Formation Ag

What Formation Ag does

Formation Ag, Inc. is a Monte Vista, Colorado-based equipment manufacturer founded in January 2019 as a spin-off from Power Zone Equipment Inc., which had been building custom agricultural equipment for hemp since 2015. The company engineers and fabricates a complete line of purpose-built industrial hemp equipment spanning planting, cultivation, harvesting, processing, and decortication. Its proprietary product portfolio centers on the CleanStrip harvester (a bud-stripping header that strips and shucks in-field at up to 10 acres per hour), the CleanCut and Super CleanCut draper headers (with proprietary cutting mechanisms designed to resist hemp fiber wrapping), the GrassHopper chaff collection cart, the FlowerTrack stem-and-flower separator (1,000–3,000 lb/hour), and the FiberTrack 660 decorticator (1 ton/hour, 95%+ clean fiber, 98%+ clean hurd) with the FiberTrack Genesis (5 ton/hour, mobile) in R&D. The company also distributes complementary third-party brands — GCS grain cleaners, Shelbourne Reynolds headers, and Garford Robocrop precision cultivators — making it effectively a one-stop supplier for hemp farm operations.

The core technical differentiation is mechanical: hemp's strong fibrous stalks destroy conventional harvesting and decortication equipment, while fragile CBD trichomes degrade under harsh handling. Formation Ag's products are engineered specifically against these two failure modes, with claimed outcomes including up to 90% reduction in hand labor and up to 80% reduction in material entering drying processes. Per company-published articles, Colorado growers using Formation Ag equipment report hemp production costs under $2,000 per acre versus a $15,000–$20,000 per acre traditional baseline, a 90% delta.

Formation Ag sells capital equipment ranging from $10,000s to $100,000s per unit through a direct enterprise field-sales motion and dealer/distributor relationships, with equipment financing offered to customers. Revenue is not publicly disclosed and no venture or private-equity funding rounds are on record; the company appears founder/management-owned. Key leadership includes Don Toews (President and CEO), Corbett Hefner (VP of Sales, Research and Development; also listed as CEO in one source), and Randy Wright (Operations Manager, joined February 2019). The customer base is concentrated in U.S. hemp growers — primarily CBD-focused farmers with secondary fiber-hemp and tri-crop operators — with one publicly named reference customer (Raineer Harvesting).

Name

Formation Ag

Legal name

Formation Ag, Inc.

Website

https://formation-ag.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Formation Ag engineers and fabricates purpose-built equipment for industrial hemp harvesting, processing, and decortication, serving U.S. CBD and fiber hemp farmers with a direct-sales capital-equipment model.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Agricultural Equipment

NAICS

Farm Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing (333111)

SIC

Farm Machinery & Equipment (3523)

akta.pro primary industry

Threshing, Decortication & Separation Equipment (Small-Scale Separators) (AFAAAJAF)

Keywords

• Hemp harvesting equipment
• Industrial decortication systems
• Agricultural processing machinery
• CBD hemp farming tools
• Hemp fiber separation

Headquarters

HQ city

Monte Vista

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Agricultural Equipment Sales: Sale of hemp-specific harvesting, processing, and cultivation equipment including headers, decorticators, separators, and cleaning systems. Equipment ranges from $10,000s to $100,000s based on capacity and configuration. One-time capital purchase model typical for agricultural machinery.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Formation Ag engineers and fabricates a full line of equipment solutions specifically designed for the industrial hemp industry, spanning planting, cultivation, harvesting, processing, and decortication. Core products include purpose-built harvesters (CleanStrip, CleanCut, Super CleanCut, GrassHopper), modular decorticators (FiberTrack 660, FiberTrack Genesis), and processing/separating systems (FlowerTrack stem and flower separator, GCS grain cleaners), with financing options offered to hemp farmers and large-scale agricultural operations.

Product overview

Formation Ag is an equipment innovation company that engineers and manufactures a comprehensive line of hemp farming equipment spanning the entire production cycle: planting, cultivation, harvesting, and processing. The core product lines include CleanStrip, CleanCut, and Super CleanCut harvesters for CBD-focused hemp harvesting; GrassHopper collection carts; and FiberTrack 660 and Genesis decorticators for fiber/hurd separation. The company also distributes complementary equipment from GCS (grain cleaners), Shelbourne Reynolds, and Garford (Robocrop cultivators and sprayers). Formation Ag operates as a single unified product portfolio rather than a platform-plus-modules architecture.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• CleanStrip Harvester Bud stripping header for hemp that harvests up to 10 acres per hour while shucking plants in the field, designed for CBD hemp farmers needing gentle handling to preserve trichomes.
• Super CleanCut Draper-style header for whole hemp plant harvesting with a proprietary cutting mechanism that reduces wrapping issues, handles stalk diameters up to 3 inches, reduces stalk intake by up to 20%, available in 1-6 row configurations with 20" to 60" row spacing.
• CleanCut Harvester Harvesting header designed for tough and fibrous crops with oversized reels and conveyors that resist wrapping, available in cutting widths from 8.5' to 24'.
• GrassHopper Chaff Collection Cart Oversized chaff collection cart designed specifically for hemp to collect additional flower material lost during combine harvesting, with live bottom floor, oversized belts to prevent wrapping, four cab cameras, and standalone hydraulic system.
• FiberTrack 660 Decorticator Modular hemp decortication system processing up to 1 ton per hour, designed and built in the U.S., producing 95%+ clean fiber and 98%+ clean hurd with dust collection down to 1 micron and 4-5 week lead times.
• FiberTrack Genesis Decorticator High-capacity mobile hemp decorticator capable of processing around 5 tons per hour, trailer-mounted with automatic bale feed for square or round bales and 20 individually speed-controlled roller sets, currently in R&D testing.
• FlowerTrack Stem and Flower Separator Pre-extraction dry material separation system processing 1000–3000 pounds per hour of flower material, with dust collection for CBD-rich keif and configurable screening sizes.
• GCS Grain Cleaning Equipment Distributed GCS grain and seed cleaning equipment cleaning seed at 200-2,200 bushels per hour, used for hemp applications including separating seed from pollinated material, removing noxious weeds, separating hurd from harvested material, and preparing material for extraction.
• Robocrop Guided Hoe Distributed Garford video image analysis-guided inter-row cultivator achieving 15mm accuracy at camera with forward speeds up to 12 kph for precision mechanical weed control in hemp cultivation.
• Robocrop In-Row Cultivator Distributed Garford Robocrop video image analysis system that locates individual plants to mechanically remove weeds between and within crop rows with 8mm accuracy from the stem.
• Hooded and Spot Sprayers Hooded sprayers providing weed control between rows without soil disturbance, with band widths from 10cm to 60cm, plus a spot sprayer using Robocrop imaging to target individual weeds.

