MOUNDRIDGE, Kan. – The Grasshopper Company, an industry-leading manufacturer of commercial zero-turn mowers, and its parent company, Moridge Manufacturing, will celebrate 50 years of exhibiting innovative and productive equipment for the agricultural and turf care industries at the 50th anniversary of the National Farm Machinery Show (NFMS) in Louisville, Kentucky, February 11-14.
Moridge is one of 13 remaining charter members of NFMS since the show’s official inception in 1966; there are now more than 850 exhibitors at NFMS. Moridge still occupies its original 1966 booth space in the West Wing of the Kentucky Exposition Center, although the booth size has increased to accommodate expanding product lines to its current space at Booth 5058.
Numerous products from companies around the world have debuted at NFMS in the past 50 years, and among those are the Moridge portable recirculating grain dryer developed by company founder Elbert Guyer in 1955, and the Grasshopper, the first zero-turn-radius mower on display at NFMS.
Guyer says no “off-the-shelf” components were available for developing the first Grasshopper mower. Company engineers had to design and fabricate components from the ground up, and integration of emerging technologies has been instrumental to the precision manufacturing required to improve product performance, quality and durability. That spirit of innovation and dedication to technological advancement continues today, as Grasshopper was selected 2014 Company of the Year by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Chapter 52, in Wichita, Kansas, from local aerospace, agriculture, commodities and power equipment manufacturers.
