By Joe Kertzman, managing editor
“We have diversified as a company over the years, but one thing that hasn’t changed is our goal to find and present our growers with the best technology in the world to help them be more efficient and profitable,” says Kenton Mehlberg, agronomy sales manager for T.I.P. and AgGrow Solutions in Polonia, Wisconsin.
Tatro Irrigation and Potato (T.I.P.) is currently run by Steve Tatro and was started by his father, Bill, in 1974. At that time, T.I.P. was an equipment-only business.
“We started as a Lockwood dealer and shortly after became the first Double L dealer east of the Mississippi River,” Mehlberg explains. “In the 1980’s, T.I.P. Inc. brought the first cup planters to North America from Norway [Underhaug/Kverneland].”
T.I.P.’s equipment line has continued to grow over the years to include irrigation, custom manufactured equipment and the company’s own turf equipment line.
“From the very beginning, T.I.P. has been family owned and operated, and will continue to be moving forward,” Mehlberg states.
“Our largest segment of the business has always been in the potato and root crop industry, where we represent several equipment manufacturers from North America and across the world,” he remarks.
T.I.P.’s full line of turf improvement products for natural and artificial surfaces are manufactured in-house, and the company’s dealer network stretches across the world with locations in Scotland, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands and Europe, as well as in almost every state across the country.
“About 10 years ago, we added the AgGrow Solutions division and that has been a growing part of our business ever since,” Mehlberg says.
