News & Updates

Tom Elliott was recently appointed our new General Manager.  Tom comes to us with extensive background in sales and management.  He recently worked for Compass Minerals as a division manager in their Plant Nutrition Division.  There Tom managed the equipment program for the Wolf Trax micronutrient program.  Tom is a graduate of Bluffton High School and Indiana State University with a BS in Communications and Marketing.  Please welcome Tom as our new GM. 

Beginning in August of 2021 the A.T. Ferrell Company has launched its new corporate website. Designed to offer an enhanced user experience, it offers more information and tools to better service the needs of our customers. For use on any PC or mobile device, it offers a responsive web design that reacts to the users screen whether on the go, or sitting in the office. New areas include Equipment Categories that let you identify specific models to support your operations needs. A Parts section with enhanced search capability that allows you to identify what you have, and what you need more quickly. A Manuals section with a full array of site preparation, installation, operation and engineering drawings at your fingertips. A Services area showing programs that are offered to protect your equipment investment well into the future. A Dealer Locator that will help you find the closest support in your area. A Video section that offers a wide variety of product information. And a Dealer Portal that provides our representatives with advanced tools to better help our customers. So take a test drive on our new site and see what you think for yourself. As always we encourage your feedback and questions through our Contact Us link. Were are over 150 years old and growing. Doing Everything We Do, The Best That We Can Do, Never Compromising.

The history of AT Ferrell dates to 1869, when John E. Smith, a steam ship captain in the civil war, built the first air / screen grain cleaner. Having returned to Ohio after the war, Smith became interested in a small water powered flour mill and needed a wheat cleaner. Lacking the funds and credit, Smith built his own cleaner, and in 1869 the first fanning mill using a vertical air blast principle was put into operation. From his naval background Smith named his new machine “Clipper” after the very fast and advanced sailing ships of the time. Smith moved on from the flour mill business and turned his interest with the help of his new cleaner to becoming a grain buyer and trader. His success in that business stimulated the idea of further developments to the cleaner. And in 1879, ten years after the first, Smith had built 20 hand operated Clippers and sold them in the surrounding counties in Northern Ohio. By 1891 having built some 200 Clipper cleaners Smith thought he had hit his peak. He also thought he had saturated the market. Not able to foresee the future and wanting to retire, he sold his little cleaner business to Albert T. Ferrell who had been an employee for eight years. By the time just prior to World War Two more than twenty thousand various models of Clipper cleaners had been produced by the A.T. Ferrell company. Today it is estimated that more than sixty thousand Clipper cleaners have been produced and placed into operation worldwide. Many of those that have long been forgotten are still recognizable in barns, museums, feed mills and seed plants today as an original Clipper.