Seed company nears 80th anniversary

DECATUR, Ill. — A third-generation family seed business is gearing up for its 80th anniversary next year.

“We’re excited to celebrate 80 years of family ownership next year,” John Wyffels, grandson of Wyffels founder Bill Wyffels Sr., said at the Farm Progress Show.

“We appreciate the opportunity to work with family farmers at our core. We’re third-generation family farmers ourselves. We understand what it means to fight and persevere, and look to share the farm with another generation someday.

“One of the things that I’m most excited about when I think about this business is the chance to share a great business with another generation of employees and another generation of family.

“At the same time, our customers, they have dozens of brands that are calling on them, asking them to plant their seed. I just want folks to know that we don’t take it for granted that growers are making a choice every year, and we appreciate the trust that they put in us to have a chance to work with them.”

Wyffels was named company president in July 2017, succeeding his father, Bill Wyffels Jr., who had served in that role for over 40 years.

“Our company is very focused on one product. We like to say ‘one thing, done right.’ We focus on seed corn, and we do it all. We do research, we do development, we do production and then we have a field sales force that works directly with farmers, hand to hand,” John Wyffels said.

“We are located in five states in the central Corn Belt, and we are the No. 3 brand in that geography. We sell over a million bags of corn, and we’re super proud of that.”

New Facility

Wyffels Hybrids opened its new Ames, Iowa, facility on about 150 acres near Interstate 35 and Highway 30 in July 2024.

The new warehouse and distribution center also includes research and agronomy test sites available to Wyffels sales team members, seed representatives and customers for tours and agronomy days.

“The big picture is we’ve got at least a 10-year vision for what we’re going to build there in Ames. We’ve started with a warehouse packaging distribution facility. It’s about 200,00 square feet and can store about one-half million units of seed corn. We’ve got a full-time team that’s operating out of that facility,” John Wyffels said.

“But I think long run, for me, the more exciting piece is the ability to do seed corn production there someday. The ability to do research work and have a place where we can bring customers. We’ve started a little bit of that this year.

“We’ve got some agronomic experiments and trials planted. We’re collaborating with some of the faculty from Iowa State University, and we’ve had a monthly event there with customers where they can come and learn from both the Iowa State team and Wyffels on corn production.”

Research Investments

A driving force behind any seed company’s success hinges on its investments in research.

“In my opinion, research is where all of our innovation starts. Our home base for the research team today is based in Geneseo, Illinois. We do have breeding in Geneseo, as well as other locations like Springfield and Williamsburg in Illinois, we’re starting to do some work in Ames, and we do some work in winter environments,” John Wyffels said.

“But I think another piece to highlight is our yield trial locations across the central Corn Belt. We have nearly 70 different locations from Brookings, South Dakota, to Charleston, Illinois. We are testing our lineup at those locations, plus hundreds of pre-commercial products that we’re trying to sort through to really understand and identify what are going to be the top 10 to 15 products that are going to be truly value-add for our customers a year from now.”

Agronomic Team

Another significant investment Wyffels has made in the past five years is in its agronomic team.

“For a long time, it’s been a dream, it’s been a vision, and as the company grows, as we reach new scale levels, we can make these kinds of investments,” John Wyffels said.

“We have six agronomy managers that are regionally focused. They’re focusing on central Illinois, northern Illinois, central Iowa, and those folks are working in tandem with the sales team.

“They do spend time troubleshooting calls, but I think what they’re doing is bringing a whole other level of insight in-season. What’s going on in the field? What’s around the corner? How could you manage differently during these times?

“They are publishing information. They’ve got a podcast that they release probably every other week. They’re doing a fantastic job, and I think one of the things they do particularly well is they find a way to take a really technical issue and speak in a language that anybody can understand.”

Portfolio

Sixteen new corn hybrids are set to be released for the 2026 growing season.

“From a product portfolio standpoint, I am super excited. We’ve got 16 new products that we’re bringing forward. We are going to have a couple new trait packages. We’re going to be selling PowerCore Enlist for the first time. We’ve also have some VT4Pro product in our lineup,” John Wyffels said.

“But, for me, the most important piece is the underlying germplasm that drives yields to a whole other level. So, we’ve got another five, 10 bushels of yield that are coming forward just this fall for customers. In my opinion, this is game-changing yield, that we haven’t seen each of the last three to five years. I think there’s truly step-change yield coming this year. It’s super exciting to talk about some of those new products.

“The other piece is that we do have a robust non-GMO lineup, and that’s not something that everybody offers. We believe it’s important to offer farmers choice. So, we’re excited to continue to have a great non-GMO lineup, and there’s five new non-GMOs coming forward.”