Farms.com Home   Ag Industry News

Ontario’s May-Bridge Harrows sells its 50,000th harrow

Ontario’s May-Bridge Harrows sells its 50,000th harrow

Ralph Bridge founded the company in 1981

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

A Belwood, Ont. agribusiness is celebrating a milestone accomplishment in 2017.

May-Bridge Harrows has recently sold its 50,000th harrow.

That’s an average of about 1,388 harrows per year for the 36-year-old company.

Ralph Bridge founded the company in 1981 after purchasing a patent, said Ron May, the third generation of the family to own and operate the business.

“My grandfather originally bought a patent from Beatty Brothers (now A.O. Smith),” May told Farms.com today. “He built their harrow for about a year and then came up with his own design which we’re using now.”

Bridge’s patented design became the company’s Bridge harrow. Part of the equipment’s design allows the tail section to stay down. The harrow also features a specially designed rounded loop on the draw bar.


Ralph Bridge, founder of May-Bridge Harrows.
Photo: Ron May

And each time a producer purchases a harrow, the family is reminded of their predecessors’ hard work.

“It’s important for us to carry on the family tradition,” May said. “I have three daughters and they’re in the shop most of the time. There’s quite a bit of pride knowing their grandfather came up with that design and that it has supported us all of these years.”

Being in business for more than three decades, the family has witnessed equipment changes and evolution.

Equipment gets bigger, some gets more sophisticated and some gets used in a different way. The harrow is no exception, said May.

“In its early days, harrows were used for final tillage and seedbed preparation,” he said. “Over time it has evolved as far as no-till applications and, even now, a majority of our sales in North America are used for hay and pasture operations.”

Despite the equipment innovations, it’s very important for businesses to always keep in mind the customers who’ve helped them become successful, May said.

“Of course we need larger equipment to accommodate today’s machinery, but we can’t forget about the smaller harrows,” he said. “Last year, the average size of harrow we sold was about 13 feet (4 m). When my grandfather started selling harrows, they were also 13 feet.”


Trending Video

Treating Sheep For Lice!

Video: Treating Sheep For Lice!

We are treating our sheep for lice today at Ewetopia Farms. The ewes and rams have been rubbing and scratching, plus their wool is looking patchy and ragged. Itchy sheep are usually sheep with lice. So, we ran the Suffolk and Dorset breeding groups through the chutes and treated them all. This treatment will have to be done again in two weeks to make sure any eggs that hatched are destroyed too. There was a lot of moving of sheep from pen to pen around the sheep barn but by all the hopping and skipping the sheep were doing, I think they enjoyed the day immensely! We hope you do too!