Growing choices
New South Dakota seed company focused on providing range of traits tailored for the grower.
By Janelle Atyeo
Tri-State Neighbor Editor
It was a frigid day in mid-February, but a South Dakota-based seed company was busy getting ready for planting season.
A noisy new seed cleaning machine that roared to life this winter at AP Select’s Clear Lake, South Dakota headquarters, was sorting through soybeans, checking for uniform size, color and shape as the beans bounced through sieves and along conveyor belts.
The machine runs 12-hour shifts, cleaning 500 units – about 70 million seeds – in an hour.
That morning, AP Select shipped its first bulk totes of soybean seed to a customer, ready for whenever the soil warms up enough to put them in the ground.
AP Select launched in an era when the number of independent seed companies is shrinking. Mergers are more common in the ever-consolidating agriculture industry, and large multinational companies claim large shares of the market.
Seeds from two companies, Bayer and Corteva, were planted across 72% of U.S. corn acres and 66% of soybean acres between 2018 and 2020, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. There are about 130 to 140 independent seed companies that make up the remaining market share, estimated Scott Sanders. Sanders is general manager of Peterson Farm Seeds, another independent seed company serving the upper Midwest. He’s also president of the Independent Professional Seed Association.
The organization helps members with seed research and advocates for them with the large companies including BASF, Bayer, Corteva and Syngenta. Though they’re competitors, independent companies license traits and genetics from the big players.
While it puts them at the mercy of the large suppliers, Sanders said independent companies have the advantage of drawing genetics from multiple companies and enhancing crop performance with a local focus.
“We exist to provide more specific options to the growers,” he said. “We do our best to service the acres in our back yard.”
That’s the advantage that AP Select owner Rory Olerud sees, too. Drawing traits and genetics from different companies gives diversity to their brand, he said.
“Seed has always been dear to our heart,” Olerud said. “We want to know what’s best for the grower, and the grower has to have more choices.”
AP Select started retail seed sales last spring, but the journey for those first branded corn and soybeans was years in the making. The company and its’ team of plant breeders do a rigorous evaluation in selecting corn hybrids and soybean varieties specific to maximizing productivity in our target geographies.
When the seed variety is ready for production, AP Select contracts with farmers to grow seed for them. Throughout the process, there’s an eye on quality. They scout fields as the beans are flowering and again just before harvest. Each load is sampled, and if they make quality standards, they go through the cleaning machine and are packaged for sale.
“We handle it from A to Z,” Olerud said.
Soybeans that go through the Clear Lake facility are destined for fields in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. Another facility handles seeds for North Dakota customers.
The brand is new, but the people behind it come with decades of experience. Olerud and the man in charge of running the massive new soybean cleaning machine, Matt Bebensee, each worked for about 25 years for Syngenta. Rory and his wife Lisa Olerud started AgriPartners in 2009, first selling seed for another brand then adding chemicals.
As the business grew, they brought on their sons, Chance and Ryan, who are both agronomists. They’re now in charge of selecting all of the products AgriPartners and its related businesses sell.
With the next generation on board, the Oleruds are focused on the long-term future of the company.
“It is all about building the legacy,” Rory said.
AgriPartners has worked closely with Lake Area Technical College in Watertown for several years. They’ve provided seeds for school fundraisers and test plots and have had several interns from Lake Area programs. Many of those workers become full-time employees, and about half of the company’s Clear Lake staff is made of Lake Area alumni.
Jay Boomsma, who is head of the chemical and fertilizer division at AgriPartners, is a Lake Area alum who now serves on the school’s foundation board. Working with the school and its agriculture students has made for great connections, he said.
“It’s a great place for kids to go,” he said.
Along with AP Select seeds, AgriPartners offers other products and services for farmers through the other branches of its business. Complete Ag Management provides agronomy and other services across more than 100,000 acres. Seed Care Inc. handles seed treatments and agricultural products.
The AgriPartners campus on the west side of Clear Lake has grown with the business. A large chemical storage building was added in 2013 and expanded six years later. Storage for corn seed was built in 2017, and the soybean cleaning and cold storage building was finished early this year.
The business is growing in sales, too. Last year, AgriPartners ranked 57th in sales in the CropLife 100 list of the largest ag retailers in the U.S.
Compared to large companies that dominate the seed and chemical industry – like Nutrien and Helena that top the CropLife 100 list – Olerud says AP Select stands out by offering growers more choices, such as seed varieties utilizing traits and genetics from several different companies instead of just one. He also sees the benefit of doing business with a small company when it comes to billing, service and answering questions.
“They’re a phone call away from the owner,” he said.
Janelle Atyeo is a small town South Dakota girl enjoying her work as regional editor of the Midwest Messenger and Tri-State Neighbor while raising kids and no-till vegetables in central Sioux Falls. Reach her at janelle.atyeo@lee.net.