AirFLEX NXT from Honey Bee Takes Farmer-first Tradition into the Future

If you want something done right, do it yourself. It’s a phrase Glenn Honey and his brother Greg know well. Finding the available farm equipment not quite up to par with their needs and budget, the brothers set out to design and build a tractor to use on their own farm – and, unknowingly, took the first steps on their path to creating a business.

“We were just trying to survive,” says Honey. “Farming was hard at the time. We wanted something better and cheaper than we could buy.”

The brothers poured both passion and practical experience into the design of the tractor. They needed something that was durable and resilient, simple to operate and maintain, and made their farming experience easier. When the tractor was a success, they began applying the same principles to other products around the farm.

“We learned what it was like to use farm equipment that did what you wanted it to do without having to fix it all the time,” Honey says.

Greg Honey, one of the founders of Honey Bee Manufacturing, on his farm.

More than 40 years later, Honey Bee Manufacturing has grown far beyond the family farmyard with more than 100,000 sq ft of production and warehouse space, a suite of header and swather products, and customers across the world. Despite a global footprint, Honey Bee’s focus remains firmly grounded: equipment designed for farmers by farmers.

Their newest innovation, the AirFLEX NXT, is a shining example of this approach. An evolved version of the company’s best-selling AirFLEX header, the AirFLEX NXT features a suite of upgrades, many influenced by feedback from farmers themselves.

An air-controlled cutterbar with 9-inches of flex, centrally driven reversible mechanical gearbox, and quick switching from flex to rigid mode at the touch of a button are just a few of the enhancements the AirFLEX NXT includes. All of this adds up to a more customized, flexible and intuitive experience for farmers, making harvest simpler and less stressful.

“The AirFLEX already had stable core values, but we added these new features to the NXT to create the next step for farmers – simple to use and high performing, to get all the crop in the bin,” says Barry Lindmark, AirFLEX NXT Platform Manager at Honey Bee.

The new Honey Bee AirFLEX NXT in action.

Feedback to date has been favourable across the board. Soybean farmers have been particularly impressed with the AirFLEX NXT’s ability to be customized based on specific crops and conditions, as well as the powerful cutting system.

“There’s a very strong knife for heavy cutting cross-row green soybeans,” Lindmark says. “You don't lose a lot of horsepower with our driveline. We're pretty efficient that way.”

Overall, Lindmark isn’t surprised to hear this positive feedback from farmers, as they heavily influenced its design. Farmer feedback has been an essential part of the design process for new equipment throughout his 14-year tenure at Honey Bee.

“We have a lot of farmers who work with us on testing and feedback,” Lindmark says. “We really try to hear what they want and need, and not rely on just what we think the product should look like.”

As an active farmer himself, Honey believes this focus on real farmers and their day-to-day needs has made all the difference for the company.

“The biggest reason we’ve been able to grow to the extent we have is because we’ve maintained our focus: simple products that have value for the farmer,” he says. “We’ve farmed the whole time, too.”

Honey is confident that this approach will continue to help them create innovative, reliable equipment that serves the evolving needs of farmers for many generations to come.

Learn more about the AirFLEX NXT at: https://airflexnxt.honeybee.ca/