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Cassidy Cage, Halle Schindler – C&H Designs

By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University

“Home is where the Herd is.” Wait, that’s supposed to say, “Home is where the ‘Heart’ is,” right? For two creative young women who grew up working in agriculture, both of those statements could apply. These women have used their creative talents to develop a business which is marketing products across Kansas and beyond.

From left, Halle Schindler and Cassidy Cage
From left, Halle Schindler and Cassidy Cage

Cassidy Cage and Halle Schindler are founders and business partners in the company named C&H Designs, after their first initials. Both are students at Kansas State University.

Cassidy Cage grew up at Muleshoe, Texas, and came to K-State where she is a student in Animal Sciences with a communications and marketing emphasis. She also joined the Sigma Kappa sorority.

Halle Schindler is studying agribusiness at K-State and joined the Sigma Kappa sorority at K-State as well. In fact, the two were paired together when Halle became Cassidy’s little sister within the sorority. The two became great friends and eventually roommates. Both of their families are involved in producing cattle. Continue reading “Cassidy Cage, Halle Schindler – C&H Designs”

Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Mike Kilkenny – Taylor Forge

Slug catchers and pig traps. Those sound like things you might find in a garden or hog farm, but they are actually devices that are used in the natural gas industry. Today we’ll meet a remarkable Kansas company which is the world’s leading supplier of such devices and which also builds metal products used in ways as diverse as nuclear submarines and rockets for outer space.

Taylor Forge in Paola, Kansas manufactures a variety of products for the natural gas and other industries.
Taylor Forge in Paola, Kansas manufactures a variety of products for the natural gas and other industries.

Mike Kilkenny is CEO and owner of Taylor Forge Engineered Systems in Paola, Kansas.  This amazing company produces heavy duty products for these diverse uses and more.

In 1900, an inventor named J. Hall Taylor launched a pipe works company – now known as Taylor Forge – in Chicago. Three decades later, another engineering company started a facility in Paola, Kansas to serve the natural gas industry. Paola is centrally located between the Hugoton gas field to the west and industrial centers in big cities to the east.

Continue reading “Kansas Profile – Now That’s Rural: Mike Kilkenny – Taylor Forge”