DIXON — A chain is only as strong as its weakest link — and a machine is only as strong as its weakest chain.

It’s a good thing a Dixon business is around to make sure those machines keep up their strength.

Just ask a farmer how important chains are. All it takes is one busted bunch of links and everything can grind to a halt on the farm. That’s when Doug Hicks steps up to help get things moving again.

Hicks is the first link on a one-man supply chain at Farmchains.com (the business’s name as well as its website), which specializes in hard-to-find chains for agriculture and industrial applications. When other companies and dealers may have stopped selling parts for older equipment, such as steel detachable chains, Farmchains.com keeps them on its shelves.

The business also shares space with C&N Supply, an industrial supply company with roots stretching back nearly four decades, and both are owned by Hicks, a former Lee County sheriff’s deputy who traded a badge for chains a few years ago and hasn’t looked back since.

The shop’s supply includes hard-to-find chains for old drills, old planters and old manure spreaders and their aprons, the kind of chains farmers need to keep their ol’ reliable equipment working — and keep a few extra bucks in their pocket, too. Fixing something that’s broken down is a lot cheaper than having to break down and buy a new piece of equipment.

“For these small farmers, new manure spreaders are huge and are [a lot of money],” Hicks said, but when a farmer can keep an old machine running instead of buying new one, it’s good news for the bottom line. “You can buy a whole apron and they’re back up and running again.”

Farmchains.com specializes in steel detachable chain made by Allied-Locke in Dixon, which is the only manufacturer in the nation still producing it. Inventory includes 25 and 32W chains for old seeders and planters; 55 and 62 chains for bale elevators; 67H, 67XH and S-chain for manure spreader aprons; and 67W chains for gathering chains on old corn pickers. Hicks also sells attachment links, standard roller chain ranging from go-kart size to combine-grade, gathering chains for corn heads, manure spreader aprons and sprockets.

It’s a deep, deliberately curated stock that turns product knowledge into a competitive edge.

“I’ve always believed that when the customer calls, it’s very important to have knowledge of what you’re talking about and to have the product in stock,” Hicks said. “If you have it in stock, it’s hard for them to say no and check with someone else on pricing.”

The customer base reflects that specialization. In addition to older farmers, Amish and Mennonite farmers from the Midwest and Northeast also are frequent callers, relying on older equipment and valuing someone who understands it. Hicks also gets the occasional antique tractor owner looking for steel detachable chain for display or demonstrations.

And when those customers call, they don’t get routed to some remote call center queue; the call goes right to Hicks’ pocket — his cellphone that he carries with him. Customers can also text photos, send measurements and troubleshoot outside normal business hours. It’s that kind of commitment to customer service and attention to details that makes a big difference, especially when a piece of equipment is down.

The mindset of helping first and selling second traces back to Hicks’ earlier career.

“It’s not necessarily selling to them, it’s more about helping them,” Hicks said. “Coming from law enforcement, that’s what you kind of do, to help people. That’s what Farmchains does, it helps farmers get their old equipment back up and running again.”

Farmchains.com began in 2008, but its story stretches back even further, when things first started getting a little “Krazy” at a downtown Dixon storefront.

Ken Novak, Hicks’ father-in-law, founded C&N Supply in 1986 as an industrial supply store. At the time, northern Illinois still had a strong manufacturing base, and C&N did a lot of business with industries throughout the Rockford area. Novak — whose shtick was being “Krazy Ken, the Farmer’s Friend” — knew his products, especially chain. Before opening his own business, he sold for Allied-Locke, where he learned the ins and outs of farm chain applications, knowledge that would later become the backbone of Farmchains.com.

But as industry dried up and factories shut down, the industrial side of the business took a hit. Farming, however, endured, and in 2008 Novak launched Farmchains.com as a way to serve a different kind of customer, one who still relied on equipment built long before onboard computers and dealer-exclusive parts. Today, C&N Supply is still part of the operation — selling drill bits, end mills, caps, bandsaw blades, cutting tools and Herschel tillage parts — but it’s Farmchains.com that takes up most of Hicks’ focus these days.

