Phoenix, Arizona. February 2015. A new invention is being highlighted at a national meeting. This invention, called a Chem-Blade, was selected as part of a national contest for agricultural entrepreneurs. The invention was created by an entrepreneur in rural Kansas.
Ethan Eck is the founder and owner of Eck Fabrication, maker of the Chem-Blade. Ethan is being assisted by product developer Ralph Lagergren, whom we met in Kansas Profile last week.
Ethan grew up on a farm near Kingman. He went to Wyoming Tech where he studied automotive chassis fabrication. Ethan’s father had a commercial hay grinding business and his brother had a commercial spraying operation and sold agricultural chemicals to farmers, so Ethan helped with those enterprises as well.
“I was a sprayer operator,” Ethan said. His job was to operate one of those large mobile spray rigs which are used to apply weed or pest control chemicals onto farm fields. To put those chemicals into the sprayer, he would have to get a plastic jug of the chemical, pull off the foil seal, pour the jug into the sprayer, rinse the jug and then discard it safely. It was a time-consuming and somewhat hazardous task.
Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Ethan Eck – Chem-Blade”
