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Kifco, Inc.
Maker of portable/traveling irrigation systems and aluminum surface pipe + quick-coupler fittings.
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Water-Reel Traveling Irrigators (Big Gun Travelers)
55%Aluminum Surface Irrigation Pipe
30%Accessories & Aftermarket
15%
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Did you know2024
Kifco's Water-Reel traveling irrigators are agricultural equipment by design but serve as the standard equipment for an entirely different critical industrial application: dust suppression at open-pit mines, quarries, aggregate operations, landfills, and large construction sites. The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) mandates dust suppression to prevent silica/coal dust inhalation and spontaneous combustion risks in mining operations. The same high-volume water gun traveler used to irrigate a 160-acre corn field is used daily at aggregate quarries (crushed stone, sand, gravel) to suppress fugitive dust and meet EPA PM10/PM2.5 standards. The system is also used at municipal biosolids land application sites: water-reel travelers are the standard equipment for spraying treated sewage sludge (Class B biosolids) uniformly across agricultural fields — a critical wastewater management process that represents billions of gallons of biosolids disposal annually. Kifco's customer base includes Iowa corn farmers, Utah copper mine operations, and New Jersey municipal wastewater utilities all purchasing the same product for functionally different purposes.
Kifco, Inc. ↗Concentration2024
The US market for water-reel traveling irrigators is served by a small number of manufacturers: Kifco (US-made, Havana IL), Bauer/Perrot (Austrian), and Cadman (UK). The US domestic manufacturing base for this equipment category is limited. Aluminum surface irrigation pipe and quick-couplers — used across an estimated 5+ million acres of US irrigated farmland on hand-move and wheel-line systems — is manufactured primarily by Kifco and a small number of regional aluminum pipe fabricators. Aluminum pipe shortages (driven by tariffs, extrusion capacity constraints, or bauxite supply disruptions) directly affect irrigation infrastructure for specialty crop and smaller grain operations that cannot afford center-pivot investment, as well as the temporary construction dewatering and agricultural drain tile installation industries that use the same quick-coupler pipe.
Kifco, Inc. ↗Origin2024
Kifco, Inc. is based in Havana, Illinois — a small river city on the Illinois River in central Illinois farm country. The company manufactures water-reel traveling irrigation systems (also called "big gun travelers" or "hard-hose travelers") and aluminum surface irrigation pipe. The water-reel traveler concept was developed in Europe (primarily Italy and Germany) in the 1960s for irrigating fields that were too irregular or remote for center-pivot systems — the traveler's advantage is that it requires only a water supply connection and can irrigate strips across any field shape or size. Kifco adapted this technology for the American agricultural market and has served Midwest row crop farmers, forage producers, and specialty crop growers for decades. Aluminum surface pipe with quick-coupler fittings — the other product line — predates center pivots as the standard US agricultural irrigation method (hand-move and wheel-line systems) and remains heavily used for smaller operations and specialty crops.
Kifco, Inc. ↗