History
"Necessity is the mother of invention" according to Plato and so it was with the foundation of Ross Manufacturing Inc. In 1991, a local cattle producer approached a machinist while eating breakfast at a favorite hometown diner. The cattleman explained to the machinist the need for a non-surgical device for delayed castration of his bulls in order to promote natural growth in the animals. The other devices available at that time were unable to do what the cattleman knew was possible. As the two men talked, the machinist wrote notes and drew a rough design on a napkin. The two men finished breakfast and parted ways with ideas and determination to fulfill the need. The next morning, the machinist returned to the restaurant with a prototype based on the napkin doodle and so began an adventure neither man could have seen coming.
The machinist, Gordon Ross, was a mechanic by trade but had an uncanny ability to make almost anything that could be imagined. He opened his own mechanic shop in 1977 in his hometown of Saint Francis, Kansas. He began making early versions of what is known today as The Callicrate SMART Bander™ for Mike Callicrate (the aforementioned cattleman and founder of No-Bull Enterprises) in 1991.
In 1994, the two men put into production the Callicrate SMART Loop™ to complete the bander package. In 1995, after sales began to rise and the banders and the loops could no longer be produced on a part-time basis, Gordon and his wife Carol sold the mechanic shop, started Ross Manufacturing Inc, and became No-Bull Enterprises' sole supplier of the implements, which is still the case to today. The Callicrate SMART Bander™ and Callicrate SMART Loop™ are sold around the world and have been expanded upon to meet a variety of needs in the veterinary and agricultural markets including castration, prolapse treatment, horn removal, and even antler velvet removal.
The inception of Ross Manufacturing Inc is one that is based on the American dream of hard work and determination. That dream is still active today as the business continues to look toward the future.