Mensik's Morse Bluff-made pivot circles the world

by Mary Le Arneal
published 2/04/09

Tyler Mensik wasn’t paying attention in one of his irrigation classes one day. He was thinking about putting the large irrigation systems he was learning about to home use.

Tyler Mensik poses with him mini pivot, built at 1/13 the size of a regular pivot, that he designed and built.

With his plan of a 1/13th scale pivot fashioned after the larger Zimmatic pivots he was studying, Mensik, with the help of his father, Dan Mensik, built one in spring 2006. This pivot now waters his parents lawn in the summer.

In fall 2006 Mensik went to Husker Harvest Days and saw a scaled down model of a Lindsay pivot.

“I told the Lindsay representative that I had one more to scale and with better details,” Mensik, 21, said. “He came out an took pictures and showed it to the vice president of sales.”

The next year Mensik’s pivot went to Husker Harvest Days, but not much came from its debut. In 2008 Mensik accompanied the pivot to Husker Harvest Days and was able to demonstrate and explain it. The mini-pivot has all the schematics of the larger pivot used in farmers’ fields. It has a reverse mode, a water valve at the pivot point to shut off the water when it reaches a barricade, a computer hookup and a percent timer.

“To put on one inch of water it needs to go at five percent,” Mensik said.

Mensik was at Husker Harvest Days working as an employee of Victor, Inc., in Fremont. He demonstrated his pivot to the international representative from Lindsay office in Omaha.

“He called back within 24 hours and ordered three of them,” Mensik said.

The mini-pivots will be used in days similar to Husker Harvest Days in China, Brazil and western Europe, where there is little room to demonstrate a full-size pivot.

Mensik said he would have the pivots done by the end of winter.

The first pivot was built using scrap medal from Roch Emanuel at Emanuel Welding, Inc, in North Bend.

Built in the farm shop at his uncle Rollie Ott’s place, Mensik and his dad worked together on the project this time around. The three orders were completed this winter, and delivered on Jan. 27.

“It all just kept coming together,” Mensik said. “We built it without engineering blueprints. The metal pieces just kept coming together.”
Dan said that at times they were satisfied with things if “they looked right.”

This time they used all new material. The Mensiks give credit to Dee Stockamp at NAPA Auto parts, Jerry Nordboe at Nordboe Auto Repair and Johnson Farm Equipment for their help with labor and supplies.

In addition to his work at Victors, Mensik has his own business, Mensik Pivot Services, LLC, that he started in April 2007 to erect center pivots.
Mensik, a 2005 graduate of North Bend Central and May 2008 graduate of Northeast Community College in Norfolk with a degree in Irrigation Technology and Agronomy, said the Lindsay International VP said there might be more orders as word gets out.

“Each one gets easier,” Mensik said. “I’ve kept all the receipts so I know what I need to make them.”

These mini-pivots are one welded piece. The Lindsay rep said they could sell more if they could disassemble them. But both Mensiks agree that would be a lot more labor intensive and expensive so they are not looking at making the change.

With his mini-pivots off to see the world, would Mensik like to do a little of the traveling with them?

“I’d go as long as I could make it back,” Mensik said. “And if someone would pay me to go.”

For now Mensik’s pivots are in Lindsay, waiting to be put into a crate and shipped off into their destinations around the world.

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