Opinion

The boys from Valley -- Bob Daugherty

Monday, September 20, 2004

Walt Sehnert

In 1946 Bob Daugherty was a 24-year old ex-Marine, without a job. He had served in the South Pacific, and had seriously considered staying in the service, but on a visit to his hometown of Valley, Neb., an uncle mentioned that another Valley native, Sam McCleneghan, might consider selling part of his machine shop. Bob and Sam talked, with the result that for $5000 (his wartime savings) Bob became Sam's partner.

The name of the shop changed to Valley Mfg. Co, and the two began making augers and elevators for the local farmers, and a little later for the ag equipment department of Sears and Roebuck and Co.

In 1954 Valley Mfg. bought the license for Frank Zybach's patent of "A Pivot Irrigation System," and almost immediately began manufacturing the pivot systems at their Valley plant, and began establishing a dealer network around the state.

My dad, Walter, purchased one of the early pivot irrigation systems, the first in the Plainview area of Northeast Nebraska. In the course of talking about the systems, then buying one, Walter made a number of trips to Valley. He became friends with Frank Zybach, the inventor of the system, and A.E. Trowbridge, Frank's partner. He also became acquainted with the owners of the Valley plant, Daugherty and McCleneghan.

Sam McCleneghan was a "hands on" kind of owner, and could always be found out in the area of the plant where machines were being produced. He could answer technical questions about the irrigation systems and watched closely over every phase of manufacture. Bob Daugherty, on the other hand was an idea man, an executive type, dealing with planning, and office and personnel problems. It seemed to a casual observer that they made a good team, though later, when Daugherty bought out McCleneghan and changed the name of the company to Valmont, I was not the least bit surprised.

In the early years Valley Mfg. had no real engineers. The early pivot customers were mechanically inclined and offered numerous suggestions on improving the product. In Walter's case, the mechanically inclined person was Charlie Johnson, his tenant farmer who learned about the machine from Woody, the service man from Valley, and tinkering with the machine on his own when it broke down---which was frequently. He learned the intricacies of the machine so well that Valley tried to hire him as a service man.

The early Valley systems were made with a small diameter main pipe, too small for a system that needed to irrigate a quarter section. Bob and Sam knew that they really needed a 6" pipe for their main line, but they had trouble locating a manufacturer who could supply the 6" pipe---So they decided that they would manufacture their own.

One day my Dad and I stopped in at the Valley plant on our way back from Omaha. On that day I formed my opinion about Daugherty. I realized that he was something special, and that Valley Mfg. would go a long way under his direction.

The big news that day was that they had purchased a (used) machine that could fabricate 6" pipe. Bob Daugherty was anxious to show off his newest toy for his visitors.

Daugherty was a dapper little man, ramrod straight, looking every inch the Marine that he had been. He even carried a little "swagger stick", favored by some Marine Corps officers. As we walked through the plant he explained the various phases of manufacture that we were seeing, and slapped the side of his leg with this stick from time to time.

The pipe-making machine took flat pieces of steel and rolled them into a tube, then automatically welded a smooth bead along the seam. Except, the welding kept skipping, leaving one to three inch blank spaces of pipe unwelded. Two fellows were working on the machine, cursing a bit as they looked to see the cause of the trouble. Daugherty spoke briefly with the men and offered a suggestion.

Then he came back to where we were standing. He said nothing, but clenched his teeth, turned red, and glared at the machine, beating a tattoo with that swagger stick against his leg. Another minute and the fellows working with the machine gave the thumbs-up sign. Daugherty relaxed and we resumed our tour. The machine worked perfectly. It seemed as if Bob Daugherty had "willed" that welding machine to work correctly. He would not allow that machine to malfunction, nor would he allow his company to fail!

Making pipe was the beginning of the great expansion by Valley Mfg. Soon they were making 6" pipe, for their machines, and for the oil industry as well. Daugherty's vision for the company was boundless, and he had energy to match. Recently he admitted that in the early days his "challenges" had been monumental, but he persevered, and the industry he pioneered prospered. Valmont has moved forward---constantly improving, but has never lost sight of the vision that Daugherty had for the company.

Today, Valmont, the successor to Valley Mfg. is a world leader in the manufacture of Pivot Irrigation Systems. 35 percent of irrigating farmers in America use center-pivot irrigation equipment-over 50 percent by Valmont. Worldwide, Valley systems irrigate 14 million acres. (There is room to grow. Only 3 percent of foreign fields are irrigated.)

Irrigation Equipment is just one of Valmont's divisions. Making Steel Poles, for a myriad of uses, is the largest division. Other divisions are Wireless Communication, Coatings, and Light-walled steel tubing. Including the state of the art factory in McCook, there are six plants worldwide, employing 5,200 workers (1,500 of whom are in Nebraska).

Frank Zybach would be amazed as to what has happened to his invention. Most of the original problems have been corrected. Water powered machines are gone, replaced by much more dependable electric motors. The high sprinklers have been replaced by low pressure, low sprinklers, saving water and power.

Some machines are built tall enough to irrigate orange trees and to go over oil pumps, and Valley machines have been used to clean up ground water contaminated with chemicals.

Bob Daugherty is retired now, a revered elder statesman for not only the ag industry, but for the entire Omaha business community. He has been generous of his time, talent and checkbook. He has served on the Board of Directors for Creighton U. A Professorial Chair in the Business department has been established in his name.

I had one more contact with the "Boys From Valley". It must have been in the late 50s. We had not been in McCook very long, when one day Frank Zybach and Mr. Trowbridge stopped in at the bakery, just to say hello. I gave them a tour of the bakery, then we went out for coffee and they brought me up to date on things at Valley Mfg. Frank, like always, seemed to want to visit, but Mr. Trowbridge, always the businessman, mentioned that they would like to locate a dealership in McCook to serve Southwest Nebraska.

I was acquainted with one of McCook's Implement dealers and volunteered to introduce them to that fellow. It was a mistake. The fellow barely gave them the time of day, then proceeded to lecture them about irrigation, saying that pivot irrigation was a fad, one that would never catch on in Southwest Nebraska or Northwest Kansas.

He definitely was not interested. The two thanked him for his time, and we left.

Outside, Frank just shook his head sadly, and said, "It's too bad. Some folks just don't get it". That implement dealer, incidentally, is no longer in business.