Brookston, Indiana is a town well known for its massive Meadow Lake Wind Farm. Driving through miles of Indiana corn fields, the horizon is scattered with tall wind turbines with their giant blades slowly looping.. Nestled a few miles inside of this wind farm is a small company that’s making a big impact on the utility and agriculture industries.
As the morning sun rose over late September corn, the Manufacturing Express arrived at Terra Drive Systems (TDS) for an event filled with donuts, coffee, and celebration of the hard manufacturing work being done by the men and women of this small town.
Founded in 1976 right here in Brookston, TDS started their business manufacturing what they call the Mud Hog: steerable hydraulic drive axles for combines. The creation of the mud hog allowed for a superior all-wheel drive for combine harvester operators, allowing them to turn in their fields and harvest their crops in a more efficient manner. It’s yet another example of equipment manufacturers supporting agriculture and the farmers that feed families in the U.S. and beyond.
Years later, the engineers at TDS realized the potential their steerable hydraulic drive axles had for vehicles beyond the field. That’s when they launched their next major product line: the EZ Trac, a hydraulic drive axle for heavy-duty trucks. This equipment took the same innovation TDS had been using in the fields and put it on the road. That means that across the country, truck drivers can operate their vehicles more safely and efficiently, whether they are hauling goods cross-country or bringing important utilities such as power to communities in need.
It’s not just in the US that you can find TDS axles in vehicles. With close to 40% of their products being sold overseas, you can find Mud Hogs and EZ Tracs on every continent (except for Antarctica). But even as the company’s tracks can be found on every corner of the globe, all of the manufacturing starts right here in Brookston, Indiana.
And TDS intends on keeping those jobs right here in the Hoosier State. The company is continuing to grow, but knows that the best talent for the next generation is coming out of the region. That’s why they work so closely with nearby Purdue University to recruit young talent, hiring 5 Purdue Boilermakers as interns earlier this year.
That long tradition of engineering excellence matters, especially to a company in the agriculture business like TDS. Just ask Joe Messman, VP of Global Ag Sales for TDS. “This industry is the future.” Messman says, “People have to eat, and we have to be fed on fewer acres with more efficient machinery. And that’s what we help produce here at TDS.” Even as the company approaches its 50th anniversary, their focus is on the future. And a company like TDS will be crucial as we turn the corner into a more efficient and sustainable future for all of us.
