Page 4 September 2015 61ST ANNUAL 3i SHOW

By amy BicKel

Kansas Agland

SPEARVILLE – Don Hornung drove his pickup down the street in this small Ford County town,

stopping to point out an empty lot.

His family’s presence in Spearville, population 800, is evident from the large buildings on the outskirts of town and the yard full of

agricultural parts and prod-ucts. But this spot is where, in essence, it all started, he said.

In 1954, his entrepre-neurial father, Michael, and a fellow school board

member, Victor Claussen, saw a need.

The school was building a new gymnasium. But the school board wasn’t

The goal: innovation

Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News

Don Hornung has been a part of CrustBuster since his father, Michael, started the company in 1960. Don Hornung has been president and CEO since 1975.

By amy BicKel

Kansas Agland

If there is one thing Don Hornung knows, it’s that there is always a better way of doing things.

His dad, Michael, lived by this – developing innovative products to help meet the needs of the time period. When farmers needed a tillage tool to bust the crust and clean off the weeds on fallow ground, he and his company, CrustBuster, developed it. When Don Hornung took over the company’s reins from his father, he kept the same mind-set.

The goal: to make farm-ing efficient and profitable by offering cutting-edge technology.

Yet, despite the CrustBuster/Speed King name, the Ford County company is no longer busting the crust by selling tillage equipment. And, in fact, one of the company’s latest innovations is aimed instead at farmers who want to move the soil as little as possible.

CrustBuster launched its latest planting product, a 60-foot no-till central fill drill, last year. Don Hornung said the motiva-tion behind the product was the continued effort to help farmers be more efficient.

“Machinery is getting bigger and farmers are wanting to cover more ground and faster,” Hornung said. “Farmers want to cover more ground, to do more work in a day’s time.”

Farm efficiencyFarming and the ma-

chinery and tools needed to feed a growing global population continue to evolve. And it’s obvious they aren’t even remotely the same as when Michael Hornung, born in 1907, was growing up.

They are bigger. And they are better.

“He was a young man in his late teens and 20s when mechanized horsepower really came to the farm,”

Cutting-edge items the focus for CrustBuster

Company’s ag items have evolved to fit farmer needs

See FILL DRILL / Page 9 See COMPANY / Page 8

Page 4 September 2015 61ST ANNUAL 3i SHOW September 2015 Page 561ST ANNUAL 3i SHOW

member, Victor Claussen, saw a need.

The school was building a new gymnasium. But the school board wasn’t

Sandra J. Milburn/The Hutchinson News

Don Hornung has been a part of CrustBuster since his father, Michael, started the company in 1960. Don Hornung has been president and CEO since 1975.

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