Our Story · 1976 to 2026
Three generations. One promise to the farmer.
Fifty years in, we think about the people who made this company possible. Not the machines. The people. This is their story.
Bish Enterprises started with a farmer who had a problem to solve. Fifty years and three generations later, that is still how we work. Someone in the field runs into something their equipment can’t do, and we figure out how to make it work.
It all goes back to one man in Giltner, Nebraska.
Chapter 1 · 1947 to 1976
Harvey “Harv” Bish graduated in 1947 and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, choosing to serve on his own terms rather than wait to be drafted. After boot camp in San Diego and amphibious vehicle training at Camp Lejeune, he served in Seoul during the Korean conflict.
When his unit came up short on mechanics, Harv stepped outside his assigned duties and rebuilt the clutch on an amphibious vehicle so the work could go on. It became the pattern for the rest of his life: see a problem, step forward, fix it.
That mindset followed him home to the farm. Drawing on what he learned from his father, Art, a self-taught welder and musician, Harv attached a corn picker to a combine so one machine could pick and shell corn at the same time. His father-in-law, a man who could weld, plumb and wire just about anything, told him it would never work.
It was that challenge from my father-in-law that made me want to do it.
Harv Bish
On the first test, a chain caught and jerked the gearbox sideways. A piece of #9 wire fixed it, and the machine ran the rest of the afternoon without another glitch. Harv applied for a patent in June 1955. It was granted on April 2, 1957, a world first and, in his own words, one of the proudest achievements of his life. Farmers like Elmer Hohlen, who custom harvested north of Hastings, were among the first to put the “Bish Head” to work.
Encouraged by the farmers who saw value in his ideas, Harv took a leap of faith. In 1976, he opened Harv’s Farm Supply in Giltner, a town of just over 400 people. That same year, Farm Industry News ran a story on his header adapters. It brought in 1,440 letters and about as many phone calls from across the United States.
When I started Harv’s Farm Supply, I wasn’t trying to build a big company. I just wanted to build equipment that made work a little easier for farmers.
Harv Bish, founder
Milestones
1947
Harv graduates and enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps
1955
Harv demonstrates his picker-sheller in Grand Island and applies for a patent
1957
The patent is granted on April 2, a world first
1969
An 8-row, 20-inch cornhead for Clarence Folkert
1974
The first block building goes up
1976
Harv’s Farm Supply opens in Giltner; Farm Industry News brings 1,440 letters
Chapter 2 · 1979 to 1997
Farmers kept calling with problems no catalog could solve, and the shop kept growing to answer them. In 1979, Bish started modifying John Deere 40 Series corn heads to fit the newer 20 Series combines. New buildings followed: a 60′ x 75′ shop in 1981, a paint facility in 1983, a Quonset in 1985.
Harv’s son, Brad Bish, joined the business and pushed it toward bigger, bolder builds. In 1991, the shop built the first-ever 16-row, 20-inch cornhead. That same year, it adapted a Soviet-made combine for an 8-row corn head. By 1992, Harv’s Farm Supply had 25 employees and customers in the U.S., Canada, Russia and Australia.
What’s always driven us is the willingness to try something new and build what hasn’t been built before.
Brad Bish
In 1997, Brad and Christy Bish became owners of Harv’s Farm Supply, and an 80′ x 150′ production building went up the same year.
Milestones
1979
John Deere 40 Series corn heads adapted to 20 Series combines
1980
The first 12-row John Deere cornhead
1985
Brad Bish joins; a cotton stripper built for Eli Lilly Co. cancer research
1987
Three John Deere 854-A heads stretched to 40-inch spacing for a Kansas customer
1989
The first 12-row IHC cornhead
1991
The first-ever 16-row, 20-inch cornhead
1992
25 employees in four countries; the first New Holland 12-row cornhead
1995
What was believed to be the world’s largest 12-row, 38-inch cornhead
1997
Brad and Christy Bish become owners
Chapter 3 · 1998 to 2026
The builds kept getting bigger. In 1998, Bish built a 16-row, 30-inch Case header and the first John Deere-to-Lexion header adapter. In 2002 came a 16-row, 30-inch row crop head for a New Holland combine.
In March 2012, Brad and Christy’s son Andrew joined the family business, and Harv’s Farm Supply became Bish Enterprises. Andrew’s brother Jacob joined in January 2019. The third generation brought new crops and new questions: the SuperCrop header line, Hemp Harvest Works, and the first FiberCut prototype.
Bish Enterprises has always grown through innovation driven by real agricultural needs. The next 50 years will require the same practical innovation that got us here today.
Andrew Bish
In 2023, Bish unveiled the world’s largest folding corn header. In 2025, it was named one of the Top 16 Coolest Things Made in Nebraska. In 2026, the FiberCut 414 received an AE50 award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers. And a fourth generation of the Bish family is starting to work in the shop.
Milestones
1998
A 16-row, 30-inch Case header and the first John Deere-to-Lexion adapter
2002
A 16-row, 30-inch row crop head for New Holland
2012
Andrew Bish joins; Harv’s Farm Supply becomes Bish Enterprises; the SuperCrop line begins
2017
Andrew launches Hemp Harvest Works
2019
Jacob Bish joins
2021
The first FiberCut prototype
2023
The world’s largest folding corn header; the first Implement Mover prototype
2024
A decorticator for hemp fiber processing
2025
Top 16 Coolest Things Made in Nebraska
2026
FiberCut 414 wins an ASABE AE50 award; Bish turns 50
Harv today
Harv lives in Grand Island, where everyone knows Harv and Harv knows everyone. Over the years he has been a Sunday school teacher, a Cub Scout leader, a baseball coach, an umpire and a Lions Club member. He spent countless hours teaching kids to swing, throw and steal a base, especially home plate.
He has never asked for recognition. But there is one line he proudly displays on the back of his parade car, and it says more than any award could.
Thank you God for a good life.
On the back of Harv’s parade car
Fifty years in, a lot is different. The crops are different, the machines are bigger, and Bish equipment now runs on farms across the United States and in other countries. But the way we work is the same as it was in Harv’s first block building.
It starts with a farmer’s problem.
Most of what we build began as a phone call from someone whose equipment couldn’t do what the season needed.
It’s built in Giltner.
Designed, built and tested by our team in a town of just over 400 people.
It’s still a family business.
Four generations, and a team who treat every call like it matters. Because during harvest, it does.
None of this happens without the farmers who call us with their hardest problems, and the dealers who trust us with their customers. You are the reason a farm supply shop in Giltner became what it is today.
I’m proud of what it has become, and even more proud of the people who carried it forward.
Harv Bish
The Bish Enterprises Team · Giltner, Nebraska
