Beck?s Hybrids happy to be in MP; invests $4 million in plant upgrades

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

It?s the start of a perfect marriage.

That?s how Sonny Beck, CEO of Beck?s Hybrids, sees the relationship between the newest Beck?s seed corn processing plant and Mt. Pleasant. Beck?s, which is based in Atlanta, Ind., is the nation?s largest independent family-owned retail seed company in the United States.

?This is a great opportunity and a great plant for us,? Beck told members of the media Tuesday who attended the company?s ?Field to Yield? event at the local plant. ?This is really the center of activity for us, and the people of Mt. Pleasant have really welcomed us.?

Beck?s purchased the former Dupont Pioneer seed corn processing plant, located on Grand Avenue, in July of 2014 and is completing its first year of production. Dupont Pioneer had closed the plant in 2013.

Since purchasing the plant, Beck?s has invested over $4 million to create a state-of-art 62-acre site in Henry County.

Beck said the purchase of the plant in Mt. Pleasant fulfilled a vision. ?This is great for us because we wanted to expand across the Mississippi. It just took us a few more years to get here than we anticipated.?

Attendees at Tuesday?s event were given a field tour with a harvest demonstration followed by an in-depth tour of the seed corn production process from start to finish.

In addition to seed corn processing, Beck?s has begun a soybean processing operation, too, but plans to expand the soybean operation considerably in future years.

Besides Iowa and its home state of Indiana, Beck?s serves farmers in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin.

The CEO said the company has shown continuous annual growth of 15-20 percent since 1992 ?because we help farmers succeed.? Company officials are projecting a 22 percent growth from 2014 to 2015.

?Our growth has been tremendous,? Beck noted. ?Next year (growth) will be two times what it is this year. There are a lot of farmers coming to us wanting Beck?s products.?

The Mt. Pleasant plant, managed by Dan Ganz, has 16 full-time employees in addition to a host of seasonal employees. Ganz said the plant began receiving corn the last week of August and will be finished with this year?s corn processing by the first week of October. He credited the short schedule to nearly perfect growing and harvesting conditions.

Trucks arriving at the facility carry anywhere from 450-500 bushels of corn and can dump the load in 15 minutes. He said most corn arriving has moisture content in the upper 20s to mid 30s.

Employees then sort the corn (eliminating ears with mold) before being taken on a conveyor belt to the dryers. The company has three dryers and uses a two-pass drying system, drying the corn from the top down. Ganz said the corn is dried to 12.5-13-percent moisture content. He added that it takes about four hours of drying to reduce moisture content in corn by one percent. Each dryer can handle 80,000 bushels of corn.

Following the drying, the ears are taken by another conveyor-belt system to the sheller. Cobs are stored in a bin and sold to a firm in Independence.

Ganz said that normally the plant would annually process close to one million bushels of corn.

Beck?s sells its seed corn by the kernel. Each bag contains 80,000 kernels while soybean bags top out at 130,000 kernels.

Beck?s uses an Escalate yield enhancement system in its seed processing. The company claims the system combines an insecticide, fungicide and biological to enhance and stimulate the root and shoot growth.

According to Beck, 110-day hybrids are used in Iowa. ?The hybrids work very well here,? he noted.

In addition to the corn, soybean, wheat and alfalfa processing, the company also has an extensive testing and research component. ?We?re doing all the testing universities used to do, but no longer have the money to do it,? Beck said. ?We have over 90 studies going on. These research farms help farmers a lot. Our whole goal is to help farmers succeed.

?At Beck?s, our growth strategy is methodical, ensuring the necessary infrastructure is in place to serve every farmer with the best in seed quality, field performance and service,? Beck continued. ?With new facility locations and a growing family of employees, we are equipped to serve an increasing number of farmers and are excited to introduce them to Beck?s culture.?

The company broke ground Tuesday on its first research farm in Iowa, an 80-acre tract located near Colfax in central Iowa.

Beck said one of the reasons the company wanted to expand to Iowa was similar work ethics in both states (Iowa and Indiana). ?We want people who will work as a team and we have that in Mt. Pleasant.?