Combining elbow-grease and perfectionism to keep farm equipment pristine – that’s what it means to be #AndyClean.
Such is the now globe-spanning hashtag originating with Andy Pasztor, a Norfolk County farmer who makes thorough equipment cleaning a major part of his yearly maintenance program.
Why it matters: Attention to detail is critical to achieve a state of #AndyClean.
With uncertain origins some four or five years ago, the Twitter hashtag — employed to indicate a particularly supreme level of spick-and-span — has since caught the eyes of farmers as far afield as Europe, New Zealand, and Argentina.
“I don’t think I even came up with it. I just started posting it,” says Pasztor. “At first I thought people would get sick of it. They haven’t. Things really started to take off the last couple years.”
Even marketing and communications staff at John Deere have taken notice. In 2019 the company mailed Pasztor a bunch of cleaning supplies, then designed a logo for the brand.
“The next thing I know I get a message from DHL (the deliver company). I was sent this huge box of #AndyClean stickers,” says Pasztor.
Since then he has mailed more than 300 of the adhesive tags to farmers around the world. The tag was even included in the launch of John Deere’s new X9 combine line.
While it hasn’t translated to additional business opportunities yet, Pasztor adds the phenomena “definitely got my name out there.”
How to achieve a state of #AndyClean
There’s no real secret to Pasztor’s fastidiousness. Indeed, achieving an #AndyClean level of dapperness includes:
- Washing every nook and cranny, inside and out,
- Topping things off with a good wax finish,
- Keeping equipment in good shape down to the paint on the rims.
They don’t operate new equipment on the farm, Pasztor says. Making the old look new again is just part of how they maintain things. A family affinity for perfection just happens to come in handy.
