SureFire Ag Systems was founded in August 2007 by Blaine and Erin Ginther, Josh and Lisa Wolters and Matt Wolters. At that time, GPS technology was being rapidly adopted by many farmers. Along with the GPS technology, an opportunity existed to help producers more precisely apply fertilizer, chemical, seed and other crop inputs. SureFire was created to help producers become more efficient by applying the right product, in the right place, at the right rate.

In January of 2008 SureFire had 7 full and part time employees. Our warehouse was a steel building erected around 1950. Our office was the 1930’s farmhouse on the same farmstead. The only investors in the business were the founding owners. To succeed we had to generate cash by making sales immediately. More importantly, we began building relationships with our customers that set the stage for 5 years of impressive growth.

After a very busy spring in 2011, we were bursting out of our initial facilities. We worked with our landlord, Eddie Johnson and his wife Marie Helene Lussier, to plan for new facilities on the same site that would allow SureFire to continue to grow. We moved into the new warehouse in December 2011 and the offices in March 2012.

In June 2013 we expanded the warehouse again. This allowed the old steel building to be completely remodeled into an engineering building. In December 2013, the engineering team moved into their new offices. They now have 2500 square feet of office space with 2500 square feet of lab and test engineering space in one building.

SureFire is an Employee-Owned Company that practices open book management. We’ve learned the Great Game of Business from the SRC companies. This philosophy has been instrumental to our growth as a company and to the growth of each individual in the company.

At the end of 2013, these are some of our milestones at SureFire.

Employ 31 full time and 5 seasonal employees at SureFire Ag Systems
Shipped SureFire products to 47 states, 6 Canadian provinces and 6 other countries.
Engineering department of five includes 2 electrical engineers and one agricultural engineer. The varied background of these 5 individuals allows SureFire to create innovative products from the ground up to meet farmers future needs.
Twelve full-time employees focused on sales and service. Continued growth allows individuals to focus on geographic regions which improves the services SureFire is able to offer our customers.
Created SureFire Electronics LLC in July 2012 to manufacture wiring harnesses for SureFire Ag Systems. In the future, we plan to grow this business to supply wiring harnesses for other customers. SureFire Electronics now employees 5 full time and 1 part time employee.
We created the Dream Big Education Foundation in June 2013 to benefit our local Rawlins County schools. We made a $100,000 initial donation, 90% of which has been used for technology grants to Rawlins County Elementary and Rawlins County High School.
Introduced the QuickDraw spray tender system in September 2013. This product is an automatic system to fill a sprayer with the correct amount of chemical and water for a job, which will increase our customer’s accuracy and efficiency. This is the most complex product designed by our engineering team yet.
We currently have our fifth On the Job Training (OJT) student from Rawlins County High School. This program allows a student to work at SureFire for 2 hours per day and learn. It’s a valuable program that allows us to offer a new experience to a high school senior as they plan for another phase of education.
SureFire Ag is the majority investor in FirstWater Ag, a company founded in September 2013. FirstWater Ag purchased the technology of Advanced Ag Systems, a pioneer in Variable Rate Irrigation systems. FirstWater Ag will offer farmers technology to increase the total productivity of irrigated farming, while water supplies continue to decline and become more valuable in the future.

Grain Drill Application Systems