Tom Spradlin, a farmer and electrical contractor, talks about his farming operations and equipment choices. He discusses his positive experience with John Deere products and his working relationship with salesman Michael Hubbard, including plans for expanding his farm.
My name is Tom Spradlin. I've been farming, I guess all my life. I started with my daddy when I was born. I reckon when I was about two years old. They took pictures of me on a tractor so I could go to sleep. But over the years I stayed in it with my father. And then later on, about 10 years ago when he passed away, the equipment got put up. But times got hard and we had to get it back out. Well, I did. I was a housing contractor. About seven years ago I started cutting hay again on my own. And I went and bought Kubota tractors. And I didn't know much about John Deere. I bought Kubota cause that's what my daddy had right before he retired. And they got about 12, 13, 1400 hours on them. They started messing up and it was taking weeks and months to get them fixed. So you can't stay in business if your machines won't run. So I went to John Deere and I asked for a 468 ground Beller because my Vermeer Bellower was messing up too. And called around to a couple Sun Salve dealers and I finally called Kelton and Kelton got me one the very next day. And we put it in the field the next day. Now we bale anywhere between 10,000 round bales to about 12,000 round bales a year. And we figured out there was a big market in square baling. But we didn't have time to get it up out of the field. So we bringing the ram bales back to this barn and unrolling them and putting them in the machine and out the machine come. We run it through a square bowler, not square bowler, onto a conveyor and on into a tractor trawler. So we could, you know, sell square bales at the time. But anyway, we running maybe 7, 8 John Deere tractors now, exclusive John Deere. We've gotten rid of all the other kind because John Deere in the long run has held up longer, lasted longer. You can't find a better service department than Carrollton. And the salesman, I mean you can call him on Sundays, you can call him whenever you want to and he's going to answer the phone. If he don't, he'll call you right back. And to me that goes a long ways for somebody to answer the phone when you need him the most. Sunsouth is really taking care of us. We couldn't ask for no better or any better salesman than we have. And what we got now. So Michael Hubbard, he's really Done a real good job for us. And over the years, I got to know him real well, and he's a pretty good friend.
Well, I remember first time I met Tom, I don't know if you remember this. We used in a cracker Barrel, you and your wife. Cause that's where I was going Wednesday nights we would go to church. And you was telling me that you dealt with Huckabee. And you remember that?
Yeah, yeah. You told me Huckabee was sick.
Yeah, I told you he was sick. I said, if there's anything I could do for you, let me. And ever since then, me and Tom been knowing each other about what, five, six years?
Five years.
Yeah. Five years. And the beauty of being a salesperson or sales professional is our business relationship has turned into a friendship. We both understand there's a business relationship. He understands I understand we both have to make money, but it's been a good relationship. And we both talked about the future. And he says, I want to go big. He says, I want you to go big with me. So we kind of made a commitment to each other. Whatever he needs, if I'm able to get it for him, I will, and at a reasonable price. So I think it's worked out for both of us.
It really has. It really has.
We just try to take care of him because he takes care of us.
Still waiting on my gold key.
Yeah, you keep on waiting on that, too.
The barn we sitting in now is 175foot, 180foot long and about 80foot wide. And this last little part back here is 110 foot wide. That's where our machine sits, where we square bale. We're hoping in the next couple of years we can add on another 50ft to it and all these trees that's behind me will be pushed away and gone. And we plan on pouring the whole thing with asphalt so we can get more tractor trailers in here so we can haul further off, cover more ground. We just want to expand. This is something that's in my blood, and it's been in it. I mean, I was born in this stuff, and, you know, this only thing I want to do. I mean, I've been an electrical contractor most of my life, and this is where my heart is.
