Gro Master Inc. celebrates 35 years
June 14, 2017
Gro Master Inc. is proud to announce its 35th year of providing research-driven solutions for hog producers across the United States and around the world.
Marvin and Corinne Wastell launched Gro Master in 1982 as a feed formulation company. They had a dream of combining Marvin’s knowledge of swine nutrition and research, and his experience with feeding programs, to help regional manufacturers increase profitability for hog producers.
“My background was research and formulation. I grew to love my teaching role with a large feed company and educating their sales people. I loved taking new technology and helping producers raise animals more efficiently. A passion for helping people has always been a cornerstone for us,” Marvin Wastell notes.
Little did Marvin and Corinne know how a chance meeting in 1985 with Jonathan Kleinsasser of Crystal Spring Colony in Manitoba would change the company’s path and carve out Gro Master’s indelible impact on the industry.
Upon meeting through a Gro Master customer, Kleinsasser, the inventor of the original wet/dry hog feeder, insisted on taking Marvin through Crystal Spring’s hog facilities to look for areas of potential improvement. Marvin saw barns full of wet/dry feeders, and no feed wastage. He was intrigued. Despite multiple protests that “I’m a nutritionist, not an equipment distributor,” over the next year, Marvin helped Kleinsasser find U.S. hog producers to test Crystal Spring’s wet/dry feeders, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Gro Master stayed in feed formulation until the early 2000s, but conducting research trials and building a dealer network to distribute Crystal Spring Hog Equipment quickly became Gro Master’s primary focus. The impact of wet/dry feeding on the hog industry is undeniable, and Gro Master’s team is up for the challenge of continuing that impact.
“It’s been a privilege to be a part of the vision that Marvin and Corinne set for Gro Master 35 years ago. Marvin’s focus on research and bringing technology solutions to the industry has made a global impact on how we feed pigs. It is a high honor to continue their vision into the future,” says Todd Heisterkamp, general manager since 2011.
Today, Gro Master Inc. serves as Crystal Spring Hog Equipment’s research partner and exclusive distributor in the United States, Mexico and South America, and has business interests across Europe. Marvin and Corinne Wastell’s passions of providing research-driven solutions and helping people remain a focus and inspiration for the company’s future.
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