The Hansons got into the farm machinery modification business at an early age. Helmer was the family blacksmith at the age of 15. The Hansons' father homesteaded in South Dakota near where August Hovland did his first experiments with swath threshing in 1909-10. This gave the Hansons an idea that led to a major revolution in grain harvesting.

The Hansons were committed to change. When they bought land in the Lajord district they commenced together and separately to improve available machinery to make farming less costly, easier and more efficient. Ellert Hanson was intrigued by the silent power of steam and, from 1908, held an engineerís certificate to operate steam boilers and engines.

Ellert believed tractor power would replace horse power and by 1919 he had sold his horses. In 1921 he had made a 30-run seed drill out of two 20-run drills to have an implement large enough for his tractor. He also extended the rack of a Jackson stook loader to enable horseless stock gathering.

In 1921 Helmer made a 21-foot disc harrow that was adapted for commercial use by the International Harvester Company. The brothers also produced a fold-up hang-up harrow draw bar, wheels on combine pickups, use of hydraulics to control swather tables, on-the-go combine concave adjustment and a levelling auger on combine hoppers.

But their crowning achievement was the first successful introduction of swathing and swath threshing in 1926. Laying a swath on stubble was regarded as folly by stook-minded farmers but the Hansons made it work. Their success brought a number of farm machinery company representatives to their farm and two years later Case, John Deere and IHC had commercial versions of the Hanson swathers on the market.

Neither of the Hansons were interested in patenting their findings and they made them freely available to companies such as IHC, Case, John Deere and Co-operative Implements.

The brothers were original members of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Helmer was the first Pool delegate from his sub-district in 1924, helped organize the Riceton Co-operative and was one of the founding fathers of the co-operative refinery in Regina. Helmer was reeve of the Rural Municipality of Lajord No. 128 from 1913-16.