In its ongoing commitment to meeting the needs of farmers in the Red River Valley, Spreader Specialties is proud to participate in the 52nd International Sugarbeet Institute in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Held at the Alerus Center, the International Sugarbeet Institute brings together sugarbeet growers from the Northern Plains region and their counterparts just across the Canadian border in Manitoba.  This year’s event will take place March12-13.

Show organizers expect nearly 4,000 in attendance, with nearly 125 companies showcasing equipment tailored for the sugarbeet market.  Spreader Specialties, an exclusive dealer of BBI Spreaders, is proud to showcase the Endurance beet lime spreader, custom-developed for the Northern Plains market in collaboration between the dealership and BBI.

The Endurance beet lime spreader turn’s yesterday’s waste into tomorrow’s yield, allowing one crop’s by-products to become cost-efficient fertilizer for another.  Part of BBI’s flagship line of spreaders for a host of organic materials, the Endurance beet lime spreader is available in truck-mount or pull-type models, with mechanical, hydraulic, and plug-to-tractor options on-hand as well.  Other options for the Endurance Beet Lime Spreader include multiple flotation tire applications for minimizing soil compaction, including TerraGator compatibility.

The Endurance beet lime spreader arrives standard-equipped with BBI’s proprietary Binary Manifold, which makes connection to all leading precision agriculture technology systems a simple snap.  In addition, the company offers its own precision agriculture suite, the Task Command System from BBI Electronics, as a standard offering on the Endurance beet lime edition.

Spreader Specialties is offering a special promotional offer for the International Sugarbeet Institute. With the purchase of any Endurance beet lime spreader, Spreader Specialties will offer a free flotation tire upgrade.

“We’re looking forward to participating in this year’s International Sugarbeet Institute,” stated Mike Olson, owner of Spreader Specialties. “We’re also honored to present the Endurance beet lime spreader to the farmers of the Red River Valley—we took their needs and requirements straight to the manufacturer, and BBI has responded with a piece of equipment that’s unmatched in its power and precision.”

The BBI engineering and design team has really outdone itself this year, rolling out a host of new products aimed at optimizing farming profits around the world. The company rolled out three new spreaders at this year’s Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois, the first offerings of what we’re calling our Producer Series.

Along with our latest offering from BBI Electronics, the Task Command System, each spreader in the Producer Series has a multi-fold mission of improving cost-in-use efficiency, expense management, long-term profitability, and short-term recovery of investment for every BBI customer. The Producer Series features the MagnaSpread Ultra, with an unprecedented combination of power, durability, and precision that leaves it in a new class all by itself, and two multi-hopper offerings, MagnaSpread 2 and MagnaSpread 3.

 Today’s Spreader Spotlight focuses on MagnaSpread 3's twin-hopper brother, MagnaSpread 2.  For many years, farmers have remained loyal to BBI because we tailor our dry application offerings to their exact needs, whether through our flagship hydraulic lines of MagnaSpread and Endurance, or through our heritage mechanical line, Liberty. For more than a decade, BBI has been the leader in precision application of fertilizer, lime, and a host of organic materials on farms, golf courses, orchards, vineyards, and ag & turf farms, with an attention to the finer points of spread pattern, swath, and drive interval, as well as components marked by their durability and consistency season after season.

For the last few years, many farmers have approached BBI’s business development team at trade shows across North America, asking us why we didn’t have a twin-hopper offering. Sometimes companies fail in trying to create a market for their ideas—with the advent of MagnaSpread 2, our customers can clearly see that we are responding to their needs with a targeted new offering that gives them exactly the power, precision, and efficiency they need for multi-nutrient application in large fields.

MagnaSpread 2 drastically reduces fuel and material waste, delivering better bottom lines through greater yields for top-line revenues and serious expense management from fuel, fertilizer, and sustainability perspectives. In a single pass, this twin-hopper model can deliver to producer-level farms what single-hopper offerings do in two to three passes.  This single-pass efficiency in spreading multiple nutrients typically saves two to four days of application time for every 1,000 acres fertilized, in addition to hundreds of gallons of fuel per application. BBI’s patented multi-hopper design enables MagnaSpread 2’s dual hoppers to operate independently, controlled by variable-rate technology. 

