Frank Platt owns Platt Equipment Company with his wife, Monica..

The folks at Midstate Power Products say they are glad they got in on the ground floor of the Central Oregon Ag Show and are a sponsor again this year.

“Last year’s ag show was a very successful weekend despite being in its first year,” Midstate Power Products co-owner Monica Platt said. “It was well received by the public, and we had a lot of action at the display booth, it’s a good target group and we received a lot of interest from the public as a result of our being there.”

Frank and Monica Platt opened a new location — their fourth — last fall with the addition of Warner Mountain Equipment in Lakeview.

“We feel that the Lakeview community has been underserved for quite a few years now,” Platt said. “There had always been an ag supplier in the community since the 1950s and then it just kind of evaporated in recent years. Our new store manager, Andy Spencer, is returning to Lakeview, representing the Kubota brand and Platt Equipment Company values and is very familiar with many people in the industry.”

Getting the new store up and running has been a hands-on process but establishing a presence in Lakeview completes a rough square encompassing the Central Oregon region that the Platts are passionate about covering.

Platt Equipment Company now has stores in Redmond, Klamath Falls, Lakeview and Hines. The area is primarily rural and covers a large expanse that includes mountainous regions, rangeland and deserts.

“You can drive for miles and see coyotes and sagebrush but there are big ranches out there and large farming operations that need big machines and implements to do what they do,” Platt said. “It’s just a great community of people to be there for; agricultural and ranching communities and your local hobby farmers are gems as customers and wonderful to work with.”

In the 11 years since the Platts purchased their first Kubota dealership, Midstate Power Products in Redmond, they have developed a proven track record of accurately assessing and meeting the needs of Central Oregon’s diverse ag producers.

They started out small — just three or four people in the whole operation — and expanded when it made sense.

All locations carry additional lines to complement the Kubota equipment lineup including Vermeer, with large balers and bale processors; Great Plains Manufacturing, a leader in dirt working, tillage, seeding and planting; and Land Pride, a division of Great Plains that manufactures performance-matched implements for turf maintenance, material handling and landscaping.