In 1969, Frank Bourgault was a 44 year old farmer and partner in the Massey Ferguson farm implement dealership in St. Brieux, Sask. where Frank had earned a solid reputation as an excellent farm equipment mechanic. Since he was a boy, Frank had shown inventive abilities combined with a good mechanical instinct. As a young man, Frank built a gas engine powered snow toboggan long before snow mobiles were developed. He also designed and patented a new type of root rake for the family farm.

St. Brieux was an extremely stony farm area, so, through the implement business, Frank gained experience with every make of cultivator and thorough knowledge of their weak areas. Problems included excessive shank bending, poor trash clearance, lack of penetration capability and poor weed kill.

Up to this point in time, chisel plows were used to work residue laden fields but often experienced poor weed kill. Field cultivators were used to kill weeds but could not handle much trash. Frank felt he had the answers to these problems and set out to build his cultivator. He combined the best characteristics of both the field cultivator and chisel plow and produced a dual purpose cultivator. To solve the shank bending problem, he built a high clearance, spring loaded trip. To improve the trash clearance, Frank used a four-row frame design and mounted the trips away from the wheels. (Prior to Frank's cultivator design, field cultivator owners had to cut the wings off the sweeps close to the wheels so the sweeps missed the weeds in these areas.) His trip design also gave the cultivator good penetration capability. By using an eight inch shank spacing, he kept the weed killing capability of the field cultivator.

From 1969 to 1973, Frank tested and developed his cultivator with the help of local area farmers. With an increasing demand for this new cultivator, Frank Bourgault, Don Coquet, Gerry Bourgault, and 21 other minor shareholders, including Joe Bourgault, incorporated F.P. Bourgault Industries Ltd. to establish a manufacturing facility. (Incorporation date: May 4, 1973)