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.

It’s a new day for farming, thanks to the product development team at BBI Spreaders.  As part of the rollout of the BBI Producer Series with two new multi-hopper models, the company is proud to present the aircraft carrier of spreaders, MagnaSpread Ultra.

Designed specifically for the demands of large farming operations, the advent of MagnaSpread Ultra effectively creates an all-new class of spreaders optimized for workhorse application of fertilizer and lime.  The design and engineering team at BBI made Ultra bigger and stronger, with greater capacity and unprecedented efficiency.  Outfitted with a 20-ton, walking-beam suspension, MagnaSpread Ultra has the “big iron” to match the needs of the world’s largest farms.

With its 20-ton payload capability coupled with the company’s proprietary Continuous Duty Hydraulic System, MagnaSpread Ultra gets the job done without rest. While the hydraulic system knows no boundaries, it maintains an efficiency rate of 90 percent, versus the existing standard of 70.  Continuous Duty Hyrdaulics, paired with variable-rate technology, performs every dry application run more quickly and more effectively.

The new spreader also offers unmatched power, running at 1.5 times the existing standard in the sector, supercharged with 60 percent more horsepower and a 50 percent increase in torque.

MagnaSpread Ultra comes standard-equipped with the very latest in precision agriculture technology, in the form of the latest release from BBI Electronics, the Task Command System. The all-new Task Command System consists of several applications. FieldView is a powerful virtual terminal display, capable of managing multiple tasks. TrackLeader is the advanced guidance application, while SmartPath is a management application for automated steering.

The Task Command System’s ProSpread is a variable-rate technology ECU for all spreading needs. All of these applications comprise a powerful suite of products for today’s farmers deploying sophisticated application techniques to optimize agronomy data for higher yields.

MagnaSpread Ultra is available in 18-foot and 20-foot models and is compatible with all leading precision agriculture technology applications by virtue of the proprietary BBI Binary Manifold, an ISOBUS-ready platform. 

MagnaSpread Ultra, as well as the Task Command System, debuted at this year's Farm Progress Show, the largest outdoor farm show in the United States. According to Lee Kilpatrick, BBI’s Director of Sales and Marketing, there’s simply no substitute for MagnaSpread Ultra for managers of large farm operations looking for the best spreader to meet rugged demands. “There’s just no quit in this machine,” stated Kilpatrick. “We salute our product development team at BBI for giving us the MagnaSpread Ultra.  This spreader takes everything that was great about our longstanding market leader, the MagnaSpread, and packs it with more power, greater capacity, and enduring efficiency.”

Spreader Specialties is an exclusive dealer of BBI Spreaders, and the company recently enjoyed two successful launches for new products aimed at helping sophisticated farmers optimize agronomic data to drive higher yields and greater efficiency in their operations.  The new offerings from BBI Spreaders and its BBI Electronics family are the Producer Series, featuring multi-hopper offerings MagnaSpread2 and MagnaSpread3, and the Task Command System, a suite of precision agriculture technology tools.

BBI launched the Producer Series and Task Command system at this year’s Farm Progress ag show in Decatur, Illinois a few weeks ago. Multiple ag journalists and editors visited the company's booth to take in the impact of BBI's new products.  As a result, BBI and Spreader Specialties are seeing coverage in one of the premier publications in the agriculture space, Ag Professional magazine.

Ag Professional delivers news and editorial content to the American farming community, including farmers, consultants, retailers, and other ag industry professionals.  Check out links to the following Ag Professional stories on the launch of the Producer Series, featuring MagnaSpread2, MagnaSpread3, and the behemoth MagnaSpread Ultra, as well as the launch of the latest cutting edge offering from BBI Electronics, the Task Command System—a marriage of variable-rate technology with guidance, navigation, and auto-steer capabilities.

Mike Olson and Spreader Specialties will take the BBI Spreaders experience on the road in late January, joining forces with BBI’s Denny McCauley at the Iowa Power Farming Show in Des Moines, Iowa. 

The Iowa Power Farming Show, held annually at the Iowa Events Center, will take place January 29-31.  The show currently rates as the third-largest indoor show in the country, with promoters expecting nearly 20,000 attendees at the seven-acre complex.  Spreader Specialties, an exclusive dealer of BBI spreaders based in Austin, Minnesota, will join over 750 exhibiting companies with over 1800 booths at the event.

This year’s Iowa Power Farming Show will feature a broad range of farming equipment and precision agriculture electronics, with over $50 million in equipment on display. In addition to the vendor exhibits featuring equipment and technology for precision farming applications, the show will also provide abundant educational opportunities for Midwestern farmers on topics ranging from profitability to yield improvement and business planning for family farms.

For the 2013 event, BBI’s McCauley, territory sales manager for the Midwest, and Olson, President of Spreader Specialties, will be showing MagnaSpread, BBI’s flagship line of hydraulic granular fertilizer and lime spreaders optimized for precision agriculture. MagnaSpread is available in single-axle, tandem-axle, pull-type, and truck-mount options. All MagnaSpread models feature BBI’s exclusive Binary Manifold, a variable rate-ready hydraulic manifold that makes connecting to precision agriculture controls a snap.

"Spreader Specialties is proud to present BBI’s products at the Iowa Power Farming Show,” stated Olson.  “We’re honored that Denny will be in our booth, helping us to educate the country’s most sophisticated farmers on the benefits of working through our dealership to bring the best spreaders to their fields. Denny is based in Des Moines, and I was born and raised in Iowa myself, so this show is very special to us. We have the privilege of interacting with customers who help us improve our offerings year after year.”

For more information on the Iowa Power Farming Show, slated for January 29-31 at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, check out the show website at www.iowapowershow.com.