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Sullivan Farms is a family-run operation
geared to modern-day technology

Farming brothers

Running the day-to-day operation at the Sullivan Family Farms operation are, from left, brothers, Joe, Tim and Pat and their father Mike Sullivan.

Farm machinery bifold door lets in natural light with windows

The 47'7" x 18'6" bifold door has two large windows that allow for natural light to enter the building. The building is built deep enough to store equipment with room left over to park a pickup sideways in it.

Sullivan Family Farms is up on the latest modern-day equipment and technology, but like most farms it didn't start out that way. Patriarch, Mike Sullivan, can still remember those first years going back to 1968 when he began working a handful of acres with a limited amount of equipment.

"To be honest with you, back in 1968 you hardly had any money to farm. You just kind of put a package together that you could live with trying to expand a little at a time so that you didn't go broke doing it. It was probably just as tough back then to get going as it is now," said Mike.

Sullivan farmsite buildings

The Sullivan Family farmsite is located north of Franklin. These three buildings have three Schweiss bifold liftstrap doors and one hydraulic door on them. A quonset building has the fifth Schweiss door.

When he first started farming, like many other farmers, livestock was also in the picture. He said he raised hogs for about the first 10 years. He also did a lot of work with Green Giant during the pea harvest with his tractor and trucks.

Their large acreage farm, on which they now exclusively grow corn and soybeans, evolved from when Mike's great grandfather, Dennis Lorden, started farming two 80- acre plots north of Morton, MN just after the turn of the century. Grandfather, Tim Sullivan and Mike's dad, Jim Sullivan, also farmed on this same land north of Morton. A lot of farming back then was done with horses; now modern-farming practices using GPS and such is the norm for the Sullivan's.

The family-run Morton, MN Century Farm operation is under the mentorship of Mike Sullivan, assisted by able sons, Tim, Joe and Pat, who now operate out of Mike's homesite north of Franklin. They now employ four full-time workers and quite a few seasonal workers. Mike and his wife, Jane, also have one daughter, Molly Lorang, a Franklin School Special Ed teacher, and have 10 grandchildren to enjoy.

Pat, Tim and Joe said they technically started farming seriously as teenagers, but like most farm kids they grew up helping dad.

"The boys have gone to a lot of decision planning seminars to keep them up very well on the latest farming developments," said Mike. Each has specific and combined duties. "Tim is basically head of the office. He takes care of paying the bills and doing all the paperwork that needs to be done everyday. Pat is the shop manager taking care of all the help and making sure all the equipment is ready to go, and anything that needs to be done from day-to-day. Joe is kind of the overseer of all the precision and GPS technology to make sure that works. He also works with Pat and Tim when needed. The boys all kind of take orders from each other.

Sullivan Farms got their first Schweiss bifold door about 20 years ago and have added four more Schweiss doors since then; one of which is a 36'10" x 17'6" hydraulic door. The bifold liftstrap doors range in size from two 44' 7" x 18'6" to a 39' 8"x 15'6" and 26' 6" x 15'4". The very first bifold door received a conversion from cables to liftstraps.The one quonset building was the first structure to be fitted with liftstraps. Sliding doors were all replaced with Schweiss bifold doors.

The doors also have a multi-channel master remote system so they can open and close each door from the same handheld remote; you just select which door you want opened from the cab of your tractor, combine or pickup.

They have one hydraulic door, used mainly for moving diggers in and out and to open up the east sidewall of the building. They like how it seals up nice and another benefit is the hydraulic pump was mounted up above the floor out of the way. "We have a Schweiss hydraulic door, but prefer the bifold doors. We got the hydraulic door on the east sidewall when we converted the building next door to a shop that had sliders on it. We didn't want to lose any headroom, we wanted to stay 18' clear. The same building has the 47' 7" wide x 18' 6" bifold door on the south side."


"Dependability has been excellent, quality has been great, service has been excellent. We have five doors and have been satisfied ever since we purchased the first door and that's why we keep coming back to Schweiss. The doors have made things a lot easier."


- Mike Sullivan
Sullivan Family Farms


To give you an idea of how dedicated the Sullivan's are to Schweiss doors, Joe said, "When we built the east 80' x 150' building, we had two bids. The one who wouldn't put a Schweiss door on our building didn't get the job. The family has known Mike Schweiss forever and we don't even look at anyone else. Schweiss customer service and reliability is second to none; Schweiss gets things done."

Mike concurred, "Dependability has been excellent, quality has been great, service has been excellent. We have five doors and have been satisfied ever since we purchased the first door and that's why we keep coming back to Schweiss. The doors have made things a lot easier."

Farm building with bifold and sliding side door.

