Three Callaway men have joined forces to create a new business, as if all three weren’t already busy enough! Abe Hinman, TR Anderson and Tim Rosentrater each have full-time jobs, are involved in the community, and now are co-owners and operators of Lodi Seed Services, LLC.
“My sister has worked for Channel Seed for 12 years, and about six or seven years ago I talked to Lee Koubek after being prodded by my sister to check into it. At that time I thought it wasn’t really for me, I’m a teacher and don’t know a lot about the ag industry,” explained Hinman. “So fast forward to last fall my wife and I were talking about finances and I started praying about it. That next week Lee Koubek called me again and some other opportunities popped up too. So I pretty much said I’m not going to close the door until it closes in my face.”
Hinman arranged a meeting with Koubek and invited his friend, Anderson, to join them. “TR is a super smart cattle guy and has a lot of knowledge. So we talked, and we listened. That was 12 months ago,” Hinman said.
Anderson said in the meantime he received a call from Rosentrater saying he had been approached about selling Fontanelle seed corn, an opportunity that Rosentrater quickly took. “Less than a month later Channel calls me and said they bought Fontanelle and all of the regional brands. They said they just hired a new dealer from Callaway and asked if I knew him and how well,” Anderson shared. “I said that Tim had been in the seed corn businesses working for coop for over 30 years, so he knows it well. I told them I thought we should all three work together.”
Ironically, Anderson and his family were living at the Rosentrater property while their house was being built. “Tim had lost his son in a car accident just about a month before this and he didn’t want to be by himself, so he asked us to move in with him. So we did that for the winter,” Anderson explained.
The three of them talked about it and decided to give a business partnership a try.
When it came to choosing a name for their new business they went with a piece of local history – Lodi, an old town that was once located between Callaway and Oconto. Hinman said he was familiar with the town through his in-laws who live in that area. “It used to be a railroad town. There was an upper Lodi and a lower Lodi,” Hinman said. A historical sign now marks where the town once stood, along with the community cemetery.
“Channel had asked us to go out and get a couple of test plots, so we did – and they both happened to be around the Lodi area,” Anderson added.
After a year of conversations behind the scenes, Lodi Seed Services officially opened for business on Sept. 21. Each of the partners brings their own skill set to the table; Rosentrater is the seed guy, Andersen is the feed guy, and Hinman is the tech guy. Though they don’t sell feed, they do sell seed that becomes feed, such as sudangrass, sorghum, and corn silage.
Along with selling seed, Lodi is also a certified dealer for FieldView, a data app, and is looking into other services they may be able to offer to local producers. “We want to know what service we can offer for farmers that will help them out. Because ultimately this is a service industry,” Hinman said.
The business has an office located between Shotgun Annie’s and Henry’s on Kimball Street and is planning to construct a warehouse. “We want to be in business who want to do better and get better. We want to help them do a better job at their business,” said Anderson.
The company’s motto aligns with that philosophy; “Building Trust Through Service”.
This story is from Ellen Mortensen from the Callaway Courier.
