With New President and Proven Vision, Salford Group Doubles Down on Ag Equipment Innovation
August 9, 2025 
The SS400+ Spinner Spreader features 12-section swath control that is easy to operate and has few moving parts.
Salford Group has undergone numerous changes to its business over the past few decades. Through it all, however, Anson Boak, Marketing Manager, says the company has always been driven forward by one of its founding principles – innovation.
“If you ask me, that’s the one word that best describes Salford Group today,” says Boak. “Salford really focuses on developing niches in the marketplace that are underserved or where we can add a clear advantage for the businesses of producers and commercial applicators.”
This desire to innovate is part goes all the way back to the company’s beginnings. As Boak tells it, Salford Founder Jake Rozendaal originally founded a company called Jake’s Machine Shop, which was a tractor dealership and fabrication shop.
“He repaired tillage equipment for customers,” he says. “Jake improved upon them, so he started designing his own innovations to these machines.”
The Salford Group facility, circa 1981.
When the tractor dealership didn’t work out, but the fabrication was going well, Rozendaal converted his business to Salford Farm Machinery in 1978.
For the first few decades, says Boak, Salford primarily marketed its line of tillage equipment to customers in nearby Canadian provinces and states along the border such as Michigan.
“Then around 2000, a new General Manager named Geof Gray joined Salford,” says Boak. “He really bought into the company’s culture of innovation and saw an opportunity to expand our reach into new markets.”
Adding Product Offerings
Over the next couple of years, says Boak, Salford Group added several new product innovations to its line-up. This included introducing a vertical tillage machine and air seeders, which the company marketed in Western Canada.
Then in 2014, Salford Group made two acquisitions – BBI Spreaders and Valmar. “This opened up for us the whole application technology sector,” he says. The company’s most recent application introduction – the SS400+ Spinner Spreader, which was introduced at the 2024 Midwest AG Industries Exposition last August – owes its existence to the legacy of the BBI and Valmar acquisitions, adds Boak.
Salford Group today.
During this time, Salford has also benefitted from the addition of another long-time ag equipment veteran, David Webster. Webster joined the company in 2022 after a decade-long stint with AGCO Corp. He was named President of Salford in 2024.
“We’re thrilled to have David Webster leading Salford Group,” says Joe Dimler, Business Development Manager. “His strategic vision and deep industry expertise drives innovation and delivers great value to producers and ag retailers.”
Looking forward, Dimler says Salford Group is hoping to capitalize on the agricultural industry’s recent movement towards automation and technology innovation, but in a slightly different way.
“At Salford, we continue to design our applicators to keep up with the level of automation and accuracy that is available through precision rate controls systems,” says Dimler. “In addition to that we’re always pushing the limits of the machinery to produce more versatile applicators that help operations net more profits.”
According to Boak, this approach harkens back to principles on which Salford Group was founded.
“I think we are going to stay focused on our mission – to build high quality, durable farm equipment with performance advantages,” he says. “We are going to stay focused on our customers and make sure we are building solutions that allow them to be successful.”
Dimler agrees.
“Our group really enjoys the journey,” he says. “Right now, agriculture is entering into different economic times than we’ve been recently. But I think our team really embraces these kinds of challenges, especially with our history of innovation.”
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