Valmont creates growth all around world

Luckily for McCook, Neb., and agricultural producers worldwide, a meeting took place in Valley, Neb., eight years ago that would change forever the way center pivot irrigation systems are manufactured and delivered to customers.

The story came to light Friday during 50th anniversary ceremonies for Valley Irrigation at the Valmont plant in McCook.

Russ DeLong, who now serves as the plant manager in McCook, was a part of the brainstorming session which took place at Valmont's original plant in Valley. "There were about 40 of us," he said. "We sat around and started tossing around ideas. We asked ourselves, 'What would we do if we could start with a clean slate?' 'What would we do differently to make production as efficient as possible?'"

As it turned out, the vision developed during those 1996 Valmont sessions led to the creation of the modern, streamlined, state of the art center pivot plant and distribution center which now stands in McCook, Neb.

And, amazingly, the manufacturing facility which the Valmont team envisioned has not only met expectations, it has exceeded them.

While work on the new plant in McCook began in the late 1990s, it is fitting that the new plant opened at the beginning of the 2000s. It's hard to believe, but the plant in McCook is now coming up on its fifth anniversary ... one-tenth of the life of Valley Irrigation, which began when Robert Daugherty of Valley bought a patent from a Nebraska farmer, Frank Zybach, in 1954.

From that beginning, Valmont has grown to be the largest irrigation manufacturer in the world, producing half of the systems currently in use.

Tom Spears, the president of Valmont Irrigation, was in McCook Friday for 50th anniversary ceremonies. Earlier, a golden anniversary observance took place in Valmont's plant in Brazil, and next Saturday 50th year festivities will take place in Valley, the irrigation manufacturer's birthplace. Valmont also has irrigation manufacturing sites in South Africa, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.

But, of them all, the plant in McCook stands out because of its many marvels of modern manufacturing, including Automatic Guided Vehicles, robotic machines and huge, automatically operated dipping vats for galvanizing. Not only that, but Valmont has since placed a distribution center in McCook, with DeLong's predecessor as plant manager, Kenneth Bracht, directing distribution operations here and at other Valmont centers in the U.S.

With a work force ranging from 130 to 230 employees, Valmont is having a great impact on the local economy. And, through the employees' efforts and the forward-looking ideas of the company, Valmont is having a huge effect on agriculture production worldwide.