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SQUARING OFF ON RIGHT 2 REPAIR. Farm Equipment Executive Editor Kim Schmidt (representing the farm equipment dealer and manufacturing perspective) “steals the wrench” from Lessiter Media Founder and Grower Division Editorial Director (representing the company’s grower audiences). Lessiter Media is the only ag trade publisher in North America with distinct content properties for dealers/manufacturers (Farm Equipment, Ag Equipment Intelligence, Precision Farming Dealer and Rural Lifestyle Dealer) AND growers (No-Till Farmer, Strip-Till Farmer, Cover Crop Strategies and Farm Innovations).

Photo: Jeff Lazewski

No-Till Farmer's Editors Debate Right to Repair

By Mike Lessiter, Frank Lessiter, and Kim Schmidt posted on April 21, 2023 | Posted in Equipment

Editor’s Note: Lessiter Media Inc., now in its 42nd year of independent and family ownership, is uniquely positioned in the Right to Repair (R2R) debate. Company Founder and Editorial Chairman Frank Lessiter has a 62-year career as an ag journalist. 

The company’s farmer-facing properties include the flagship No-Till Farmer (Lessiter has served as editor in chief on each monthly edition in the title’s 51-year history), Strip-Till Farmer, Cover Crop Strategies and Farm Innovations for Today’s Top Farm Operator (a pictorial guide to the newest independent, or shortline, product innovations each year).

Also, since 2004, Lessiter Media has owned and operated a separate business-to-business Farm Equipment Division, consisting today of Farm Equipment, Rural Lifestyle Dealer, Precision Farming Dealer and Ag Equipment Intelligence.

The content that follows presents a unique vantage point in all of agricultural media. Here, the content leaders of the two divisions – and on each side of the chasm – express their respective audience’s arguments on this R2R debate. 

NOTE: The argument was civil. No punches thrown. And the H.R. director only called into the room 3 times.

 – Mike Lessiter, President, Lessiter Media Inc., May 2023

Read the Farmer Viewpoint

Read the Industry Viewpoint

Related Content:

  • Right-to-Repair Battle Heating Up: R2R is a controversial topic we felt needed extensive coverage and a subject that the general ag media doesn’t appear to have the courage to report on due to worries about picking sides with the big equipment makers and their advertising budgets. Frank Lessiter breaks down…
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KEYWORDS farm equipment dealer right to repair Frank Lessiter Kim Schmidt no-till opinion right to repair Right to repair tools to repair own farm equipment
Mike lessiter 0723

Mike Lessiter

A second-generation ag journalist, Mike Lessiter joined the family business in 2003 after 12 years in Chicago as editor/publisher of several manufacturing titles. He has been Editor/Publisher of Farm Equipment since its acquisition in 2004, and has served in several capacities with the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Assn. and Assn. of Equipment Manufacturers. In 2007, he was named president of Lessiter Publications Inc. (now Lessiter Media Inc.). Contact: mlessiter@lessitermedia.com

Lessiter frank

Frank Lessiter

Frank Lessiter has served as editor of No-Till Farmer since the publication was launched in November of 1972. Raised on a six-generation Michigan Centennial Farm, he has spent his entire career in agricultural journalism. Lessiter is a dairy science graduate from Michigan State University.

Kim 3

Kim Schmidt

Kim Schmidt is the Managing Editor of Farm Equipment and the host of Ag Equipment Intelligence’s On The Record. An award-winning writer, she worked 7 years in business-to-business trade media before joining Farm Equipment in 2012. She is a journalism graduate of Marquette University.

Contact: kschmidt@lessitermedia.com

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