Kim Alberty and Jim Balcom co-founded Agassiz Seed and Supply in 1985, Dave Vandal joined us just weeks after we opened and was instrumental in our growth for 35 years. Initially we distributed agricultural seed, lawn seed, soybean inoculants, seed treatments, seed grains, and grain fumigants. The business has grown throughout the years by expansion of product lines and acquisitions of other businesses, but most importantly by the support of our customers and staff.
In 1990, we purchased Youlden Supply of Grand Forks ND, a distributor of grain testing equipment and grain elevator supplies. We added repair and calibration of electronic grain testing equipment in 1992 to add to the service side of the testing equipment business. In 2019 Agassiz sold the Industrial Supplies division to the salesperson who was responsible for selling and servicing that division for several years so that Agassiz could focus on our core business units.
In 2001, we purchased the wholesale vegetable seed division of Holland’s distributing to continue to diversify our business and better utilize our packaging facility. This purchase has allowed us to stay focused on distribution of sweetcorn to our Ag customers.
In December of 2009 we purchased The Seed Source in Minneapolis, MN, and established our first branch location. Our Twin Cities location distributes seed and supplies to landscapers, Ag retailers, and seeding contractors throughout Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.
As a MNDOT approved seed vendor since 1995 and with sales staff located in the Twin Cities since 2003, this was an exciting expansion of our business. This business unit continues to grow and has added the agricultural product lines we offer as well. We relocated this operation to the southern Twin Cities suburb of Eagan MN in 2011 and purchased a 12,000 sq foot warehouse and office building to solidify our commitment to this area.
We opened our Mandan ND location in 2015. We have always done business in this area, but as our business continued to grow in western ND and SD we were not able to offer the level of service we felt was necessary based on the support we were getting from our customers. We added sales, office, warehouse and delivery staff, along with delivery vehicles, to accommodate our growing sales in western SD, ND and eastern MT. We have a 12,000 sq. ft. warehouse and office in Mandan fully stocked with seed, seed enhancements, forage harvest supplies, and erosion control products to cover this region. This has been an excellent addition for us - the support this location receives from our customers has been excellent.
The latest addition to our growing business is our location in Brandon, SD in 2019 This location has allowed us to better serve our customers in South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa, creating regional coverage throughout the upper Midwest.
We continue to be a wholesale distributor of all of our product lines, providing a large selection of forage, cover crop, wildflower and native grass seed, wildlife and pasture mixes, lawn and turf seed and seed mixtures, sweet corn seed, complete line of seed enhancements, erosion control products and forage harvest supplies.
We look forward to continuing to serve the region that has been our home base for over 30 years. Our hard-working and dedicated staff is always ready to serve you and we look forward to continuing to forge new customer relationships and providing our best service to our current and future customers. We also want to thank our customers for your business, which allows Agassiz Seed & Supply to be Always on the Grow.
