Grainswest - Tech 2024

Tech 2024 grainswest.com 27 T he country’s agriculture sector owes much to innovative ag entrepreneurs, many of them farmers, who have invented first-of-its-kind products that solve pressing problems. Collectively, their independent companies are known as short line manufacturers. A term they’ve grown into, it delineates how they create tailored solutions for localized problems. Despite being dwarfed by major brand-name manufacturers, short lines are tall on economic impact. In 2023 alone, Canadian short lines accounted for $8 billion in sales, more than half of which represented international sales to nearly 150 countries. Short lines are so successful mainly because they overwhelmingly address real world needs; they typically produce products in response to market demand. Most such products are made by farmers who have fine-tuned a DIY prototype into a marketable item. If it works for one farmer in a region or soil type, it often works for all farmers in that area, and even beyond. As technology has advanced, companies of all sizes continue to adapt and meet consumer demand, often with aftermarket products. It could be a concave, a ground opener or a spray nozzle. Whatever it is, they are designed to fit into or onto an OEM’s equipment. For some, their business has continued uninterrupted for decades; others continuously rejig products as major manufacturers tinker with their own. Interoperability must be accounted for—will this generic part still fit the reconfigured OEM machinery? The North American Equipment Dealers’ Association wants to see interoperability seamlessly continue. Organization president John Schmeiser admits the ag equipment scene was simpler 25 years ago. Today, there are less concerns about hitches and hydraulic hoses; increasingly, interoperability questions relate to electronics and software. Certain manufacturers are moving to proprietary connections to prevent hacking for protection of their copywritten intellectual property “All of a sudden connecting just wasn’t as easy as it’s been in the past because there’s not only a lack of standard on some of the digital connections and trusted platform modules [TPMs], but there also is a little bit of a protectionist mindset,” said Schmeiser. “Interoperability is issue No. 1. The connectivity of short line manufacturers’ products to a major manufacturers’ products has become more labour intensive and so has the cost to be able to make it work or talk to each other.” In the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement, NAFTA’s successor, the Canadian text of the bill was initially drafted with ambiguous language surrounding interoperability legalities, said Schmeiser. It has a gray area that may make it illegal to connect a piece of equipment to another in Canada. The issue will hopefully be rectified with an amendment to Canada’s Copyright Act in Parliament put forth in private member’s bill C-294 by Saskatchewan MP Jeremy Patzer. The short line manufacturing industry is a massive success story for Canada, but specifically so on the Prairies. If interoperability were to become impossible or connectivity issues can’t be solved, you can bet many jobs would vanish, said Schmeiser. “What these manufacturers contribute to the economy, especially in rural areas is significant,” he said. “There is a very solid argument that without interoperability, the viability of these manufacturers is threatened. We certainly don’t want their innovation or creativity stifled because the proof is in the pudding that the customers have responded very well to those products made by western Canadian short line manufacturers.” GrainsWest spoke with three such companies about business operations in 2024, interoperability and what it’s like to be part of the short line ecosystem. Top to bottom: Atom Jet single shoot opener for C-Shank drills, Wildfong Enterprises concave, Gen Manufacturing GEN300 single shoot seeding opener.