep cleans a messy job better than them all. We might could say, "We may not be the wheel, but it could be we provide a little grease for the bearings?"
-Carl Dixon, Co-founder of Daay Manufacturing