Press Releases - 2009

Beck's Hybrids and Brown Seed Enterprises Form Alliance

Atlanta, Indiana and Neoga, Illinois, June 9, 2009 - Beck's Hybrids and Brown Seed Enterprises have entered into an alliance that combines the strengths of both companies to enhance the products and services offered to farmers in central and southern Illinois.

Brown Seed Enterprises is known for extensive research and testing in southern Illinois to indentify the top performing products in that geography. Beck's Hybrids, located in central Indiana, is the largest family-owned retail seed company in the United States and brings additional sources of products to the research that Brown Seed is conducting. Dennis Brown, President and Owner of Brown Seed Enterprises says, "I am excited about the additional products that this arrangement with Beck's will provide my customers. Higher yields, more traits, better agronomics, and more customer services will result from this alliance that our company has formed with Beck's."

Brown Seed Enterprises' facilities will also be exclusively used by Beck's for conditioning, packaging, warehousing and shipping of Beck's seed to customers in central and southern Illinois, southwest Indiana and Kentucky. "Utilizing seed facilities in the Effingham, IL area will enhance our ability to serve customers in our southern marketing region," says Scott Beck, Vice President of Beck's Hybrids.

Brown Seed Enterprises has marketed seed through the Arise brand since 1990. Brown says, "With the formation of this alliance, we are bringing our customers a more complete line of corn, soybean, wheat, alfalfa and forage products which are available through Beck's Hybrids. This change from Arise to Beck's Hybrids is the next step in the progression of our family-owned seed business. Our alliance with Beck's enables us to remain independent and continue to do southern Illinois research and seed conditioning, which are the things that I have built this company on and have strived to help our customers with. Perhaps more importantly, the culture of our two companies is similar in terms of putting the farmer first and treating them with integrity." Farmers will have an opportunity to look at Beck's products at Brown Seed's annual field day this summer.

"Dennis' extensive knowledge of the soils and climate in southern Illinois combined with the additional products that we can evaluate in his research and testing program will bring a new level of support for farmers in that region. We are excited about this alliance", says Sonny Beck, President of Beck's Hybrids.

Beck's Hybrids is a family-owned and operated seed company that serves farmers in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky. According to a recent media survey, Beck's ranks as the sixth largest seed company in the United States and the only one in the top six that is family-owned, making Beck's the largest retail, family-owned seed company in the United States.

Brown Seed Enterprises is a family owned and operated seed company that Dennis Brown started in 1983, with a focus on the unique soils and needs of the southern Illinois farmer. Brown Seed has extensive experience in research, breeding, and seed production, with a state-of-the-art seed conditioning and warehouse facility built in 2007.