RED DEER – When Clarence Schollmeyer’s son wanted a better way to move his custom spraying unit, the aeronautical engineer-turned-farmer decided to invent something.
After a week drawing up plans at the kitchen table and working in the shop, the father and son team came up with a heavy duty cradle to lift and move the unit.
“We invented it because we needed it for ourselves,” said Schollmeyer, who farms near Killdeer, North Dakota.
Schollmeyer’s patented invention is on the market in North Dakota and he wants to find a prairie partner to build and distribute the unit in Canada. The 19 foot long cradle is built in Richardton, N.D., weighs 5,200 pounds and can be attached to any trailer to move equipment such as sprayers.
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The Schollmeyers sell a folding unit that is raised with hydraulics. The folded width is up to 102 inches and the unfolded width is slightly more than 13 feet. They also sell a stationary cradle.
That ingenuity was being sold at this year’s Agri-trade fair in Red Deer. A group of North Dakota machine dealers showed their Alberta colleagues what they had to offer, hoping to form business partnerships that benefit farmers on both sides of the border.
This was the first time the North Dakota trade office came to Canada to show off what farmers there can do, said Cherie Harms of the trade office.
Six companies were represented with a lineup of used equipment dealers, tractor-mounted camera systems, combine equipment and harrows.
“Canada is North Dakota’s largest trading partner and the farming practices are similar,” Harms said. “A lot of the equipment manufactured for use there is applicable here.”
With a population of 640,000, North Dakatons are looking outward, hoping to sell equipment and do deals on the Prairies and overseas. They are also willing to try Canadian ingenuity.
“We realize it is a two way street,” she said.
U.S. trade office representatives just returned from a two week trip to Russia and the Ukraine, where similar farming practices present an opportunity to do business in Eastern Europe. The former Soviet Union is North Dakota’s fourth largest trading partner.
