WEST DES MOINES, IOWA – June 28, 2011 – Schuler Manufacturing, a family-owned business specializing in feed mixer wagons in Griswold, is the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation’s (IFBF) Renew Rural Iowa Entrepreneur of the Month award winner. The business was nominated by the Cass County Farm Bureau.

The equipment business was born in 1962 when Dorland Schuler designed and built a custom feed wagon for his own cattle feeding operation. After several area farmers requested similar wagons, Schuler founded the manufacturing business. Today, the company is run by Schuler and his wife and manufactures cattle feed mixers, feed wagons, and other feed mixer equipment for the beef cattle feedlot and dairy industries.

Feed mixer models are available in tractor PTO-driven and towed, truck-mounted and stationary versions. The product line also includes bunk-style feeder wagons and hay feeder wagons. This fall, the company will launch a big hay bale processor line.

The company, which employs up to 40 seasonal workers, now sells to beef cattle and dairy farmers in Iowa and even has international customers in Australia, Russia and Japan.  Even though the wagon line has evolved, the design remains the same. Schuler still has that first wagon and is proud to say that the company’s current grinder wagons carry the same basic design. He is also proud of the business’ family ties. His two sons, a nephew and two grandsons are all involved in the company.

Russ Joyce, executive director of the Cass Atlantic Development Corporation, says the company and its success is a testament to rural Iowans and farmer ingenuity. “Rural Iowa is generally rich in entrepreneurs that have come out of the agricultural industry,” says Joyce.

Renew Rural Iowa (RRI) is an IFBF initiative that supports new and existing businesses through business education, mentoring and financial resources.  In cooperation with five community colleges, RRI is coordinating a series of free, one-day, innovation seminars this summer to introduce Iowa’s key economic development partners and tools.  To register and learn more, go to www.renewruraliowa.com.