From the Field to the Future of Weed Control

Kevin Olson’s path to leading LASCO was shaped by two lifelong passions: farming and electrical contracting. Kevin attended the University of North Dakota’s Electrical Engineering program, Kevin began his career as a process control electrician in the family business in 1976 at the age of 12. But the pull of the land was never far away.

In the early 1980’s, Kevin was called upon by a local potato and sugarbeet producer to repair their malfunctioning Lasco Lightning Weeder unit. The Lightning Weeder was a revolutionary concept—an electric bar that killed weeds on contact by sending electrical pulses down the stem, rupturing cells and membranes from leaf to root. After successfully restoring the machines, Kevin witnessed their effectiveness firsthand and recognized the technology’s enormous potential. Lasco’s original founder, Melvin Dykes, heard about Kevin’s success, and within a few months, Kevin became an official Lasco dealer-distributor.

Building a Business on Proven Results

Kevin acquired several Lightning Weeder units and began renting them to soybean and edible bean growers across the Midwest—serving farmers in Iowa, North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio. Demand surged as the rented units consistently delivered effective, chemical-free weed control, and word spread quickly among growers.

In the early 2000s, Kevin acquired the full rights to the Lasco company and brand. As he described in a 2019 interview with Farm Journal: “I own the rights and I’ve been doing this since 1980.” By that point, he was the sole remaining Lightning Weeder operator in the country, continuing to rent units annually to Midwest growers while keeping the technology alive.

In 2020, the manufacturer of the electric chips that controlled our units became obsolete. This forced us to completely redesign our control system at a very inopportune time during Covid. This set us back a few years, but we now have a bullet proof system.

An Entrepreneur Across Industries

Kevin and his wife Linda started farming together in 1985. In 1997, leveraging his deep expertise in electrical systems, Kevin founded GeoDirect Supply Inc., a geothermal heating and cooling supply company also based in Ottertail, Minnesota. With over 25 years of experience in the geothermal industry, GeoDirect Supply serves contractors and homeowners across the U.S. and internationally, providing heat pumps, plumbing supplies, and insulation materials. As Kevin and Linda have described it, the geothermal business was started “to subsidize Kevin’s bad farming habit.”

Their son, Brandon, has since taken over the family farming operation at Olson Farms in North Dakota, freeing Kevin and Linda to focus their energy on redesigning and modernizing the Lightning Weeder for today’s agricultural practices and equipment.

Modernizing a Proven Technology

Under Kevin’s leadership, LASCO has engineered the LW-10, the latest generation of the Lightning Weeder. The LW-10 represents a complete modernization of the original technology, incorporating new electronic control of voltage and current, an HMI (Human Machine Interface) digital touch screen for intuitive operation, the option for front or rear-mounted applicator bars, castering coulters for improved ground tracking, and a larger drive line designed for today’s high-horsepower tractors. The hydraulically controlled copper applicator bar spans up to 40 feet and adjusts to variable heights, working across an extensive range of crops including tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, soy, edible beans, peanuts, sugar beets, wheat, and barley.

Kevin’s hands-on expertise is evident in the operational guidance he provides to farmers. He recommends reduced power—often a 30% drop—for early-season weeds, adjusting based on conductivity factors like moisture and dew. For the specifics, Kevin explains it plainly: “If you’re running the bar over 5–6 inch weeds or less, you need to reduce your voltage so we only draw an arc when there is a current path. Later in the season, mature weeds get the maximum power.”

A Voice for the Future of Weed Management

Kevin has been an outspoken advocate for electrical weed control technology for over four decades. In industry media, he has articulated both the urgency and the opportunity facing American agriculture. Speaking with AgWeb in 2019, he stated: “Electricity is the most viable source of weed-control energy. I don’t believe there are other real long-term options.” He has also spoken to the scope of the herbicide resistance crisis: “Herbicide issues are unrecognizable from what we dealt with as farmers 40 years ago.”

Kevin’s technology has influenced the broader electric weed control industry. The Lasco Lightning Weeder directly inspired the creation of other products in the space—including The Weed Zapper, whose founders first encountered the concept through a FARM SHOW Magazine article about LASCO, then rented a Lightning Weeder for a season before developing their own machine. Additionally, Dr. Michael Diprose’s foundational research on electrical weed control was conducted using Lasco Lightning Weeder units, research that ultimately led to the creation of RootWave, a UK-based electricide technology company.

Recognition and Industry Leadership

LASCO’s Lightning Weeder received the Blue Ribbon Award at the 2026 International Sugarbeet & Dry Bean Expo in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Kevin demonstrated the technology at the 2026 World Ag Expo in Tulare, California (Building C, Booth #3005) and at the Ag Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. The Lightning Weeder has been featured in AgWeb/Farm Journal, Grain Journal, AgriMarketing, FARM SHOW Magazine, and has been cited in peer-reviewed research published in Weed Science (Cambridge University Press) and by North Dakota State University.

Kevin is available for interviews on topics including electrical weed control technology and the science behind the EDS system, the herbicide resistance crisis and practical alternatives, farmer adoption stories and field applications, soil health and regenerative farming practices, and the ROI of chemical-free weed control.

In Kevin’s Own Words

“The Spring season sets the trajectory for the entire year, and farmers don’t have the luxury of waiting when weeds get ahead. When early weed pressure goes unmanaged, it drives up costs, erodes yield potential, and ultimately affects the price and availability of food. Lightning Weeder was built to give farmers control at the moment it matters most, with a tool that works alongside existing practices and reduces dependence on chemistry that is becoming less effective and more expensive.”