Yantis Yarns:
Ritchie Makes Everything from Water to Beer Taste Better

Tapping into a rural sense of practicality and ingenuity, folks around the country can sometimes get creative with how they use a Ritchie waterer.

Retired CEO Leon Yantis recalls supplying WaterMaster waterers to various groups over the years to be used as temporary coolers for parties and get togethers.

“We needed to be able to cool down a lot of beer and because of our insulation, we could put ice in the trough of a Ritchie and you had an instant, giant beer cooler,” said Yantis. “With the red and yellow colors, the waterers are perfect at an Iowa State tailgate. I can also remember Clinton Anderson using his Ritchie waterers as coolers during his walkabout tours. He would fill them with ice and load them up on a hay wagon and folks could just grab a water or pop whenever they wanted.”

Ritchie waterers have also been used as coolers for high-profile events such as when Sonny Perdue, the former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture visited Iowa and Bill Couser’s farm.

“My salesguy Gordon brought down some of the big CattleMaster units and we used it to showcase Iowa agriculture and Iowa-made products,” said Couser. “These Ritchie units are multi-taskers – great at giving my cattle clean fresh water on demand and they cool down my drinks for parties.”