By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University.
“I need to reach the stuff in the back of my truck. If only I could get to it better.” That statement could have served as the inspiration for this new innovative product which uses rollers to help truck owners access the material in their truck beds.
Alan and Carol VanNahmen are the owners of this entrepreneurial company which produces this new product for truck beds. It’s called RollBedder.
Alan grew up on a farm in southwest Kansas, attended Dodge City Community College and then Kansas State. He embarked on a career with Deere and Company which would take him across the United States and around the world – literally. Alan led initiatives for Deere and Company in France and China, for example. He later worked for a German company named Claas and at a research facility in Indiana before leaving corporate life.
Alan was also an inventor and entrepreneur. He served as a consultant on various projects such as the bi-rotor combine and the ARRO head harvesting system. As we have previously profiled, he founded the Farm Buddy company to help individual farmers advance their product ideas into corporate commercialization. Continue reading “Now That’s Rural: Alan and Carol VanNahmen, RollBedder”
