Lindsay Corporation (Lindsay), along with its subsidiaries, provides a variety of proprietary water management and road infrastructure products and services. The company engages in the manufacture and distribution of agricultural irrigation equipment.
Segments
The company operates through two segments, Irrigation and Infrastructure.
Irrigation
This segment includes the manufacture and marketing of center pivot, lateral move, and hose reel irrigation systems which are used principally in the...
Lindsay Corporation (Lindsay), along with its subsidiaries, provides a variety of proprietary water management and road infrastructure products and services. The company engages in the manufacture and distribution of agricultural irrigation equipment.
Segments
The company operates through two segments, Irrigation and Infrastructure.
Irrigation
This segment includes the manufacture and marketing of center pivot, lateral move, and hose reel irrigation systems which are used principally in the agricultural industry to increase or stabilize crop production while conserving water, energy and labor. The irrigation segment also manufactures and markets repair and replacement parts for its irrigation systems and controls and large diameter steel tubing. The company continues to strengthen irrigation product offerings through innovative technology, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) positioning and guidance, variable rate irrigation, wireless irrigation management, irrigation scheduling, Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) technology solutions and mobile device applications. The company’s primary domestic irrigation manufacturing facilities are located in Lindsay, Nebraska; Olathe, Kansas; and Norfolk, Nebraska. Internationally, the company has commercial and production operations in Brazil, France, China, Türkiye, and South Africa, as well as distribution and sales operations in the Netherlands, Egypt, Australia, and New Zealand. The company also exports equipment from the U.S. and its global production facilities to other international markets.
Infrastructure
This segment includes the manufacture and marketing of moveable barriers, specialty barriers and crash cushions, road marking and road safety equipment, and railroad signals and structures. The infrastructure segment also offers technology to monitor critical safety infrastructure on roadways. The principal infrastructure manufacturing facilities are located in Rio Vista, California; Milan, Italy; and Lindsay, Nebraska.
Products By Segment
Irrigation
Products - The company manufactures and markets its center pivot, lateral move irrigation systems, and irrigation controls in the U.S. and internationally under its Zimmatic brand. The company also manufactures and markets hose reel travelers under the Perrot brand. The company also produces or markets chemical injection systems, variable rate irrigation systems, flow meters, weather stations, soil moisture sensors, and remote monitoring and control systems. In addition to whole systems, the company manufactures and markets repair and replacement parts for its irrigation systems and controls and large diameter steel tubing. Furthermore, the company designs and manufactures innovative IIOT technology solutions, data acquisition and management systems, and custom electronic equipment for critical applications under its Elecsys brand.
The company’s irrigation systems are primarily of the standard center pivot type, with a small portion of its products consisting of the lateral move type. Both are automatic move systems consisting of sprinklers mounted on a water carrying pipeline which is supported approximately 11 feet off the ground by a truss system suspended between moving towers.
A standard center pivot in the U.S. is typically seven spans and approximately 1,300 feet long and is designed to circle within a quarter-section of land, which comprises 160 acres, wherein it irrigates approximately 125 to 130 acres. A center pivot or lateral move system can also be custom designed and can irrigate from 25 to 600+ acres.
A center pivot system represents a significant investment to a farmer. In a dry land conversion to center pivot irrigation, approximately one-half of the investment is for the pivot itself, and the remainder is attributable to installation of additional equipment such as wells, pumps, underground water pipes, electrical supply, and a concrete pad upon which the pivot is anchored. The company’s center pivot and lateral move irrigation systems can be enhanced with a family of integrated proprietary products such as GPS monitoring and other automated controls.
The company also manufactures and distributes hose reel travelers. Hose reel travelers are typically deployed in smaller or irregular fields and usually are easy to operate, easy to move from field to field, and a smaller investment than a center pivot.
The company also markets proprietary remote monitoring and automation technology that works on any brand of electronic pivot and drip irrigation systems and is sold on a subscription basis under the brand names FieldNET and FieldWise. FieldNET is commercialized exclusively through Zimmatic dealers while FieldWise is used primarily by non-Zimmatic dealers and customers. These technologies enable growers to remotely monitor and operate irrigation equipment, saving time, and reducing water and energy consumption.
The company also markets patented technology under the FieldNET Advisor product name which delivers information that helps farmers decide precisely when, where and how much to irrigate. This technology combines crop and irrigation science and expertise with FieldNET’s cloud computing capabilities, remote sensing functionality and machine learning to provide farmers with field-specific and crop-specific irrigation recommendations.
Other Types of Irrigation – Center pivot and lateral move irrigation systems compete with three other types of irrigation: flood, drip, and other mechanical devices such as hose reel travelers and solid set sprinklers. The majority of worldwide irrigation is accomplished by traditional flood irrigation. Flood irrigation is accomplished by either flooding an entire field, or by providing a water source (ditches or a pipe) along the side of a field, which is planed and slopes slightly away from the water source. The water is released to the crop rows through gates in the ditch or pipe, or through siphon tubes arching over the ditch wall into some of the crop rows. It runs down through the crop row until it reaches the far end of the row, at which time the water source is moved and another set of rows are flooded.
Center pivot, lateral move, and hose reel traveler irrigation offer significant advantages when compared with other types of irrigation. It requires less labor and monitoring; can be used on sandy ground, which, due to poor water retention ability, must have water applied frequently; can be used on uneven ground, thereby allowing previously unsuitable land to be brought into production; can be used for the application of fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, or other chemicals (termed fertigation or chemigation); and conserves water and chemicals through precise control of the amount and timing of the application.
