September 2024

“Good fences make good neighbors,” wrote the poet Robert Frost. Good solid fences are important to keep our animals in and our neighbors happy. A good fence begins with a good, solid corner post from which to build, but that is not always easy to put in place. Today we’ll meet a young entrepreneur who has designed a new and better way to install the corners for those fences. Eric Spurgeon is co-founder and co-owner of Iron Hedge Company in Buhler. He grew up on a farm and ranch near the rural community of Mullinville, population 197 people. Now, that’s rural. “When I was eight years old, I knew I wanted to be an engineer,” Spurgeon said. In order to raise money for college, he started a fence building business while in high school. He built more than 80 miles of pasture fence in southwest Kansas and sold that business at graduation. Building fence is a hard job, especially setting the heavy wooden hedge posts that are often used as corner posts. Not only are they heavy, but they require a way to dig a hole big enough in which to set the post several feet into the ground. This can be a challenge in rocky Kansas soils. There is also the problem of maintenance over time, when fences can sag or get loose. Spurgeon thought about those challenges as he pursued higher education. Spurgeon earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Kansas State University, where he met John Kuenzi, who is an entrepreneur and teaches an entrepreneurship class in the university’s College of Business. Kuenzi had also built fence at his family’s farms. They talked about the challenges of building fence with traditional hedge wood corner posts. They figured that there had to be a better way. “We set out to fix everything that we hated about putting up fence,” Spurgeon said. “We wanted to figure out how to make fencing easy to install, to source, and to transport, while building it in a way that would keep the fence tight.” A big part of the challenge was those heavy hedge posts used at the corners. Spurgeon and his partner set out to engineer a solution. They designed a prototype with easy-to-install metal corner posts, tension keepers and springs on the wires to adjust for temperature change and other factors to keep the fence tight. After refining the system, they launched the Iron Hedge company. “We wanted the whole thing to be lighter than a green hedge post,” Spurgeon said. “We’re now on version four, and it’s 100 pounds lighter than our first one.” “The corner of the fence is like the foundation of your house, and it has to be right,” Spurgeon said. Ground contact parts on the Iron Hedge products are galvanized for longer endurance. Their first product install was in 2020. Now, nearly 40 installations have taken place. The company owns two patents. The advantages of the Iron Hedge corner post system are said to include faster installation, longer lasting results, and adaptability. “Ease of installation and low maintenance of the product are our goals,” Spurgeon said. “We want quicker installation time and less headaches for the customer.” “We show customers that this is an investment in infrastructure that will last a long time.” Iron Hedge designs are intended to help assure a 50-75 year lifespan for the fence. “That way a customer can spend less time on less value-added tasks and concentrate on the things that are productive and make a difference in their business,” he said For more information, see www.ironhedgefence.com. Good fences make good neighbors, and the Iron Hedge company is working to make fences better with innovative improvements in the corner post system. We commend Eric Spurgeon, John Kuenzi, and all those involved with the Iron Hedge company for creative engineering and entrepreneurship in the fencing industry. I’m glad they got this corner on the market. And there’s more. Spurgeon is putting his engineering skills to work in other industries as well. We’ll learn about that next week.

Growing up in Ellsworth, Braden Schulte has always exemplified the determined spirit Fort Hays State University students are known for. With his senior year underway, Braden is thankful to those who have supported him throughout his time on campus. He’s most appreciative of FHSU's Half Century Club.

Officials of National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the names of more than 16,000 Semifinalists in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.