Innovators -- Roswell Garst was raised in the small farming community of Coon Rapids, Iowa. During the late 1920's, Roswell became acquainted with Henry A. Wallace, the editor of a respected farm publication and an innovative plant geneticist.
In the spring of 1930, Roswell Garst made arrangements to grow hybrid seed in Coon Rapids from parent stock supplied by Mr. Wallace, then sell the seed to nearby farmers. Initial efforts only planted ten acres and yielded just 300 bushels, but it was a start.
That winter, Roswell sold his first crop of hybrid seed corn from the back of his car, a bushel at a time. He also invited Charles Thomas to join the business and help grow hybrid seed. So began the partnership of the Garst & Thomas Hybrid Corn Company producing and selling Pioneer® brand seed corn in the western Corn Belt.
Both men promoted hybrid corn by giving small samples to any farmer who agreed to plant hybrid seed next to his own corn. Once those farmers were satisfied, Roswell asked them to sell Garst & Thomas hybrid corn to their neighbors.
These early innovators had one simple goal - place quality hybrid seed in the hand of farmers.
Near Kentland, Indiana, the sons of Edward J. Funk were also developing hybrid corn. During the late 1920's, Carl Funk began working with corn breeders from nearby universities. Using part of the family farm, Carl would help researchers grow the single-cross parents and the double-cross hybrid seed.
It was 1934 before Carl got the hybrids to perform to his satisfaction, but that year his best hybrid corn yielded 75 bushels per acre. He was now ready to enlist the aid of his brothers and "get serious" about growing and selling hybrid seed.
One year later, Edward J. Funk and Sons, producers of quality seed corn, moved off the family farm and into a vacant seed building in town. Their inventory amounted to 2,500 bushels of seed corn, with 350 bushels being hybrid seed! Super Crost became the brand name of Edward J. Funk and Sons.
Sharing the Vision
Between 1930 and 1945, 100 million acres of U.S. corn production went from almost no hybrid seed planted, to almost all hybrid seed. During that period, farmers went from picking corn by hand, to harvesting almost entirely with machinery.
World War II placed tremendous pressure on the world's food supply. And farmers everywhere, especially those in North America, had to double their efforts.
Garst & Thomas in the western Corn Belt, and Super Crost in the eastern Corn Belt played vital roles in meeting the world's food needs. However, the best was still ahead.
During the 1960's both Garst and Super Crost marketed better corn hybrids, and began applying quality-breeding principles to other crops.
By 1969, 50 million acres of corn were being planted in the United States. The national average yield soared to 85 bushels per acre. In less than forty years, total U.S. corn production had doubled to more than 4.6 billion bushels on less than half of the 1930 production acres.
The 1970's were prosperous years for agriculture, but the "good times" also had a down side, the 1980's. Land values plummeted, inflation skyrocketed, and those in agriculture who were overextended soon learned they could not compete. Agriculture was facing another serious depression. The stage had been set, and some industry consolidation became inevitable.
Better Together
In the early 1980's, the Garst and the Thomas families split and the company became known as the Garst Seed Company. At the same time, Pioneer Hybrid International chose to split with Garst and market Pioneer brand seed itself in the areas previously covered by Garst.
At the same time, ICI PLC, an England-based company, implemented a global strategy to add the greatest possible value to the products they produced. Since expertise in the biological science figures heavily in this strategy, ICI identified the need to become a major player in the global seed industry.
The first step was to acquire a seed company that shared the same philosophy of innovative research. This was accomplished in 1985 by purchasing Garst Seed Company.
To further this cause, Garst Seed Company acquired Edward J. Funk & Sons, along with its family of companies in 1990.
Farmers throughout North America could now benefit from world class bioscience discoveries, proven plant breeding, outstanding customer service, and a work force committed to producing the highest quality hybrid seeds available anywhere.
In late 1991, at the suggestion of employees, sales agents, and management, the Garst Seed Company announced a name change, and we became ICI Seeds.
In 1993, ICI implemented a corporate de-merger among its North American holdings, which formed low corporate entities: ICI PLC and Zeneca, Inc. At that time, ICI Seeds became a business unit of Zeneca, Inc., and was no longer affiliated with ICI PLC. ICI Seeds was informed that we would have to make a name change by the year 1997. The name Garst has been one of the most instantly recognizable and respected names in American agriculture. Thus, in 1996, the Garst Seed Company was "reborn".
Since that time, Garst has continued to grow. In 1998, Garst purchased AgriPro Seeds, Inc. of Shawnee Mission, Kansas, bringing to the company a top soybean research program and facility. More growth followed with the 1999 purchase of PSA Genetics of Alta, Iowa and in 2000, Gutwein Seeds in Francisville, Indiana.
Throughout all of this growth, Garst continues to research, develop and bring to market top-performing seed products along with high-quality customer service. Today’s Garst Seed Company stands for commitment, performance and technology.
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