Our Team 2

Experienced Team

The core group of team members at Farmada consists of six people with over 100 years of engineering design, manufacturing, fabrication, operations management, purchasing, service & sales and marketing experience. The entire core group obtained this experience while working with one another for Great Plains Manufacturing, Incorporated during the time Great Plains enjoyed one of the best growth spurts in the agricultural implement sector.

The team will be mentioned in alphabetical order, followed by a few words about the founder Daniel Rauchholz:

Daryl Cress was hired by Daniel Rauchholz in 2008 as the first ever fully dedicated “International Customer Service Manager” for the Great Plains International group. Daryl grew up in a family-owned and operated agricultural equipment dealership in Kansas. He had extensive expertise and experience as a “fluid power engineer” and had just worked for AGCO for eight years as the Fendt Technical Service Specialist.
Daryl hit the ground running in the international division during its rapid growth stage where new machines, new dealers and new markets were opening-up at a rapid pace. His leadership and expertise lead to a large reduction in technical issues by focusing on internal and external training of people while creating simple materials to help customers easily set-up, maintain and operate the Great Plains machines.
Daryl’s results did not go unnoticed. After only two years he was promoted to Assistant Technical Service Manager and by October 2011 he served as the Great Plains Agricultural Division Customer Service Manager. Daryl worked closely with Paul Galle and Mike McClure from Engineering on products while also communicating with Bob Warkentin from Purchasing on field feedback of purchased components.
Daryl’s over 25 years of experience and effectiveness in dealing with new situations makes him a perfect fit for Farmada as we grow our footprint in the agricultural industry.

Paul Galle graduated from Kansas State University with a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and Operations Management. He spent eight years designing machinery for the Great Plains Ag Division before joining Farmada in 2019. He was raised on a family farm near Moundridge, Kansas and continues to work on his family farm with his father and brother. Paul’s farm background combined with his engineering expertise lead to many solid product and design solutions that were sensible and practical.
Paul shares Daniel Rauchholz’s holistic vision that it is critical to have design engineers involved in the development of a product from design through assembly and testing. It adds valuable familiarity with the product as well as empathy with the various internal and external parties handling the product. This product development philosophy culminates in improved ergonomics and performance.

Doug Jones has the distinction of working for three generations of the “Applequist family”. Doug began his career working for Quentin Applequist (father of Roy Applequist) until that business was sold. A few years after Roy founded Great Plains, Doug joined Great Plains. With Doug now working for the Farmada founder and son-in-law of Roy, Doug is again playing a pivotal role in a company start-up.
Doug wore many hats during his 28-year tenure at Great Plains. His mechanical mind along with his engineering and operations expertise meant he had the distinction of being a start-up wizard for new projects that propelled the company forward. He managed a fabrication department, ran the Great Plains bearing plant during the time Great Plains manufactured its own bearings and was deeply involved in setting up test procedures and approval processes for bearings, gearboxes, tires, and other essential components Great Plains and Land Pride purchased from domestic and international vendors.
Doug distinguished himself more than just a link between design, quality assurance, manufacturing and purchasing. When Land Pride needed to set up a factory overseas to ensure high quality supply of components, Jones was the lynch pin involved with setting this up and putting manufacturing and quality assurance procedures in place.
Doug and Daniel Rauchholz worked closely together for 18 years when Daniel oversaw the development of Great Plains international activities. Doug was one of the three starting members of the International group that went from three employees in 2002 to over 150 in 2013.
Doug probably had the greatest challenge of all as he designed and oversaw the packaging of Great Plains products and parts into containers. Doug skillfully included customer requests for limited assembly when pulling product out of container’s and coordinated these with engineering during the design phases. Dougs mastery of this allowed Great Plains to export more tillage, seeding and planting equipment than any other privately owned North American manufacturer in the same segment during the 2002-2013 time-period.