Markets
United States Market – In the United States, the company sells its branded irrigation systems, including Zimmatic, to over 200 independent dealers, who resell to their customer, the farmer. Dealers assess their customers’ requirements, design the most efficient solution, assemble and erect the system in the field, and provide additional system components, primarily relating to water supply (wells, pumps, pipes) and electrical supply (on-site generation or hook-up to power lines). Lindsay dealers generally are established local agribusinesses, many of which also deal in related products, such as well drilling and water pump equipment, farm implements, grain handling and storage systems, and farm structures.
International Market – The company sells center pivot and lateral move irrigation systems throughout the world. International sales accounted for approximately 41 percent and 47 percent of the company’s total irrigation segment revenues in fiscal year 2024 and 2023, respectively. The company sells direct to consumers, as well as through an international dealer network, and has production and sales operations serving the key markets in South America, Western and Eastern Europe, China, Africa, Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand. The company also exports irrigation equipment from its global production facilities to other international markets.
Infrastructure
Products – The company’s Quickchange Moveable Barrier system, commonly known as the Road Zipper System, is composed of three parts: T-shaped concrete and steel barriers that are connected to form a continuous wall; a Barrier Transfer Machine (BTM) capable of moving the barrier laterally across the pavement; and the variable length barriers necessary for accommodating curves.
In permanent applications, the Road Zipper System increases capacity and reduces congestion by varying the number of directional traffic lanes to match the traffic demand and promotes safety by maintaining the physical separation of opposing lanes of traffic. The Road Zipper System® is particularly useful in busy commuter corridors and at choke points, such as bridges and tunnels. Road Zipper Systems can also be deployed at roadway or roadside construction sites to accelerate construction, improve traffic flow, and safeguard work crews, motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and others using the roadway by positively separating the work area and traffic. Examples of types of work completed with the help of a Road Zipper System include highway reconstruction, paving and resurfacing, road widening, median and shoulder construction, and repairs to tunnels and bridges.
The company offers a variety of equipment lease options for Road Zipper Systems® and BTM™ equipment used in construction applications. The leases extend for periods of one month or more for equipment already existing in the company’s lease fleet.
Crash Cushions – The company offers a complete line of redirective and non-redirective crash cushions which are used to enhance highway safety at locations such as toll booths, freeway off-ramps, medians and roadside barrier ends, bridge supports, utility poles, and other fixed roadway hazards. The company’s primary crash cushion products cover a variety of lengths, widths, speed capacities, and application accessories and include the following brand names: TAU; Universal TAU-II; TAU-II-R; TAU-B_NR; ABSORB 350; Walt; TAU-M; ABSORB-M; TAU-XR; and TAU-TUBE. These systems are generally sold through a distribution channel that is domiciled in particular geographic areas.
Specialty Barriers – The company also offers specialty barrier products such as the SAB, ArmorGuard, PaveGuard, and DR46 portable barrier and/or barrier gate systems. These products offer portability and flexibility in setting up and modifying barriers in work areas and provide quick-opening, high-containment gates for use in median or roadside barriers. The gates are generally used to create openings in barrier walls of various types for both construction and incident management purposes. The DR46 is an energy-absorbing barrier that can help protect motorcyclists from impacting guardrail posts, which is an area of focus by departments of transportation and government regulators for reducing the amount and severity of injuries.
Road Marking and Road Safety Equipment – The company also offers preformed tape and a line of road safety accessory products. The preformed tape is used primarily in temporary applications such as markings for work zones, street crossings, and road center lines or boundaries. The road safety equipment consists of mostly plastic and rubber products used for delineation, slowing traffic, and signaling. The company also manages an ISO 17025 certified testing laboratory that performs full-scale impact testing of highway safety products in accordance with the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350, the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH), and the European Norms (EN1317 Norms) for these types of products. The NCHRP Report 350 and MASH guidelines are procedures required by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for the safety performance evaluation of highway features. The EN1317 Norms are being used to qualify roadway safety products for the European markets.
Rail Products – The company also designs, engineers and manufactures a line of products for the railroad industry. These products are designed to meet industry standards and include signals and lights, structures, foundations, junction boxes and signs.
Markets
The company’s primary infrastructure market includes moveable concrete barriers, delineation systems, crash cushions, and similar protective equipment. The company distributes infrastructure products in Europe, South America, the Middle East, Australia and Asia.
Distribution Methods and Channels
The company has dedicated production and sales operations in the United States, Italy and the Netherlands. Sales efforts consist of both direct sales and sales programs managed by the company’s network of distributors and third-party representatives. Due to the project nature of the roadway construction and congestion management markets, the company’s customer base changes from year to year. The company’s moveable barrier products are typically sold to transportation agencies or the contractors or suppliers serving those agencies.
Seasonality
Shipments to customers located in Northern Hemisphere countries usually peak during the company’s second and third fiscal quarters for the spring planting period. Sales of infrastructure products are traditionally higher during prime road construction seasons and lower in the winter. The primary construction season for Northern Hemisphere countries generally corresponds with the company’s third and fourth fiscal quarters (year ended August 31, 2024).
Patents, Trademarks, and Licenses
The company’s Zimmatic, Perrot, Road Zipper, The Road Zipper System, Quickchange Moveable Barrier, ABSORB 350, ABSORB-M, FieldNET, FieldNET Advisor, FieldNET Crop Advisor, FieldNET Irrigation Advisor, FieldNET VRI Advisor, FieldNET Weather Advisor, WatertrendSM, FieldWise, Greenfield, GrowSmart Z-TRAX, TAU, Universal TAU-II, TAU-II-R, TAU-B_NR, TAU-M, TAU-TUBE, TAU-XR, CableGuard, TESI, SAB, ArmorGuard, PaveGuard, DR46, U-MAD, Sabertooth, RoadConnect, ImpactAlert, and other trademarks, service marks, domain names, and copyrights are registered or applied for in the major markets in which the company sells its products.
History
Lindsay Corporation was founded in 1955. The company was incorporated in 1974.