Leedstone aquires Preston’s Dairy Equipment

SPARTA, Wis. — At the beginning of November, for the first time since it opened in 1979, the sign identifying Preston’s Dairy Equipment in Sparta now reads Leedstone. Dan and Jill Preston are heading into retirement, and with that, Preston is relinquishing control of the company his family established in Union Center in 1947.

With the transition, Leedstone will continue to provide the same products and services with the same team of employees.

Preston’s Dairy Equipment sold dairy equipment and services for the past 77 years, including installing milking systems, cattle waterers, ventilation and cattle stalls.

Preston worked at his father’s shop in Union Center on the installation side of the business after graduating high school. After a few months, his father, brother and brother-in-law told him they were buying another location in Sparta. At 21 years old, Preston and Jill moved to Sparta. He worked at the new dairy equipment store and she worked in the Production Credit Association office.

“Our company man wanted us to move up here,” Preston said. “Jill and I both thought we should go, so we jumped at the chance. She was working for PCA, and their headquarters were in Sparta, so it was an easy move for her.”

With the move, Preston went from installer to businessman nearly overnight.

“I had done nothing but install at that point,” Preston said. “The sales and the rest of the business aspect were pretty crazy to me. I had never even written out a check before and now I was writing payroll checks to our two employees. It was learning on the fly for sure.”

After opening the second location, Preston got to work. The company was servicing over 1,100 farms in the area.

“We would buy 50 pipelines at a time, 25 would come here to Sparta, the other 25 would go to Union Center and we did that probably two or three times a year,” Preston said.

With the installation of so many pipelines and bulk tanks, the service end of the business grew and became a focus. Customer service was a priority, Preston said and customers felt that level of importance.

“When someone calls for service, we have to cover that call today,” Preston said. “If I had a sales call or a service call, the service call always came first.”

That reputation helped them expand their coverage area from farms in Monroe County to seven counties in Wisconsin and three in Minnesota.

Preston has seen the passing of the torch in the dairy industry, with some of his customers being in their third generation.

“They still come here and work with us and have a lot of respect for the whole crew,” Preston said. “Seeing that loyalty, and our great employees has been rewarding. When we have new employees come in, they’ll stay here for 15-20 years, and that’s pretty cool.”

When Preston’s Dairy Equipment was established in Sparta, it was initially located downtown before moving to its current location. It was one of the first businesses to build on the west side of town and has since been engulfed by urban sprawl.

After serving the dairy industry for 46 years, Preston has seen developments in dairy technology and cow care.

“We’re setting up ventilated barns and sprinkler systems now,” Preston said. “People are taking care of cows way better than they used to and the numbers show that.”

Over the past decade, milk production per cow has grown by 8.4% annually on average in the U.S. according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service.

“Twenty years ago, if we had people getting 60-70 pounds a cow, you were doing well,” Preston said. “Now, we have full herds of over 800-900 cows that are averaging over 100 pounds a cow.”

Though there is new ownership, the location will continue to offer services it has had in the past.

“We’ll be the only Leedstone location that will work on the waterers, fixing motors, ventilation and barn equipment,” Preston said. “That’s what we’ve done in the past and they trust us to continue to provide those services to this area.”

The full transition to Leedstone will take about a year. Preston is staying on for the next 12 months, working with small sales, minor excavating projects, educating the new company on the lay of the land and providing the service his customers have grown accustomed to.