HOLLAND, Mich. — A Michigan company bills itself as the nation’s top producer of machines transplanting sweet potatoes, tomatoes and other vegetables that get their start in greenhouses.

Mechanical Transplanter Company has been making the machines at the same location in Holland since 1953.

Max Timmer in charge of parts and assembly at the plant said a vast majority of their transplanters are sold to customers in other states like California.

Timmer, whose father, Dan, owns the company, said most of their customers are small growers but some buyers have raised vegetables under contract for large food companies like Red Gold, a leading provider of canned tomatoes and other things like ketchup.

The machines are capable of transplanting as many as 60 or more seedlings every minute. Riders on the machine place the seedlings on a conveyor belt that delivers them into the soil. 

Max said the transplanters pulled behind tractors can also put the seedlings into the ground at various depths depending on the needs of each plant. 

“When you can do multiple acres in a day versus a few hundred feet by hand, it definitely helps the commercial growing,” he said.

The company was founded by Raymond Kolk, whose sons, Bob and Howard, took control of the business in 1983.

They sold the company in 2008 Dan Timmer and Steve Vanloo, who had both spent the majority of their careers working at the plant.

Dan Timmer became the sole owner in 2024 when Vanloo retired. 

Dan Timmer said the company used to make anywhere from 800 to 1,000 transplanters a year when a majority of their customers a few decades ago were tobacco growers using the machines to plant seedlings in states like Kentucky and Tennessee.

He said anywhere from 500 to 700 transplanters are made now since there aren’t as many tobacco farmers and the farms still growing it are larger.

The company has made up for some of that lost business by gaining customers growing other things like trees, developing new models and through periodic technology upgrades to the machines for improved performance.

Dan said about one-third of the company’s sales are made in Arizona and California where farmers often use multiple transplanters at a time to cover as many as eight rows.

“We own that market out there because our machines are so fast and efficient,” he said.

He said sales are about equal in the southeast with the remainder spread throughout the rest of the country.

Almost all of the machines are purchased through dealers but the company works directly with farmers without much knowledge about transplanters to help bring them up to speed on their use and repair.

“They’re pretty simple machines so, normally, they can figure it out on their own,” said Max.

Dan said his biggest competition is from transplanters made overseas in Italy and a smaller company manufacturing the machines also in Michigan.  

Max’s daughter, Natalie, also works at the plant.

The company also makes other products like diddlers, which put holes in plastic mulch used for weed control for seeds to be dropped into the ground.