At the Farm Progress Show I got to meet the Canadian farm boy who is now the President and CEO of IRON Solutions. He’s Darwin Melnyk and he comes from western Canada.

IRON Solutions had some major activity this summer when they were acquired by StarVest Partners, a New York venture capital firm. Darwin says the firm has given them the mission of radical and rapid growth. I haven’t been real familiar with the company but I learned that they’ve had a long history of providing data, evaluation and appraisal tools for equipment dealers. He says, “People say we’re kind of like the Kelley Blue Book of the the tractor business.”

One of the things they’re doing is expanding their reach to farmers who have known them online at IRON Search, which is a portal to listings of almost 60,000 machines and various pieces of used farm equipment. In fact, Darwin says they just re-skinned the site (re-designed it for you non web developer types).

The other big news at the Farm Progress Show is their deal with the Farm Progress publications to create regional inserts like the one Darwin is holding in this picture. He says it’s their print interface to their digital service. Now that’s a reverse move from what we normally see isn’t it?

I had to ask him his thoughts about farmers being online and companies using the web as a communications mechanism. He says, “I would encourage my colleagues in the ag industry to focus on it. It’s not if, it’s when, it’s happening all the time.” He says the web provides a great opportunity because of the ability to provide rich content. “The amount of information we can give to a farmer for very little money or no cost is unprecedented in the history of communications.” Amen, brother.

The program this week ends with music from the Podsafe Music Network. Since we’ve been at the Farm Progress Show you get to listen to “Work in Progress” from Rotacool. I hope you enjoy it and thank you for listening.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 185 (17 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:Interview with Darwin Melnyk - ZimmCast 185

Check out our Farm Progress Show 2008 Photo Album.

AgWired coverage of the 2008 Farm Progress Show
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