In its first year, the online experiment did even better than expected, generating enough sales for a solid start for a niche business.

“Farmchains is mostly an online business, and it’s grown ever since,” Hicks said. “I would say 85 percent of sales is online or by calling, so I don’t get a ton of walk-in business.”

Back when Farmchains began, Novak was still the face of the operation. He traveled. A lot. Farm and trade shows across the country, roughly 10 a year, were among his destinations. As technology advanced and the online world grew, the business became less about the storefront being at the forefront and more about the website being there.

“With that side of business, you once had to do it to get the name out there in the beginning,” Hicks said. “Now, the world operates around a cell phone and a search engine, where you can see who comes up first. Customers will search for what they need on their cell phone or computer, and you have to be right at the top of that search engine.”

Then came a turning point for Hicks, both personally and professionally. There had been some uncertainty about the future of the business when Novak was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, but in 2019 Hicks took on a different duty. He retired from the Lee County Sheriff’s Department and joined the business full-time, initially running the Farmchains side. When Novak died in 2021, he took over ownership of both Farmchains.com and C&N Supply.

“It didn’t seem like anyone was interested in the business within the family,” Hicks said. “I left [the sheriff’s department] kind of early — I had 21 years in — and decided to take the chance and come work for Ken.”

Hicks grew up on a family farm south of Harmon and attended Amboy schools. He met his wife, Amanda, in high school; the two married in 2002 and have three children. “Having grown up on a family farm, it was kind of a no-brainer to come in and run Farmchains,” he said.

After taking over the businesses, Hicks embraced the internet in a way that his father-in-law was hesitant to adapt to, and it’s paid off. From 2021-25, business has grown roughly 30 percent, he said. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, which disrupted so many operations, the business turned into an unexpected high-water mark.

The shift from show floors to search engines didn’t happen overnight. Novak was reluctant to lean too hard into online marketing at first, hesitant about search engine optimization strategies and a heavy digital presence. The results, however, were hard to ignore: Hicks hired an online marketing firm to help manage the shop’s digital footprint, and he stopped doing farm shows altogether.

The phones kept ringing anyway.

“We have grown every year since then,” Hicks said. “We had a record year last year. We had a record month, and we had a record back-to-back month.”

Another pivotal moment for the business came in 2023: A cracked structural beam in its old building in downtown Dixon forced Hicks’ hand. He could either invest money in an aging building or find a new home. He opted for the latter,and in the summer of 2023 began work on a new building south of town along state Route 26, opening it in spring 2024. The building offers more space to work, room to handle deliveries and a location closer to farms.

Along with keeping C&N Supply in business, Hicks has also found another way to honor Novak’s legacy, beyond the balance sheet: He established the “Krazy Ken The Farmer’s Friend” memorial agriculture scholarship, first awarded last summer to Dixon High School senior Cullen Shaner, who is attending University of Illinois in Champaign to pursue a degree in finance in ag business.

As for the future, Hicks is realistic. Right now, none of his children are interested in taking over the business, but, he added: “We’ll see what happens.”

Today, Hicks runs the operation largely on his own. He streamlined the ordering process after taking over, making it easier for customers to get exactly what they need without unnecessary back-and-forth. It’s a one-man show built on experience, availability and product knowledge.

That knowledge matters, Hicks said, because the customers are not calling about new equipment.

“It’s a unique business because I sell a lot of chain that not a lot of dealers want to deal with,” Hicks said. “My typical customer is a 50-to-80-year-old farmer who farms a few hundred acres and has really old equipment. When they call their dealer, they don’t have any parts for them — they have all new equipment. That’s where I come in: They find me and I’m willing to talk with them and get them the part they need, or identify the chain that they need, and get it out to them quickly.”

Go to farmchains.com to find the agriculture chain you’re looking for. The business can also be reached at info@farmchains.com, call 815-973-2648, or stop by its shop – open by chance and shared with C&N Supply – at 1546 state Route 26 in Dixon.