While Shivvers leads the industry with our line of high-efficiency, fully automatic grain drying systems, the technology wasn’t even around when we got our start in 1968. Brothers Charles and Gerald Shivvers weren’t satisfied with the flow and transfer of grain that conventional auger systems offered. Therefore, they developed the tapered sweep auger design that started it all, significantly improving the speed and efficiency of grain drying systems.
As the company continues to grow, Shivvers has cemented our reputation for unrivaled quality and farmer-focused innovation. We’ll continue to introduce new technologies and components to our counter-flow complete drying systems to meet agriculture’s growing need for growing grain.
American-designed AND built, no other drying system can beat out the versatility and efficiency of Shivvers.
A History of Agricultural Innovations
While our modern drying systems boast capacities anywhere from 6,000 to 52,800 bushels per day, it took hard work and constant innovation to get there. Luckily, that’s exactly what brothers Charles and Gerald Shivvers were already doing. Charles developed a tapered sweep auger system for drying grain with help from his brother, patenting in 1968 what would become the basis for our Circu-Lator grain drying system. We bought and opened our Corydon facility that same year.
The plant looked very different from what you see today. There was less than half the office space, and manufacturing was relegated to a small building attached to the rest of the facility. Charles’ wife Anita used a card table for her desk, while early employees like Roma Jennings vividly remembers her paperwork scattering around the cold, drafty room whenever someone opened the door. In those early days, it was the camaraderie of a true “family” business that kept us going.
Once the factory was more firmly established, Charles’s son Carl became Shivvers’ marketing director. With help from his other son, Steve—still in high school at the time—Charles drafted the first Circu-Lator blueprints and installed them in the field. As agriculture enjoyed a boom in the 70s, so did the Shivvers drying systems. The company expanded with a sister company in Illinois. Reflecting the change in the agricultural economy of the 80s, in 1982 the Illinois plant was consolidated into the Corydon facility.
When the ag economy changed again, the Shivvers family realized they needed a non-agricultural product to help the company diversify and survive. And so, the late 1970s saw Charles and Steve pursuing a number of ideas, exploring products ranging from coffee to wood-burning stoves. But in 1984, a proposal for a zero-turn radius lawn mower was made. Shivvers’ engineering department rolled out their first prototype for the Country Clipper ZTR soon after. The Country Clipper line of lawn mowers continues to be a thriving division of the Shivvers family.
Shivvers saw further innovation in 1984 when long-term engineer Don Parkes devised CompuDry, a computerized dryer control attached to existing Shivvers grain dryers. Not only did these controls automate the grain drying process, but CompuDry already had a market in place with Shivvers drying systems out in the field.
Shivvers Mfg., Inc., is still a family-owned business today, with Carl now serving as President. We believe Shivvers will continue to thrive because the same devotion that inspired Charles and Gerald lives on in our amazing staff.
Founded on Family, Focused on the Future
The appeal of representing Shivvers is about more than just a commitment to quality and service, but a connection with our history and the Shivvers name that prevails throughout. The atmosphere of a family business is clear from the start, as you join a team of unified, goal-oriented professionals. From the first “good morning” to one last “good night,” we design, engineer, manufacture and market the finest grain drying equipment together.