How we helped a multi-site grain mill streamline IT without replacing their internal team.

We work with a lot of internal IT leads who aren’t looking to be replaced — they just need a partner who actually helps them move the needle. That’s exactly how our relationship with Thresher Wheat started. They’re a grain processor and storage operation with multiple rural sites across Eastern Idaho. At the time, they were part of Agspring and growing steadily. But like many agricultural manufacturers, they were facing the tricky reality of managing IT across several locations without a consistent support structure.

Their Director of IT, Tim Lefman, had a solid handle on strategy. The problem was execution. Different sites were using different vendors. Some were responsible for hardware, others for internet, some just for support. No one had a full picture of what was happening across the business, and that made it hard to be proactive.

Tim put it well when he said:

“Siloed support models were no longer sustainable for the complex needs of a multi-site grain operation.”

We didn’t come in with the intention to “take over” IT. That’s not what co-managed IT is about. Instead, we worked alongside Tim to become an extension of his team. He stayed in charge of the direction, and we provided the boots-on-the-ground support — from endpoint management to patching, backups, and user issues. Everything got centralized: one support queue, one stack of tools, one playbook. That shift alone made a huge difference.

Tim called it “vertically integrating our IT support,” and it’s a good way to describe it. With one team managing the entire support structure, things started running a lot smoother. Issues got solved faster. Users across all sites got the same experience. Maintenance wasn’t getting skipped. And maybe most importantly, Tim could focus on higher-level planning instead of spending his days tracking down tickets and vendor quotes.

Eventually, Thresher Wheat was acquired by Arthur Companies, who brought in their own internal IT resources. But before that happened, we built a strong partnership that helped stabilize operations, improve uptime, and align IT with business goals. Tim later told us,

“TotalCare outperformed other IT firms we’ve worked with — they solve issues and implement solutions that actually work across our locations.”

That’s the kind of outcome we aim for. If you’re leading IT at a grain mill, agricultural processor, or really any multi-site operation in a rural area — we know the pain points. You don’t have to juggle five different vendors, or stretch yourself across every fire that pops up. Co-managed IT is a real option. And no, we’re not here to replace you. We’re here to help you get the breathing room and support you actually need.