TIME magazine started its best inventions list in the year 2000.
That year’s list featured three products – a web-enabled digital camera, a machine that combines PET (positron emission tomography) and CT (computerized tomography) medical images, and a portable and computerized manufacturing system.
Since then, thousands of products, ideas, companies, innovations, and even buildings have been on the list.
Examples related to ag include the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (2008), a feed additive designed to slow down the last step of methane production in cattle (2024), and New Holland’s methane tractor (2023).
TIME Magazine contacted Matuszewski after this year’s Ag in Motion show in July.
The Razors Edge concaves took home the Farmers’ Choice and the Innovation Award.
“We got a note from TIME asking if we wanted to apply for their innovation awards,” Matuszewski said. “So, we did.”
TIME then sent an application package to the Thunderstuck team asking them to identify what makes the concaves innovative, what problems it solves, and the successes it’s had.
“We shared that with our test farmers around who tested the concaves for us in 2023 and 2024, we had 100 per cent uptake on farmers purchasing them,” Matuszewski said.
The Razors Edge concaves are designed with variable bar spacing that tighten where the crops hit the hardest. This prevents overload and boosts performance. Overall, the concaves support up to a 25 per cent increase in harvest speed and can help decrease fuel consumption by up to 40 per cent.
In addition, the concaves are engineered for compatibility with multiple brands including John Deere, Case IH, Fendt, and others.
After Thunderstuck submitted the application package to TIME in July, communication went quiet.
Then, one week before the official announcement in October, Matuszewski opened an email from TIME indicating they’d made the cut for the list.
“None of us could believe it,” Matuszewski said. “We had a meeting to tell the rest of our team because everything from how we marketed it to how we sold it helped us gain awareness and recognition.”
While Thunderstruck received the award, it’s a recognition of something larger.
That’s the Canadian manufacturing sector, which employs almost 1.9 million people.
“This award is bigger than us,” he said. “There’s really cool things going on in Canada, and I think this adds to the reasons why farmers around the world should be looking at what we’re doing in Canada and how our products can help on their farm.”
In total, TIME included six products in the ag category for this year’s list.
The other five are:
- A seaweed-based supplement for cattle called Asparagopsis that can reduce methane emissions by up to 80 per cent,
- The Innovea Global Coffee Breeding Network, which brings companies and research together to develop new coffee varieties,
- RootWave’s eWeeder which controls weeds with electricity,
- The Scout Gen 5 vineyard monitor, and
- Vanilla Vida, which is helping boost supply of natural vanilla by growing it indoors in climate-controlled facilities.