The middle Morton building has a bifold door on the south side and used to have a sliding door on the east side. The Sullivan's replaced it with this hydraulic door on the sidewall. They chose a hydraulic door for maximum headroom.

"Our shop doors are used a lot, they probably go up and down 20 times a day, I'd say a couple times an hour when we are busy, and especially during the winter," said Tim.


"The new high R-value insulated panels are way better than foam insulation and skin on the inside of the door. The panels go way up to the top of the door and won't break off like foam insulation. We also have the new Schweiss (strap latch) locking system on this door; the door is always tight. There are zero cables now and it has two benefits. When the door is all the way up and its windy it keeps the door against the track. The other thing I like is it has two roller bearings on each side instead of one to spread the weight around."


- Tim, Joe and Pat Sullivan
Sullivan Family Farms


Tim and Joe said they are impressed with the new Schweiss high R-value interlocking insulated paneling on the big shop door. Pat agreed, "The new insulated panels are way better than foam insulation and skin on the inside of the door." "The panels go way up to the top of the door and won't break off like foam insulation," added Tim.

"We also have the new Schweiss (strap latch) locking system on this door; the door is always tight. There are zero cables now and it has two benefits. When the door is all the way up and its windy it keeps the door against the track. The other thing I like is it has two roller bearings on each side instead of one to spread the weight around," explained Pat.

"The nice thing about the bifold straps on our doors is it sped the doors up; they go up and down much faster. You don't get any of the cable stretch or wear," said Pat talking about the strap converted bifold door that has been in operation since 1997.

When they were trying to decide what size new door to put on the south side of the shop they were thinking of raising the shop 6 ft. to give additional headroom. Mike Schweiss talked them out of that expensive endeavor which would have also resulted in downtime for the building use, and now they are glad they didn't do that.

Tim said that Mike Schweiss offered some useful advice on the new building noting that they should allow some room on the sides to store stuff that accumulates on the inside of the building.

Over the years they have recommended Schweiss doors to others and have shown them to many people visiting the farm.

Automatic Latching bifold door

Pat Sullivan points to the new Schweiss Straplatch system that uses no cables. The Sullivans all said that it locks the door in very tight to the building even during very windy days.

Double roller system on bifold door

Another plus pointed out by Pat Sullivan is the double roller system that runs along the rail when the door is being opened and closed. Their doors get extensive use all year-round, opening as much as 20 times a day.

Interlocking insulated door panels impresses farmer

The Sullivan's were impressed with the new Schweiss interlocking insulated panel system. It eliminates the need for an inside liner, has great R-Value and gives the door a nice clean look.

Semi and John Deere combines fit through bifold door

Notice how well lit the interior of this shop is. Light also reflects off the new interlocking panel system on the bifold door to brighten up the entire shop and equipment.

Big bifold door opens for semi trailer

The Sullivan's newest building is 80'x150' and gives ample room to park semi's and other equipment. The bifold door is 39'8"x 15'6". Two large vertical windows bring additional light into the building.

Schweiss door looks nice and sleek

The closed bifold door gives a nice sleek look to the new east equipment storage building.

Hydraulic pump on shop wall is conveniently out of the way

The Sullivan's 36'10"x17'6.5" hydraulic door doesn't get much use during the winter months. When it does, the Sullivan's often use it to get their diggers in and out. A short ways into the door opening is a semi service pit that can be covered.

Machine shed sliding door was retrofitted with Schwiess Hydraulic door

This gives a closer look on how the Schweiss hydraulic door was retrofitted to replace a sliding door that was originally on the new 80'x150' shop.

Door's liftstraps lift safely, quickly, and quiety

Five liftstraps, each capable of lifting 29,000 lbs. lift this big door safely, quickly and quietly.

Bifold liftstrap door at over 17.5 feet tall easily fits semi trucks and trailers

The 17' 6.5" tall bifold door on this cold storage building gives ample headroom for semi trucks and trailers and other large farm equipment.

Quonset's sliding door was replaced with Schweiss liftstrap door

The quonset building on the Sullivan farmsite was the first building to be fitted with a Schweiss bifold liftstrap door. The bifold door replaced a sliding door.

In retrospect, Sullivan would have preferred wider door on this quonset

Joe Sullivan said if he had it to over again, he would have opened the entire endwall of their round roof quonset building to gain width to make it easier to bring equipment in and out.

Large bifold canopy keeps out rain and casts

The large bifold door provides a nice shaded canopy and keeps rain out of the building when wide open.

New building gets large bifold door for maximum headroom

The new building erected by RBC in Redwood Falls matches the look of the Morton Building beside it. The large bifold liftstrap door opens wide for maximum headroom.

Bifold door with liftstraps functioning well over 20 years

This 26'6"x15'4" bifold door has been in operation for about 20 years and is still functioning well.

