Fritz Hoeckner
President
Wintersteiger Inc.

Budgets at most seed companies are tight and they need to make sure they invest their money wisely. They have a close look at what
efficiencies and improvements new equipment will offer them. They are concerned with speed, accuracy and reliability of new equipment on one hand and the support level of the supplier on the other.

New equipment needs to be able to do planting/harvesting faster and more accurately.

Many times seed companies want to rely on proven machines and solutions. We work closely with our customers to demonstrate machines in the field and give our customers a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities of new equipment.

We also offer extensive service and field support programs to our customers across the country to assure smooth planting and harvesting seasons.

Curt Davis
Vice President of Sales
Bratney Companies

A seed company would first analyze its whole facility with respect to capacity and quality requirements to obtain overall assessment of problem areas. Often a company will purchase a new piece of equipment based on a capacity or quality increase as it may need to operate more efficiently.

Next, a company would look to see if there is new technology in equipment that can solve multiple challenges with one machine purchase.

A color sorter is a good example; it will increase a plant’s capacity and quality with one purchase. Advances in seed clean-out efficiency would also be considered.

A company can purchase equipment that reduces clean-out time, thus, reducing labor costs. In addition to labor savings, the operation of modern equipment has become easier, making the equipment more flexible to multiple operators.

Physical space restrictions within a current system are also a challenge that can influence a company’s equipment decisions. Limited space seems to always be a challenge.

Most manufacturers are doing a good job with designing equipment to increase capacity, increase quality and reduce clean-out time – all in a smaller footprint than was previously required.

Consulting with an experienced manufacturer representative is quite common in determining the right equipment to meet a seed company’s needs.

Patrick Clem
Sales and Marketing Manager
ALMACO

Our goal is to provide equipment that offers a return on investment to our clients in a short amount of time through process automation, efficiencies, and extended product life.

When we meet with clients who are in the market for new equipment, we spend quite of bit of time on the front end addressing their exact desires in the configuration of a piece of equipment. We also learn about their research program and how the equipment will be used to support research goals.

It’s important to gain some insight into what type of equipment clients have used in the past and what their likes and dislikes are about their current equipment.

Hands-on interaction is key to our clients as well. We often provide product demonstrations in the field to give prospective clients exposure to our equipment prior to making a purchasing decision.

This gives them the opportunity to take a “test drive” and provide feedback on any possible changes they may desire. We invite many clients to our facility to interact with our production people as the machine is being built to configure the ergonomics of the seed handling application on the equipment.

All of this information is then used to design a specialized piece of equipment that is very unique to the clients’ specific needs.

Value-added customer service and support is very important to our clients. We pride ourselves in offering the highest level of technical and in-field customer service in the research equipment industry and this is a major factor in our clients’ purchasing decisions.