One cannot introduce Farmada appropriately without mentioning Mike McClure. Without Mike, there would not be a Farmada. Without Mike, there probably would also not have been a Great Plains International Division or the International Division trajectory would have been a lot different to say the least.

Mike was serving as Great Plains Engineering Manager when Daniel Rauchholz interviewed for the newly created International Sales Position at Great Plains. This was a multi-day interview at the “1998 Cereals Event”, the premier British farm show. Mike was there to oversee the launch of Great Plains first European drill. Mike’s calm, analytical demeanor and team-first mentality ultimately served to inspire Rauchholz to want to join the Great Plains family in August of 1998.

Mike spent 12 years working as an engineer at Great Plains before being promoted to Engineering Manager/Product Development Manager in the mid 1990’s where he served until

his retirement in 2017. Mike oversaw the design, proto-type production, testing and tooling for the Agricultural Division Engineering Department.

During his leadership, his team succeeded in winning seventeen (17) AE 50 Awards for innovation (https://www.asabe.org/AE50) while simultaneously developing one of the most comprehensive implement lines in the agricultural industry. Mike’s direction not only helped Great Plains grow in North America but adaptations of other sustainable global technologies lead to international success as well.

Daniel and Mike’s teams cooperated closely for 18 years on the design of countless machines for various agricultural implement market segments. When Daniel decided to start Farmada in 2018, Mike was the first person he called to join the team.

Mike as Engineering Manager at Great Plains was instrumental in the hiring and training of Paul Galle. His familiarity with Paul’s strong all-around performance culminated in Paul joining Farmada in 2019.

During many of Bob Warkentin’s 34 years at Great Plains, he served as the Purchasing Manager. Bob’s understanding of the design, manufacturing and purchasing process was instrumental in improving the quality of the Great Plains brand. His close relationship with vendors often culminated in the development of new, proprietary parts or componentry that perfectly matched the intended design function while simultaneously lowering the failure rates of purchased parts.

Bob regularly assisted Daniel and the International group in solving componentry challenges that sprung up as a result of the rapid growth into new markets. His relationships with vendors and knowledge of their capabilities along with his experience with the field function make him a valuable Farmada team member.

Daniel Rauchholz initially began his Great Plains career in August of 1998. His international upbringing, his command of several languages and subsequent studies in Germany lead to Daniel getting hired as the first International Salesperson for Great Plains.

In 2002 Daniel became Export Manager and began implementing a “think global, act local” strategy. Products were designed to meet and exceed local farming requirements within different geographical regions while keeping an eye on the need for the farmers to still produce at a sustainable, globally competitive level.

In 2006 Great Plains won the prestigious “Kansas Governors Exporter of the Year Award” for its innovative and progressive approach to targeting farmers in different markets around the world. The year prior, Daniel had begun hiring staff within different countries to support local and regional dealers and farmers.

The international success continued and with it, the dedication to supporting dealers and their farmer customers. Wholly owned subsidiaries complete with company owned parts inventory, sales and service support staff were required. The wholly owned subsidiaries Great Plains East Europe in Bulgaria, Great Plains Agro in Russia and Great Plains Ukraine were the result of this. Subsequent sales and support staff in Denmark, Germany, France, Romania, and China were added to provide closer, local support.

In 2010 the acquisition of UK based Simba International complemented the international activities. This resulted in the creation of the Great Plains International Division and Daniel served as the President of this Division until stepping down in December 2016.

Around 2013, the Great Plains Agricultural Division Customer Service Department was reorganized with Daryl Cress, the Great Plains Ag Division Service Manager again directly reporting to Daniel. During this time Daniel assisted Daryl and the VP of Sales North America with the implementation of the vision to provide more hands-on training to the Customer Service Representatives with the objective of creating improved, practical training materials for dealers and farmers. Expanded, detailed training manuals as well as hands-on video training with dealer certifications were the result of this increased focus on Customer Service.

We want to thank you for taking the time to read about who we are. We sincerely love agriculture and look forward to helping you lower your input costs without making sacrifices to quality or yield!