agriculture

The Toro Company Kicks Off Centennial Year Celebration

On July 10, 2014, The Toro Company (NYSE: TTC) will celebrate a rare business milestone – achieving 100 years in business. According to Michael J. Hoffman, Toro’s chairman and chief executive officer, Toro attributes its remarkable longevity to, “the character of our people and channel partners, and their relentless commitment to serving our customers and building market leadership through innovation.”

Toro’s yearlong celebration of its 100th anniversary provides an opportunity not only to look back on the company’s notable achievements, but also to recognize the ingenuity and dedication of its employees – and to thank its channel partners and end-user customers around the world for their loyalty and trust in The Toro Company.

As Hoffman put it, “These same values that have been core throughout our first 100 years form the foundation for continued success into our next century.”

A Legacy of Excellence
From the start, Toro built its legacy by understanding the needs of its customers and developing products and services to help them succeed. This commitment to innovation is reflected in the more than 1,500 patents its employees around the world have earned over the years.

In addition, Toro has developed strong networks of professional distributor, dealer and retailer partners across industries in more than 90 countries to provide local, expert, professional customer service. For example, in 1922, Toro created the golf industry’s first national distributor network. And, in 1934 as the business grew, Toro encouraged its distributors to establish dealers in areas the distributors’ staff could not effectively cover, providing local customer service that proved to be a competitive advantage.

This commitment to customer service has been instrumental in Toro’s development of long-term relationships with golf courses, homeowners, professional contractors, agricultural growers, construction and rental companies, government and educational institutions – in addition to many premier sporting events, venues and historic sites around the world.

People Make the Difference
For decades, customers have counted on Toro because of the company’s reputation for reliability, quality and standing behind its products. When Toro celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1939, the company’s first president and co-founder John Samuel Clapper noted that the loyal service of Toro’s employees and distributors was the customers’ guarantee of a high-quality product. As Hoffman summarized, “What was true 75 years ago when Mr. Clapper made his statement about Toro remains true today – the loyal service of our employees and channel partners is critical to our company’s success.”

Explore Toro Innovations
From developing new technologies to expanding into new markets, a timeline of the company’s many innovations and achievements is available at www.toro.com/100 – in addition to several highlights below, summarized by market:

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California Governor Declares Drought State of Emergency

With California facing water shortfalls in the driest year in recorded state history, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today proclaimed a State of Emergency and directed state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for these drought conditions.

“We can’t make it rain, but we can be much better prepared for the terrible consequences that California’s drought now threatens, including dramatically less water for our farms and communities and increased fires in both urban and rural areas,” said Governor Brown. “I’ve declared this emergency and I’m calling all Californians to conserve water in every way possible.”

In the State of Emergency declaration, Governor Brown directed state officials to assist farmers and communities that are economically impacted by dry conditions and to ensure the state can respond if Californians face drinking water shortages. The governor also directed state agencies to use less water and hire more firefighters and initiated a greatly expanded water conservation public awareness campaign.

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Best Agricultural Colleges in the World

The University of California (UC)-Davis, is Number 1 in the world for teaching and research in the area of agriculture and forestry, according to rankings released by QS World University Rankings.

This is the first year that the organization — which provides annual rankings in 29 other subject areas — has produced rankings in agriculture and forestry. Click here to see the entire top ranking list, or

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Agriculture Industry Needs To Do A Better Job “Telling its Story”

All too often, the general public still thinks of farmers as wearing overalls and using very simple practices to grow crops when quite the opposite is true, says Rob Atchley, general manager of citrus groves for Florida and Texas for A. Duda & Sons Inc., LaBelle.

To help bridge that misperception, he called on those in agriculture to do a better job educating the public about current farming practices and how farmers are true professionals.

“Farmers, especially those who grow specialty crops, need to give the public a view of how we really farm, to show these are highly managed businesses and not a couple of guys in overalls with buckets throwing fertilizer,” he says. “They are professional people who do this for a living. They study these businesses. They grow up in these businesses, and they run them at a high level of oversight because the margins demand it. We can’t do things sloppily.”

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Leave us a comment and let us know your story or how you are a professional in the agriculture industry.

To learn more about Toro’s story, visit toro.com. Or, check out one of our many drip irrigation case studies to learn more about how professionals in the agriculture industry are using drip irrigation to improve their farming practices.

To read more about “telling the story”,

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Toro Expands Agricultural Irrigation & Acquires Water Savings Equipment Co.

As we look to the future, water availability and increasing demand for food are driving awareness for the importance of more efficient forms of irrigation. To meet increasing demand, The Toro Company has announced that it has closed its acquisition of the Xiamen Xiangfeng Water Saving Equipment Company (Located in Xiamen City, China), manufacturer of water-efficient drip irrigation products, sprinklers, emitters and filters for agriculture, landscaping and green house production. Toro’s goal? Continuously improve and meet increasing demand by delivering high quality solutions for growers.

With China being a critical growth market for micro irrigation, this acquisition also provides a means to grow the company’s presence in this important market. Toro is expanding their micro irrigation business, as evidenced by this acquisition and the recently completed micro irrigation manufacturing facility in Romania to support the growing Asian Eastern European regions.

Toro entered the agricultural micro irrigation business in 1996 with the acquisition of James Hardie Irrigation, and has since grown its position through the development of industry-leading drip technologies and investments to expand globally.

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Toro Announces ‘Ready. Set. GROW!’ Grant Program

Ready. Set. GROW!Agricultural communities play a vital role in feeding the global population, and with the effects of last year’s drought lingering well into this year, it is apparent that efficient and sustainable agricultural practices are more important than ever. With that in mind, Toro has introduced ‘Ready. Set. GROW!‘ an all-new program that awards $15,000 in grants to help agricultural communities promote efficient and sustainable agricultural practices.

But to make the program a success, Toro is asking for YOUR help in recognizing those that promote sustainable practices in agricultural communities across the United States. All you have to do is identify and nominate non-profit organizations [501(c)(3)] or government entities that are doing great work to improve agricultural communities. You might recognize an organization installing drip irrigation in a community garden to more efficiently use water resources; a local non-profit committed to furthering sustainable agricultural practices; or, an organization training military veterans in modern agriculture technologies. For complete details and to nominate an organization, visit https://www.facebook.com/Toro.Company/app_112813808737465.

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Drip Irrigation Product Catalog – now available in English and Spanish Languages

Toro Micro-Irrigation Product CatalogToro recently announced that its micro-irrigation (aka. drip irrigation) product catalog for the agriculture industry is now available in both English and Spanish languages. The catalog covers Toro’s entire micro-irrigation product offering and highlights features, benefits, and specifications for each product.

However, what’s most interesting is that with the addition of a Spanish language catalog, Toro has displayed its dedication to customers throughout Latin America, as well as its commitment to accuracy and quality.

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Types of Drip Irrigation Systems & Applications

Drip irrigation is a technology widely used in agriculture, landscape, greenhouses, and nurseries to apply water directly where it is needed. Drip irrigation minimizes the use of water and enables the injection of fertilizers through the drip irrigation system while at the same time growing healthier plants that have less disease. Click on the following

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