Beda Company was established in 2006 with the publication of the book Plows & Plowing. The name Beda came from the combination of the names Betty and David -- the co-founders of the company. The book was an idea to get more people interested in plowing. After its publication, David was asked to give a seminar on plowing for an area tractor club. From that experience, he learned that the collector community wanted to know more about plowing. He was determined to help spread the word that plowing was in!
Dozens of seminars and presentations given over the next few years resulted in many questions from the audience. It was apparent that the people wanted more! The John Deere Moldboard Tractor Plow was written to answer those questions. The book required countless hours of research and even a few trips to the Deere & Company archives. In 2008, all of the effort paid off when David was asked to speak at The Gathering of the Green, a large biennial conference sponsored by four local John Deere 2-cylinder collecting clubs in Illinois and Iowa. This conference debuted the new book.
Beda Company is much more than just a book company. In 2008, son Dennis became a part of the company when he finished his tool & die school project – the plow handle trigger box. The project was a challenging one, but was a great way to learn the trade and reproduce a much-needed part that is no longer available. Dennis has continued making other handle parts for John Deere plows, which can be found under “Our Products.”
In July of 2009, David was invited to the New York State Two-Cylinder Expo in Canandaigua, NY to give a presentation about plowing. New ideas, such as the creation of this website, began to develop as well as many other projects. David has worked on a few magazine articles, and is currently working on a future book idea. Dennis has undertaken this website, along with a video on plowing setup.
David and Dennis have taken a great deal of pride in demonstrating for various tractor shows around the Midwest. They enjoy showing many phases of agricultural history -- from hay loading to loading grain.
Beda Company is dedicated to the preservation of agricultural history in society. We take a great deal of pride in teaching and providing information to the community on various farming aspects. We are determined to prevent the concepts and ideas of yesterday to fade into extinction. We appreciate all the friendships we have made, and look forward to many new ones. This has been an incredible journey for us, and we just want to say a big “thank you” to all those who have made this possible!