Beck’s documentary launches: How faith, hard work and family shaped a legacy

ATLANTA, Ind. — A documentary called “The Beck Family: A Home-Grown Legacy” has officially premiered and is available to watch for free online.

What started as three acres in 1937 has grown into the largest family-owned retail seed company and third largest seed brand in the United States.

At the core of Beck’s, a few things have remained the same — faith, hard work and a deep love for farming.

“Our goal is helping others,” said Sonny Beck, CEO of Beck’s. “It all comes back to that. I hope that’s always selling seed, but if it isn’t — our goal is still helping farmers succeed.”

The documentary offers an intimate look at the Beck family through family photos, videos and interviews.

“Growing up on the farm was an incredible experience,” said Scott Beck, president of Beck’s. “I’m so grateful to have had that. We spent time as a family working hard, and we spent time as a family playing hard — and investing in both is important.”

Watch the video at https://youtu.be/-ZvNcqBeEvU.

Beck’s Family History

1910s: Lawrence Beck started the family farm with 80 acres of land.

1920s: Lawrence’s son, Francis, began to show interest in farming. In 1929, he attended a winter short course in agriculture at Purdue University. He raised corn, hogs, chickens and cattle with his father. Around this time, they started producing open-pollinated seed corn for their own use, but saved the best ears each season to sell to friends and neighbors to plant crops for the next.

1930s: Francis married his wife, Pauline, in 1933, and they welcomed a daughter, Marietta, in 1935. With another mouth to feed, Francis leaped at the opportunity when the Purdue Botany Department first offered samples of hybrid parent seed corn to Indiana farmers. Despite the many challenges farmers faced in 1937, Francis and Lawrence each planted three acres of their very first hybrid seed corn. That was the true beginning of Beck’s Hybrids — a legacy Lawrence left to Francis when he passed in 1938.

1940s: In 1940, Francis and Pauline welcomed their second child, Lawrence, into the family. Named after his grandfather according to family tradition, Lawrence eventually took on the nickname “Sonny” and it just stuck. Even with a growing family, Francis continued to shift from traditional farming to growing hybrid seed corn. One of the ways he did it? Detasseling. By removing the tassels from the tops of one of the parent rows, Francis was able to successfully crossbreed two varieties of corn to produce a higher-yielding hybrid cross. To improve the process, Francis built a detasseler by mounting a Model A Ford motor on stilts. He also experimented with adding more corn bins to his drying and processing house, so he could produce more, faster.

1950s: By this time, the ability of hybrid seed corn to deliver higher yields was undeniable. Bags of Beck’s seed corn were sold throughout the counties around Beck’s in central Indiana. In addition to the Indiana-certified hybrids from the Purdue Botany Department, Francis experimented with developing Beck’s own private line of hybrids, using inbreds from selected private seed stock companies. From early on, Beck’s motto described the company as “Big enough to get the job done, small enough to do it right,” which emphasized Francis’ goal of doing the right thing and doing things right. One approach to carrying out these ideals was to offer more choices in corn hybrids and add soybeans and wheat to Beck’s product lineup.

1960s: After earning his bachelor’s degree from Purdue in 1962, Sonny married his high school sweetheart, Glendia, and then decided to continue his education by pursuing a master’s degree in agricultural economics. When Sonny completed his degree in 1964, he and Glendia moved to the Beck family farm. With his father’s approval, he immediately launched a few events that turned out to become longstanding traditions. That February, Beck’s hosted its first “Ham and Bean Supper,” which evolved into the PFR Insight Meetings held now. The following fall, 50 farmers from the area attended Beck’s first-ever field day to learn about Beck’s seed varieties and successful farming practices.

1970s: In 1972, Beck’s achieved a new record with 224.6 bushels per acre with Beck 90X. Sonny attributed the success to weather, early planting, having the right hybrid and several other learnings from his own Practical Farm Research.

1980s: Growth led to innovative facilities and techniques, including a state-of-the-art drying and bulk storage facility, gravity machines, a soybean cleaning and processing tower, new seed treating equipment and a semi-automatic bagger. Along with growth came new family milestones. Sonny and Glendia’s daughter, Kim, and sons, Scott and Tony, all studied at Purdue, just like their dad. In 1987, Scott officially joined the family business, with Kim and Tony following right behind him.

1990s: Beck’s continued investing in germplasm testing on products sourced from companies worldwide and also started its own breeding program, leading to the development of a successful proprietary hybrid lineup. The result? A record-shattering 308.1 bushels per acre crop in 1994, when the average corn yields in Indiana had fallen well short of 150 bushels per acre.

2000s: In 2001, Beck’s was the first to market 100% of its seed corn with a seed-applied insect control system. From the beginning, FaSTart came standard in every bag of seed corn. In 2004, Beck’s made Sure Gro standard in every bag of soybeans, claiming that farmers could plant 10% less and still see better stands and yields with the use of Sure Gro. In 2009, Beck’s scored another first by putting together a unique set of yield-enhancing products called Escalate and made the coating standard in every bag of seed corn, soybeans, wheat and elite alfalfa.