Quantifiable outcome

• Production cost reduction to under $2,000 per acre vs traditional $15,000-$20,000 per acre
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Grain Cleaning Solutions (GCS)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 27 April 2020Formation Ag partnered with GCS to provide high quality seed cleaning and separation equipment to the agricultural community. GCS grain cleaners and screen cleaners are used for hemp applications including separating seed from pollinated material, removing noxious weeds, removing dirt and debris, separating hurd from harvested material, and preparing material for extraction. GCS equipment is UL, CUL, CSA certified and processes seed at rates between 200-2,200 bushels per hour.
• Bish EnterprisescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 April 2020Formation Ag and Bish Enterprises jointly designed and released the Super CleanCut Hemp Harvester in April 2020. Bish Enterprises brings 40 years of agricultural innovation and is known for Header Adapters designed in Giltner, Nebraska. Their Hemp Harvest Works subsidiary focuses on hemp-specific machinery. The Super CleanCut combines Formation Ag's CleanCut technology with Bish's Super Crop harvester technology.
• Power Zone Equipment Inc.minorOthers · 7 January 2019Power Zone Equipment Inc. spun off its agricultural department in January 2019 to establish Formation Ag as an independent company. Power Zone Equipment began building custom agricultural equipment for hemp in 2015. Formation Ag continues to develop Power Zone Equipment's original agricultural equipment as well as new projects for the hemp industry.
• Shelbourne ReynoldsminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFormation Ag is a distributor of Shelbourne Reynolds agricultural equipment. Shelbourne Reynolds products complement Formation Ag's own equipment lines for hemp farming operations.
• GarfordminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFormation Ag distributes Garford Robocrop products including the Robocrop Guided Hoe and Robocrop In-Row Cultivator. These precision farming tools use video image analysis for mechanical weed control and are adapted for hemp cultivation.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• HempFlax: HempFlax is a European hemp processor and equipment operator focused on fiber hemp cultivation, decortication, and end-product manufacturing. They are a direct peer in industrial-scale hemp processing and share the decortication and fiber separation technical domain with Formation Ag.
• Sunstrand: Sunstrand is a US-based processor of natural fibers including industrial hemp, with proprietary decortication and processing capabilities. They are a direct peer operating downstream in the hemp value chain with overlapping fiber processing technology and customer base.
• Garford Farm Equipment: Garford manufactures precision mechanical weeding and cultivation equipment including the Robocrop In-Row Cultivator. They are a peer in precision agriculture equipment and distributed by Formation Ag for hemp cultivation applications, sharing overlap in specialty crop equipment.
• Shelbourne Reynolds: Shelbourne Reynolds is a UK-based manufacturer of agricultural harvesting equipment, particularly draper headers and stripper headers. They are a direct peer as a header/harvester manufacturer and are distributed by Formation Ag in the US, indicating direct product overlap in harvesting equipment.
• Grain Cleaning Solutions (GCS): GCS manufactures grain cleaning, sorting, and screening equipment used in seed and grain processing. They are a direct peer as a hemp processing equipment maker and partner with Formation Ag to distribute cleaning systems into hemp applications.
• Power Zone Equipment Inc. Power Zone Equipment is the parent company that spun off Formation Ag in January 2019. They continue to build custom agricultural equipment and overlapping industrial machinery, making them a direct peer in custom agricultural equipment fabrication with deep operational ties to Formation Ag.
• Bish Enterprises: Bish Enterprises is a Nebraska-based agricultural equipment manufacturer with 40 years of experience designing header adapters and specialty harvesting equipment. They are a direct peer through their Hemp Harvest Works subsidiary and jointly designed the Super CleanCut harvester with Formation Ag, making them a co-developer and direct competitor in hemp harvesting.

Broad incumbents

• CNH Industrial (Case IH): Case IH manufactures a full line of agricultural equipment including combines, headers, and specialty crop tools. As a broad incumbent, they compete indirectly via their general-purpose harvesting equipment that some hemp farmers may attempt to adapt, and represent an entry risk as hemp scales.
• John Deere: John Deere is the dominant manufacturer of agricultural machinery globally, including combines, headers, and specialty crop equipment. They represent the broad incumbent risk — if hemp achieves scale, Deere could enter with purpose-built or adapted equipment, leveraging vast dealer/service networks that Formation Ag cannot match.
• CLAAS: CLAAS is a leading global manufacturer of harvesting equipment, particularly combine harvesters and headers. As a broad incumbent, they could enter hemp harvesting if the market scales, with comparable draper and stripper header technologies applicable to fiber hemp.

Market position

Competitive moat4 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/FormationAgHemp
• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/formationag
• Facebookfacebook.com/FormationAg
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/formationag
• Instagraminstagram.com/formationag

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Formation Ag