Advanced Ag Resources

While people think of crops as being grown for food, feed and fuel, there is another important crop to grow – the seeds to be planted. As farmers know, having top quality seed to put in the ground is essential to their success. Advanced Ag Resources of Wabash, Indiana, has focused on providing quality seed for several generations. Bobby Hettmansperger shares his family’s history in the seed production business and their continued commitment to their customers and the industry.

Lawrence Brodbeck started the seed business in the 1930s. In the 1960s, his son Bob Brodbeck was looking for someone with sales expertise. He reached out to Robert Hettmansperger who was in sales for Farm Bureau at the time. Robert joined the Brodbeck operation and in 1971 the team incorporated Brodbeck Seed and keep growing. “Bob Brodbeck was very intelligent with a photographic memory,” Bobby recalls. “He knew the genetics back to the original seven inbreds that started the seed industry. He was a walking encyclopedia back in the day.”

Bobby joined the business in the early 1980s after graduating from Michigan State University and today serves as President and Owner. While the business has evolved over the years through ownership changes, what hasn’t changed is the team’s approach to raising quality seed for their customers.

“In a nutshell, we look at ourselves as customer service providers,” Bobby says. “From outstanding production in the field, to drying, conditioning, and grading the seed along with warehousing and distribution, we are focused on quality.”

The organization grows seed for as many as 20 independent seed companies, shipping out of their Indiana farm operation to places as far as Texas and Canada and even overseas. Advanced Ag Resources has 20 full time employees and 10-15 seasonal workers as they grow corn, soybean and wheat seeds.

Taking care of the soil is essential to growing seed crops and Bobby has been involved as a volunteer leader with the Indiana Soil and Water Conservation Service (SWCD). “My dad was involved with the SWCD and I was honored to be asked to be on the board 20 years ago,” Bobby says, who eventually served as the organization’s president. “We must improve our organic matter to hold water as well as alleviate run off into streams and waterways. We need to keep our water and nutrients in our fields and out of the Gulf of Mexico – what we do here in Indiana matters down there,” he points out.

Taking care of the soil also helps take care of the consumer. “If we improve our soil, we improve our yields, which ultimately helps keep prices down in the grocery store. Of course, we also want to protect the water we all drink and the air we breathe,” Bobby says. In recognition for the farm’s commitment to soil and water, they were named a winner of the River Friendly Farming Award from Indiana’s State Department of Agriculture several years ago.

Caring for the past while looking to the future is personal to Bobby, whose family goes back eight generations in Wabash County. “In fact, six generations of my family are buried at Hopewell Cemetery, and I serve on that Cemetery’s board,” Bobby says.

The company has a succession plan in place with Bobby’s nephew, Chris Shultz. “Chris is general manager now and we are fortunate to have him continuing the good work of his grandfather and the family’s legacy in the seeds business,” Bobby says.

Change is constant in the seed industry, but working with good people makes the difference. “Things have changed so much even in the last 10 years, but we know that it doesn’t matter so much about brick and mortar, our organization is only as good as employees and people you work with and our commitment to quality seed and service,” Bobby concludes.