The MagnaSpread 2, like its three-hopper brother MagnaSpread 3, is no stranger to precision agriculture technology.  The spreader thrives on precision agriculture technology applications to optimize field agronomy, and BBI customers have their pick of the best options in the precision ag technology space.  Among these options is BBI’s latest electronics offering, the aforementioned Task Command System.  This all-new electronics suite is a standard offering on the powerful pull-type and truck-mount hydraulic models for MagnaSpread 2, and the spreader can also connect to any ISOBUS-ready precision ag suite from leading technologies from John Deere, Raven, and more.

This spreader, like the other Producer Series options, is built tough to meet the rigors of producer-level acreages.  MagnaSpread 2 features a 14-ton walking-beam suspension state-of-the-art electrostatic paint, and BBI’s commitment to quality that shines throughout the life cycle of every MagnaSpread product.

BBI Spreaders has a history of working with its dealer network to identify new and greater opportunities to impact the economic good of farmers in their fields around the world.

They even have a creed for it, a short-form expression of the company’s mission:  Driving Value.

And in the Northern Plains area of northern Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas, BBI is living this mission in conjunction with Austin, Minnesota-based dealer Spreader Specialties.  Endurance Beet Lime Spreader is the latest in a long line of innovations aimed at not only solving problems and challenges, but also making gold out of waste.

The Northern Plains is sugar beet country, home to the country’s largest growers who meet the sugar demands of Americans and people worldwide. Sugar beet production presents farmers in this area with a lot of leftover beet lime, organic waste that in previous years many farmers thought to be impossible to spread evenly, much less at a consistent rate.

Now, thanks to the collaborative work among Northern Plains farmers, Spreader Specialties owner Mike Olson, and the design and engineering team at BBI headquarters in Georgia, that trash is now gold.

BBI has taken Endurance, the industry leader in organic material application, and optimized the spreader to meet the rugged demands unique to the distribution of beet lime.  Beet farmers typically spread 10 tons of beet lime per acre to fertilize virgin land, and they subsequently throw up to five tons to maintain the land year after year.

According to Olson, he gets regular feedback from area farmers telling him that when they spread beet lime with Endurance, the practice routinely delivers greater yields of 15 extra bushels of corn per acre, and an extra 10 to 15 bushels of beans.

Olson and the BBI team worked to optimize Endurance for the regional demands of the Northern Plains, much in the same way BBI has worked to optimize Endurance for chicken litter across every poultry market across the country.  The BBI team has customized Endurance for beet lime spreading through fine-tuning and tweaking certain specifications.

For example, due to the heavy volume requirements for spreading beet lime in the field, the team constructed the model with seven-gauge steel, stronger chains and sturdier flooring.  BBI also opted for flotation tires for limiting soil compaction from such a heavy load, and the company tied the spreader to existing tractor hydraulics for a solution that utilizes an existing power platform for cost-effectiveness. The result is a true workhorse that makes half-mile-round intervals before emptying and reloading for another field pass.

According to Mike Olson, the Endurance Beet Lime spreader will make a difference for many years in the Northern Plains.  “This is an incredible investment opportunity for farmers in our area right now,” Olson explained. “The greater yields in corn and beans are undeniable, and for those early adopters of Endurance Beet Lime, it’s a chance for them to spread their own fields and those of others without the infrastructure investment to pull this off on their own.”

Lee Kilpatrick, Director of Sales and Marketing at BBI, appreciates Olson’s special commitment to the farmers of the Dakotas, Minnesota, and northern Iowa. “Mike is a special dealer in a very demanding market that’s so important to feeding our country and the world. He does such an excellent job of listening to his customers, so that we can continue to develop products that fulfill our mission of improving their economics.”

