Valmont Tubing

In 1946, Robert Daugherty, the founder of Valmont, returned from a tour of duty with the Marine Corps. He and his Uncle Frank saw the need for agricultural equipment and founded Valley Manufacturing Company. In 1947, the VALLEY line of agricultural equipment was introduced.

In 1953, Valley Manufacturing purchased the patent for what would be known as "Center Pivot Irrigation" from part-time farmer and inventor Frank Zybach. Bob Daugherty saw the need to raise the pipes and suspend them above the particular crop but quickly discovered that the standard 6 5/8" OD heavy-wall line pipe used in conventional irrigation systems was too heavy to be safely suspended. That need for a lighter wall pipe spurred the beginnings of Valmont Tubing as an industrial steel tubing manufacturer.

Beginning with 6 5/8” OD tubing, Valmont began manufacturing steel pipe and tubing for internal use when in 1959 the company foresaw an opportunity to manufacture pipe and tubing not only for its own irrigation systems but to expand into producing it for other companies.

Over the years, Valmont Tubing has expanded from its irrigation beginnings to expand to serving other customers in the agricultural industry along with such diverse markets as transportation, pneumatic, exhaust, construction, structural, and many other industrial applications.