Bifold door converted to strap with a convenient walkdoor

The Sullivan's first bifold door originally was a cable door that was retrofitted to liftstraps. It has a walkdoor for convenience.


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Fredonia, Kansas is a city of 2,482 and the county seat of Wilson County, Kansas. The quiet picturesque city is in the southeast corner of Kansas farm country at the junction of US Highways 400 and 47 within 150 miles of Wichita, Kansas City and Tulsa Oklahoma. It was founded in 1868, and saw considerable expansion in the early 20th century, with a fossil fuel boom.
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Dave Duehn's path to farming followed a different route than that of most farmers today. I guess you could say, "It was from the ground up." And at first it wasn't an easy row to hoe.
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There's a very old John Deere two-row corn planter that sits next to Jeff Buboltz's modern 80' x 120' Lester Building steel-sided building that now shelters a full line of powerful, modern John Deere tractors, implements, a combine and two semi grain trucks. Now an ornamental piece, that old planter which probably sat in a grove for quite sometime, would easily fit in the back of a pickup truck - it is literally a step back in time from farming days gone by.
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Perry Meyer of New Ulm, MN lives and works on a seventh-generation farm dating back to 1858. Things were a lot different when his great-grandparents tilled the soil with a horse-drawn plow.
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Kurt Sandgren is like a lot of other Schweiss Door customers who at one time or another have purchased a Schweiss door and who like it enough to be a repeat customer when they put up or renovate another building.
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Around these parts Paul Lux is known as a Jack Of All Trades and master of many. He's one of those guys who can and has fixed everything from refrigerators to airplanes and everything in between.
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How Frans Rosenquist got his start in farming back in the late '70s is quite unusual. It wasn't a situation where the family farm was handed down to him or where he was able negotiate a nice loan through his local friendly banker. It was a matter of him spending money wisely.
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Chad Hoese at age 29 is a new-generation, unmarried farmer producing corn, soybeans and a herd of 60 dairy heifers at Stoney Creek Farms, a 2,500 acre spread just three miles north of Glencoe, MN. His latest acquisition was to put a Schweiss One-Piece Hydraulic 29.10' x 14' clear door on an existing woodframe cold storage building. He uses it to shelter two sparkling semi trucks and other equipment.
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If you are a farmer that takes care of a lot of acres and you need a machine shed that's more than just the average machine shed, you might want to give Randy Buboltz of Hector, MN a jingle. His 80' x 240' machine shed has it all from in-floor heating, a kitchen for farm help, to an office to conduct and keep track of crop production and all the ins and outs associated with it.
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"I didn't even price anyone elses doors, I knew this was the one I wanted. I still would have went with a Schweiss door even if I wasn't so close to the factory. Schweiss is the only company I know of that has the liftstrap. I've seen bifolds on other buildings that weren't Schweiss doors, but they didn't have the quality. Some guys tried to talk me into these big rollup doors, and then they put a post in the middle of them that I figure someone sooner or later is going to back into and you lose some headroom with a rollup..." explained Kiecker.
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Cliff "Chipper" Willhite of Hector, MN has two Schweiss bifold liftstrap doors, both equipped with autolatches and remote openers. His first Schweiss bifold, a 24' x 15.6', went on his remodeled 30' x 72' shop over nine years ago to replace a worn out rollup door. When he built a new 70' x 84' machine shed he didn't hesitate to give Schweiss Doors another call which resulted in a 40' x 18' bifold liftstrap door. Willhite farmed for 40 years. In 2012, retirement was calling so he turned the keys to the 1,000 acre corn and soybean farm over to his son-in-law, Mike Koenig.
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Never try to beat a man at his own game was the advice of Jim Hinton, father of Randy Hinton, General Manager of the 'Red Power' Case/IH Team of northern Iowa. That was back in 1971 when Randy and his Dad were just trying to get a toehold in the farm equipment business with their 'start up' store in Bancroft, IA.
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It stands tall, nearly 40' to the roof line. It's big, like 120' x 200'. Concrete walls standing 16' tall wrap all four sides of this huge structure. And it holds nearly 1 million bushels of corn. We're talking about the huge feed storage structure at Revier Cattle Company, a beef operation with feedlot capacity of about 16,000 head. But what makes this feed storage especially unique are two steel hydraulic doors, each 15' 6" wide and 15' tall and positioned at both ends of this feed storage structure.
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Jim Becke, a Winthrop, MN farmer stands in front of his new Country Wide Lumber 120'x66' machine storage building. The tractor, sitting just outside the Schweiss 36'x 18' bifold door is a New Holland T6050 that he bought from Lano Equipment and it is fitted with a Loftness snowblower.
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