For more information on the Endurance Beet Lime spreader and available inventory, please visit the Spreader Specialties website

Lee Kilpatrick, director of sales and marketing for BBI Spreaders, gives a brief overview of the product BBI showed at the 2013 Farm Progress Show. That included the BBI MagnaSpread Ultra, MagnaSpread 2, MagnaSpread 3 and the Task Command System. http://www.farm-equipment.com/

Check out this great video from the publishers of Farm Equipment magazine, featuring BBI's Lee Kilpatrick, the company's director of sales and marketing.  In the recent video shot at the 2013 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois, Lee captures the excitement around the new Producer Series, which features MagnaSpread Ultra, the largest, most powerful spreader on the market, as well as the sophisticated, multi-hoppper MagnaSpread2 and MagnaSpread3.  Lee also walks the audience through the company's latest offering from the BBI Electronics line of precision agricululture technology products, the Task Command System.

Denny McCauley of BBI Spreaders will join Mike Olson and  Spreader Specialties for this year's Big Iron Farm Show.

The Big Iron Farm Show will take place from September 10-12, 2013.  Held annually at West Fargo, North Dakota’s Red River Valley Fairgrounds, he Big Iron Farm Show attracts more than 80,000 attendees from across the Northern Plains.

Show attendees will enjoy learning about and investing in products and services from more than 800 exhibitors during the three-day event, the premier outdoor farm show in the region.  The 2013 Big Iron Farm Show marks the 30^th anniversary event.  Founded in 1983, the Big Iron Farm Show began with the premise that North Dakota should have its own showcase for farm equipment, lovingly referred to by farmers everywhere as “big iron.”

Over the 30 years since its ambitious beginnings, the Big Iron Farm Show has grown into a panoramic expo of the world of agriculture, with multiple areas of focus including agribusiness, health, innovation, and technology.   The North Dakota Trade Office has made the Big Iron Farm Show an international event, attracting more than 40 visitors annually from around the world, in an effort to connect the global farming community with commercial activity with US farms, ranches, and equipment manufacturers.

At the 2013 event, BBI’s Denny McCauley, territory sales manager for the Midwest and western United States will stand with Mike Olson, owner of Spreader Specialties.  Based in Austin, Minnesota, Spreader Specialties is a Northern Plains leader in sales, parts, and service for BBI Spreaders.  Olson and his team work with farmers in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Northern Iowa, matching their needs with the latest offerings from BBI in spreaders optimized for application of fertilizer, lime, and organic materials.  

At this year’s Big Iron Farm Show, McCauley and Olson will showcase MagnaSpread, BBI’s line of spreaders optimized for granular fertilizer and lime applications.  The MagnaSpread series, available in both truck-mount and pull-type single-axle and tandem-axle versions, features the ISOBUS-compatible BBI Binary Manifold as standard equipment. The Binary Manifold connects with a variety of precision farming technology software systems from every manufacturer currently leveraging the ISOBUS platform.

The MagnaSpread line is known for its efficiency, durability, and effectiveness at increasing profitability for farming operations of all sizes.  The line ranges from smaller models geared to the needs of ag & turf farms and golf courses to the Producer Series range.  The new Producer Series MagnaSpread models feature multi-hopper versions (MagnaSpread2 and MagnaSpread3) for sophisticated management of multi-nutrient applications, optimizing agronomy and eliminating wasteful spreading.  The Producer Series also features MagnaSpread Ultra, a behemoth with an unprecedented combination of power, capacity, and efficiency.

“It’s always a pleasure to join Mike Olson and Spreader Specialties at the Big Iron Farm Show,” stated McCauley.  “The Northern Plains is an important part of America’s heartland, and Mike Olson’s team is peerless in the level of service and expertise it provides to the area’s farmers, golf course managers, and municipalities.  We are honored to have Spreader Specialties as an exclusive dealer of BBI’s products, the best spreaders on the market for leveraging precision agriculture applications.  We look forward to meeting with the area’s farming community at the show.” 

For more information on the 2013 Big Iron Farm Show, please visit the show website at http://www.bigironfarmshow.com/index.php