Nuhn Industries: an ever-expanding local company

Nuhn Industries in Sebringville is one of the fastest growing farm machinery manufacturers in Ontario. Their iconic red and gold machinery can be spotted from far away.

A most progressive manufacturing company is again building on the western edge of Sebringville in Perth East.

Nuhn Industries is a company whose namesake and red and gold machinery is not only one of the most popular in Ontario, Canada and North America but also around the world.

It is in the process of building a new warehouse and assembly plant (148,000 square feet), across the road to the east of the main plant, that will again give them more room for inside expansion of their many product lines in manure handling equipment.

It will eventually employ a large workforce of 250 workers, but at the same time, also contribute greatly to Perth County’s thriving economy.

Nuhn Industries started in business in a small blacksmith shop, in the small community of Wartburg, just a few miles north of their present Highway 8 location. The year was 1902 when Simon Nuhn first opened his blacksmith shop and the history of Nuhn Industries began.

Today, it continues to be a leading manufacturer of liquid manure tanks and spreaders, agitators, manure pumps and slurry tankers. It built its new Sebringville Manufacturing Plant and moved from Wartburg in 1984.

Speaking with the Times, Nuhn vice president Ian Nuhn shared the company is now manufacturing 200-300 manure tanks a year, depending on demand, along with hundreds of manure pumps, lagoon crawlers and alley manure vacuums.

It was the first company to design and manufacture the hugely popular manure crawlers for mixing and stirring large manure lagoons, with now over 800 in use around the world.

Its new self-propelled manure vacuums is its latest invention for large free-stall barns, where manure is sucked up and unloaded into the manure storage area of dairy and beef barns.

Ian said this machine has become very popular and Nuhn is manufacturing and selling one every week to their customers worldwide.

Farm and dairy shows that are happening now are also an important part of Nuhn’s schedule and, according to Ian, they can then stay in close personal touch with the farming public, as they show their long line of equipment to the customers.

Nuhn Industries will surely be at the Canadian Dairy Expo Show coming up April 1 and 2 in Stratford.

When asked about what countries they sold the most to, the vice president said

60 per cent of their equipment is U.S. bound, 30 per cent stays in Canada and 10 per cent to the rest of the world. Of the types of farms they continue to sell to, 60 per cent are dairy farms, 40 per cent are hog farms and 10 per cent are beef farms.

The Nuhn family includes Ian and his father Dennis (who has been inducted onto the Perth County Agricultural Wall of Fame), along with Ian’s mother Marilyn, who manages the company’s human resources department, and wife Linda and their two young girls.