EL PASO, Ill. – El Paso Mayor Thad Mool joined about two dozen members of the Greater Peoria AgTech Connect group for a tour of Beck’s Hybrids, which has been at 90 N. Fayette Street since the company breathed new life into the historic Pfister Seed location by purchasing and renovating the property in August 2011.

Buoyed by the hiring of 40 to 45 employees, many of them local residents, the site is once again serving as a vital Midwest hub for crop marketing, research and development. On Aug. 18, members of AgTech Connect – which identifies as a “regional collaboration to advance the AgTech Ecosystem” – learned how the Indiana-based company has used innovation and technology to continue growing their operations. 

“AgTech Connect is a quarterly event where we bring together farmers, researchers, students, employers, researchers and innovators to talk about agriculture. We look at central Illinois as a worldwide hub for agriculture, with a very long history and a lot of opportunity going forward,” said Chris Youngmark, Peoria NEXT Innovation Center director and an AgTech Connect leader. “Getting together in the same room gives us an opportunity to share, to network and to advance agriculture and innovation in the region, specifically.”

Youngmark explained that AgTech Connect sprung out of the Morton, Ill., Economic Development Council as an effort to boost post-COVID industrial growth in the Greater Peoria ag tech corridor. “It has expanded to where we have regional events, and visits to multiple facilities to expose different areas and companies in central Illinois that are expanding our ag tech footprint,” he said. “We look at the incredible potential of business collaboration in this area, for sharing assets and resources to grow regionally and in our hometowns. Building on that by expanding geographically is something we are here to do today.”

The room AgTech Connect members gathered in for this quarterly meeting was located within a renovated office building that was home to Pfister Hybrids until its purchase by Dow AgroSciences in 2009. The facility was purchased two years later by Beck’s, a family-owned company that has grown from one 80-acre farm in Atlanta, Ind., to the third-largest seed brand in the U.S. According to Mool, the company’s decision to purchase the property has been a blessing to the small farming community. 

“Ag innovation has been one of the foundations of El Paso, starting back in the 1936 with (corn hybrid pioneer) Lester Pfister. It’s interesting to hear the story of Francis Beck, who started in 1938, just 3.5 hours from here. Of course, they didn’t network together but they were doing the exact same things: innovating ag production far ahead of their times,” Mool said. “The fact that Beck’s came to El Paso and picked up where Pfisters left off is a true blessing to our community, not just financially but with jobs. They’ve been a part of huge job growth in El Paso, and are a huge economic driver.”

A tour of the company’s warehouse, seed towers, bagging assembly line and offices was led by David Ringger, a local resident and training innovation manager for Beck’s, whose territory extends into several states. Ringger noted that if networking platforms such as AgTech Connect had existed 90 years ago, Pfister and Beck might have collaborated to advance the corn hybrid market.

“We are now the largest family-owned seed company in the United States,” said Ringger, who grew up raising livestock in the area before going to work for Beck’s 10 years ago. “We are the fastest growing seed brand in the world. It’s been crazy, our growth curve, and it’s been a lot of fun to be a part of.”

Ringger told the AgTech group that when he began work for Beck’s in 2015, its sales territory covered just eight states; it now encompasses 22 states with over 1,200 total company employees and sales representatives. “We try to bring (local perspective) to all of our locations,” Ringger said. “Our operation in Colfax (Illinois) is different from our facility in El Paso, due to locality. You’re going to need a different hybrid in central Iowa than you need in central Illinois, even though the soil types may be similar, due to the lay of the land and farming practices. That’s why we have to test locally, to get the right crop in the right place at the right time.”

Beck’s also strives to hire as many farmer-seed retailers as geographically possible. “We want to make sure the local farmer is represented by a local dealer,” Ringger said.

For more information about Beck’s history, products and services, visit www.beckshybrids.com.