Foundation for Growth in Wisconsin Manufacturing

Business grows business, and that’s especially true for Wisconsin’s agricultural enterprises, thanks to a deep, diverse infrastructure capable of serving and supplying nearly every need. Manufacturing is an important part of the Wisconsin economy. More than 19 percent of the state’s workers are in manufacturing, the second-highest percentage in the nation. Many of those jobs are in industries connected to the state’s $88 billion agriculture sector.

Wisconsin residents work for internationally known companies like Case IH in Racine and smaller, homegrown companies like H&S in Marshfield. Both make agriculture equipment and add value to the rural economy by creating jobs and manufacturing products that keep farms thriving.

Crop and Livestock Care

Celebrating 70 years of service to farmers in 2014, Meyer Manufacturing Corp., in Dorchester, is a leading producer of farm equipment products including manure spreaders, forage boxes, bunk and mineral feeders, and farm wagons. With a commitment to offering superior product designs tailored to meet the needs of small, medium and large operations, both farm and industrial, the company is now three generations strong, serving farmers nationally and globally.

“Farmers want very specialized equipment and we make it to their exact specifications,” says Don Meyer, president of Meyer Manufacturing. Starting from humble beginnings as a machine shop and developing the first self-unloading forage box ever built, the corporation has expanded over the years to offer more diversified products, like semitrailers, to better serve the growing agricultural community.

“Staying on top of the market and listening to farmers’ needs has been critical,” Meyer says. “As farms are growing, our products need to handle larger loads and maximize productivity. Therefore, we try to stay on the cutting edge and use as much technology as we can.”

Technology and productivity truly go hand-in-hand for the farmer, which is why BouMatic, based in Madison, also invests in the future of dairy farming through milking technology development.

“It’s up to us to come up with the technology that can help dairy farmers be more efficient, effective and productive,” says BouMatic President Bob Luna. The company’s business philosophy centers on milking cows gently, quickly and completely.

BouMatic’s milking equipment is used by dairy farmers in 45 countries and the company employs more than 400 people worldwide, but its roots remain in the heart of America’s Dairyland.

The world looks to Wisconsin and BouMatic as industry leaders for dairy techniques and technology.

“The health and well-being of the cow is the focus of everything we do, from how a product is designed to how it is built, BouMatic never takes its focus off the cow,” says Lisa O’Connor, vice president of Global Marketing.

Harvesting Equipment

Coming to the aid of farmers growing Wisconsin’s top fruit crop, Warrens Equipment and Manufacturing Co., a division of USEMCO, is based in Warrens and makes leading-edge cranberry harvesting equipment. In business for 45 years, the quality of their work is so well known, even cranberry growers in other states buy from them.

Transportation

Logistics and distribution services are an unheralded yet important part of agriculture. Farmers and food businesses rely on temperature-sensitive transportation options for moving product throughout Wisconsin and North America. Midwest Refrigerated Services, with warehouses in Madison and Milwaukee, is one of the largest fresh/frozen 48- state LTL (lessthan- truckload) transportation services in the Upper Midwest. Additional options include shipping by rail and local pickup and delivery.

In central Wisconsin, Walker Stainless Equipment Co., designs, builds and services stainless steel trailers that transport dairy, food and beverages across the United States. Brenner Tank, one of the company’s facilities located in Fond du Lac, is also a leading U.S. manufacturer of a full line of stainless steel and aluminum tank trailers for liquid transportation, including food and environmental products.

Equipment & Supplies

NASCO Farm Supply in Fort Atkinson offers 80,000+ unique products in education, including agriculture classes and hard-to-find agricultural supplies, like feeding equipment, mats, livestock ID tags and more. This niche ag market has become a go-to resource for farmers in Wisconsin, the United States and around the globe.