Two Families,
One Vision
Lewco Manufacturing
merges with Steffen Systems
Over thirty years ago, on opposite sides of
the Cascade Mountains, two Oregon hay farmers
began building tools to make their work easier.
Henry Lewis, in a little town named Alfalfa,
and Stan Steffen in the Willamette Valley had
never met each other, but both men developed
similar systems for handling hay.
When each man’s neighbors began asking
to buy their machines, two product lines were
born. Over the last three decades, Lewis’
yellow bale forks and Steffen’s red handlers
have become fixtures in equipment dealers across
the country and trusted tools on farms around
the world.
This winter, after years of friendly competition,
the two families joined forces. Henry made a
deal with Stan’s son Dave to move Lewco
Manufacturing’s “The Bale Handler”
division into the Steffen Systems shop near
Salem.
“We are very pleased!” says Henry,
“We feel Dave and Tom know our equipment
well; and that they will treat our customers
and dealers right.”
Tom Steffen began managing The Bale Handler
at the first of the year. He says, “Current
customers can count on our continued support
for both product lines. New customers will have
even more models, options and configurations
to choose from.”
Henry’s wife Nan says, “As Henry’s
office manager I worked with a lot of wonderful
people over the years. I will miss that; but
now I’m excited about competing around
the country with my agility dog.” Henry
adds, “After thirty years of building
bale forks, I’m settling down to produce
quality grass hay and work on my classic cars.”
The two families finished moving the Bale Handler
inventory last month. The new shop is part of
the expanding Steffen Systems facility that
stands on seven acres within sight of the family’s
hay farm. Stan, now 64, continues to bale and
process more than 20,000 tons of hay products
each year.
His son, David, who has run the manufacturing
business since 1988, says, “Henry and
Nan are our kind of people: down-to-earth and
hard-working. We’re proud to continue
the tradition of value and reliability that
they’ve built up over the years.”
With the addition of The Bale Handler line,
Steffen Systems now manufactures 25 models of
high quality bale handlers and 6 models of bale
accumulators in addition to their self-propelled
hay loaders, bale-double-compression systems,
and large-square-bale to small-square-bale conversion
systems.
For more information, you can contact Dave
Steffen at www.SteffenSystems.com
or 1-888-STEFFEN. You can reach Tom Steffen
at www.TheBaleHandler.com
or 1-888-LIFT-HAY. To send Henry and Nan congratulations
on their retirement, email them at: HenryNan@matrixdm.com.
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