From dairy goats to welding
By Valorie Brecht
When it comes to owning one’s own business, a little creativity and ingenuity combined with a healthy dose of hard work can go a long way.
John McPherson of Loyal has certainly learned that lesson. What started out as a project to build milking stands for his dairy goats has turned into a full-fledged business operation, serving owners of various kinds of livestock. John creates custom livestock equipment built to customers’ specifications. He also does custom welding for steel and aluminum, and crafts metal art.
John and his wife, Jean “Angel” McPherson, own John’s Fabrication and Repair, LLC. John grew up on a farm in Illinois and was always around animals.
“I’ve been around goats since I was 8 years old,” said John, who showed goats while in 4-H growing up.
He also learned how to weld at a young age, an important skill for fixing farming equipment. Fast forward several years, and John and Jean moved to a country property just a few miles outside of Loyal in 1994.
They also had three children — Jason, Jessica and Jackie. After taking a break from raising dairy goats, they got back into it in 2002, partially so their kids could show goats too. Around that time, John started building portable, foldable milking stands for goats. When he couldn’t find what he wanted at Fleet Farm, he decided to make his own equipment.
“It’s cheaper to build my own stuff, and then I can have it how I want it,” he said.
While it began out of necessity for himself, other people liked the milking stands John made and wanted some for their own goats. So, in 2005, John launched his business. Also at that time, he started making custom gates for people.
Over the years, John’s business gradually grew as more and more people heard about him, mostly through word of mouth. He expanded to custom gates for barns, parlor setup for commercial dairy operations, and custom hay racks, feeder gates and pens for goats and cattle. He’s also done pig gates and cages, and llama grooming chutes. He did a commercial dairy build on a kid barn by Lake Geneva. He also was quoted to do all the gates for the barns at the Walworth County Fairgrounds.
His name has spread farther than he ever thought it would. Two years ago, he shipped 44 gates to a goat farm in Oregon. This past July, John attended the weeklong American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) National Show in Louisville, Ky., with 3,300 dairy goats being shown there. He sold out of all his products. He’s already planning for next year’s show in Grand Island, Neb. Also, in October, he plans to attend the ADGA Annual Convention in Lake Geneva. He’s attended Farm Tech Days a few times as well.
He’s also gotten into repair work, such as repairing logging trailers and semi trailers, or other jobs clients bring in. He gets his steel from Midway Steel in Withee. He has a neighbor that does some of the bending work, although most of it he does in his own shop.
Another revenue stream was added in 2019, when John bought a metal art business. He has a plasma table, which he uses to design “pretty much anything.”
He has more than 1,000 designs, including military logos, auto and farm equipment logos, flags such as the thin blue line flag, or pretty much any design one can think of to make out of metal. After the piece is cut, a color is applied at Untamed Powder Coating in Neillsville or Dutch Coatings in Thorp, if it’s a bigger piece. The powder is sprayed on and the piece is baked in an oven to seal the color. John sells his pieces at Kailey’s Kandles & Company in downtown Marshfield, as well as The Gift Shop in Medford.
Although the custom livestock equipment is the bread and butter of the business, the repair work and metal art provide supplemental income and generate interest online, where he displays his metal art designs. His business continues to grow, to the point where he has shipped orders to 45 states. The venture has also come full circle, as now John and Angel’s grandchildren are going to be showing goats.
In a lot of ways, John’s business was a natural fit, considering how he’s done welding all his life. He worked for Paul Bugar Trucking for 10 years, as well as V & H/IState Trucking in Marshfield for 14 years, performing hydraulic repair and miscellaneous truck repair. Most recently, he worked for All Metal Stamping in Abbotsford, which makes custom window hardware, among other things. He would come home from his day job and pour more hours into his fabrication business.
“Before, I was working nights and weekends (on my business). My son Jason also comes in for a few hours at night,” he said. “But I got tired of working until 10 at night and then having to get up at 3 in the morning to go to work again.”
He’s excited to finally go out on his own, a dream at long last coming to fruition. Almost four weeks ago, he decided to quit his day job and pursue his business full time.
“That’s always been the goal (to own my own business),” he said. “I’ve always en-
See WELDING/ page 18
IN THE SHOP - John McPherson poses in his shop just a few miles outside of Loyal. The welding shop was built in 2019.
STAFF PHOTO/VALORIE BRECHT Welding
Continued from page 11
joyed working with metal.”
Angel, who takes care of the bookwork for the business, says she’s happy to see John going after this and using his talents.
“He’s got that creative brain where he can see how to put it together in his mind,” she said.
People can see examples of that creativity by visiting John’s Facebook page: “Johns Fabrication and Repair, LLC.” For more information, you may also contact him at 715--
613-9664.
MILKING STANDS - John's Fabrication and Repair began with John building custom milking stands for dairy goats.
STAFF PHOTO/VALORIE BRECHT
