Young entrepreneur is in the drivers seat

By Doug Rich

Tristan Swartz remembers vividly the first time he drove a combine. He was 4 years old and riding along with his father, David Swartz, during fall harvest. It was late in the evening, time to move the combine and truck to another field, and it was just the two of them.

"Dad said he would take the truck if I could follow him in the combine," Swartz recalls.

They made it to the next field with no problems, and Swartz began his career in the custom combining business. The only snag was that his mom showed up about the time they arrived and Dad got chewed out pretty good for letting Tristan drive the combine.

Today 22-year-old Tristan Swartz owns his own custom harvesting business and Dad drives combines for him.

Swartz purchased his first combine, a 1965 John Deere 95, with money from selling calves when he was 15 years old and began harvesting corn and soybeans for farmers in the area around Savannah, Mo. He picked up his first job from a neighbor who had eight acres of oats to cut.

"Dad had to drive me to look at the combine because I didn't have my driver's license yet," Swartz said.

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