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Willsie Has Everything For Small Market Gardeners
Market gardeners can improve efficiency and reduce hard labor with equipment to plant, weed, harvest and wash in a $10,910 Market Garden Package sold by Willsie Equipment Sales. The Ontario-based company knows what works when it comes to growing fruits and vegetables to sell at farmers markets, restaurants and from on-farm stores. Back in the 1950’s, the Willsie family struggled to find the right equipment and parts to run their vegetable farm. So they started finding suppliers and making their own equipment. Now they manufacture about 85 percent of the items they sell.
  “We make our equipment heavier with thicker gauge metal so it’s long-lasting,” says Tim Willsie, who handles sales for the company.
  The Market Garden Package is a good starter option for two people with a small tractor and cultivator who want to grow up to 20 acres of produce. The manual JP-1 precision 1-row seeder plants the full spectrum of common vegetable seeds. The Hydraweeder is pulled by a tractor and allows a person to sit and operate rotating digging heads around plants. The Standard 3-Point Hitch Digger digs any row crops up to 8 in. deep, and is compact and turns easily at the end of rows. Finally, an Electric Batch Washer cleans half a bushel of vegetables in 3 to 5 min.
  The Hydraweeder, which starts at $4,331, is very popular, Willsie says. So is the upgraded 26-in. model drum washer capable of washing 60 lbs. of produce at a time.
  Much of Willsie’s equipment is customized to meet customers’ needs.
  “We can modify the digger to go up to 18 in. deep for sweet potatoes, for example,” Willsie says. “We tend to do more customizations of that model.”
  Willsie also takes trade-ins and consigns equipment for customers that are posted on the used equipment page on the business’s website. With the majority of their customers in the U.S., they have a U.S. warehouse in addition to their main business in Thedford, Ont., which is near the border.
  Though this year’s growing season is over, Willsie suggests that growers start planning for next year because they can save money with a 5 percent discount on items ordered now.
  To learn more about the equipment and the available options, go to the website and check out the videos showing the weeder and digger in action.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Willsie Equipment Sales, Inc., Rt. 1, 9516 Northville Rd., Thedford, Ont., Canada N0M 2N0 (ph 800 561-3025; www.willsie.com).


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2013 - Volume #37, Issue #6