Editor's Note: Farm shops have evolved to become a multifunctional space to be used year-round by the entire family. To highlight these spaces, each year DTN/Progressive Farmer features them as part of the America's Best Shops series.

Recently, DTN ran "America's Best Shops: The 2nd Chance," https://www.dtnpf.com/… about Capital K Farms Inc., outside of Cozad, Nebraska. There, Justin Kinnan, with his wife, Sheena, operate a conventional and organic crop farm and their main shop was highlighted.

In this related story, DTN highlights what the family did for their growing fabrication business, KinnanFAB.

-- Watch a video about this America's Best Shop at https://www.dtnpf.com/….

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The farm shop built by Justin and Sheena Kinnan, outside Cozad, Nebraska, always performed double duty. It was outfitted for the farm, but it also provided space for the couple's growing fabrication business, KinnanFAB.

Beginning about eight years ago, what would become KinnanFAB's first product rolled out the farm shop door. It was a stalk roller, built to be mounted on the front of a tractor, giving protection to tires in no-till fields.

NEED FOR SPACE

"I built my first stock roller ever with a torch and a (magnetic) drill, and that was not fun," Justin said. "So, I bought a plasma table, and then we started designing a few things, and it's kind of all escalated into this, and here we are."

Where we are is the home base for KinnanFAB. Built in 2023, it is the modern center for stalk roller production, as well as the newly launched Big Burn, a weed burner, and new tillage tools -- with more to come.

KinnanFAB occupies a building 60 feet wide and 100 feet long. It has a 16-foot ceiling and a pair of 14- x 24-foot overhead doors. It sits on 2 acres in town, with room for expansion.

The building has a ventilated paint booth and a high-definition plasma cutter, bringing to the shop a precise computer numerical control (CNC) process for cutting steel. The table can pierce 2 inches of steel and cut through 4 inches. The Kinnans recently added a computer-controlled, 250-ton CNC press brake to make precise bends and shapes from sheet metal, such as the burner shields.

THE BIG BURN

The Big Burn was born out of experience in the Kinnans' organic fields. "We struggled with other burners, so we designed our own," Justin explained. "We're flaming roughly 8 inches on each side of the corn. And our goal is to try to keep the band clean where cultivators or mechanical tillage cannot reach," he added.

This shop gives the Kinnans a place to expand -- even the incentive to expand. "We would have never had the ability to put in these pieces of equipment that we're needing," Justin said.

NEW MARKETS

The shop creates new marketing opportunities, Sheena explained. KinnanFAB has had sales in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. With the Big Burn about to be launched, she believes there are market opportunities well beyond the Midwest.

It will be her job to make that happen. Sheena is office manager for the farm and fabrication business. She also is the marketing manager. Social media is important to their expansion plans, she said, especially in a time when machinery is a tough sell.

"Farmers are an interesting market to advertise to," she said. "But, we have a connection with farmers, because we farm, too. We do a lot of social media with X, that's been probably one of the biggest outlets for us in the ag community; and then we do Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram."

On all social media, Sheena is convinced the best way to reach buyers is to tell their story. "People want to know your story. It's more of a personal touch. Social media that just highlights your product, I don't think does very well. People respond to those organic postings; they want to see what you're up to."

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See more in America's Best Shops series:

-- "America's Best Shops: Flow and Function," at https://www.dtnpf.com/…

Is your shop one of the best in the country, or have you recently remodeled? If you have, tell us about it. Send Dan Miller a brief summary of your shop along with a few photos. If selected, you will receive $500 and your shop will be featured in a future issue of Progressive Farmer magazine and on www.dtnpf.com.

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

Follow him on social platform X @DMillerPF

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