An Illinois-based Ag services business is expanding into Iowa after it recently purchased a retail agronomy company.
BRANDT, a leading retailer of professional agronomic services and manufacturer of specialty input products, has acquired Morton Fertilizer and its full-service locations in Wyanet, Illinois and Grand Mound, Iowa.
Tim McArdle is general manager of retail and executive vice president for BRANDT. He says Morton Fertilizer will be integrated into BRANDT Agronomic Services, and that the company is excited to bring its first outlet into Iowa.
?We try to help our customers solve their problems, help them with their needs, and meet them where they are in that process,? McArdle said. ?Currently, the location in Iowa offers dry fertilizer and lime as foundation products, crop protection products, custom application, and then UAN liquid fertilizer as a nitrogen source.?
McArdle says the acquisition of Morton Fertilizer fits BRANDT?s aggressive corporate strategy of providing superior agronomic advice and services to Illinois growers. The combined company has 27 retail locations throughout central Illinois and now one in Iowa.
?Our initial determination will be to continue what works and what the location is offering,? McArdle said. ?We?ve got a very well-developed precision agriculture program here at BRANDT. We have done a lot of research at our own research farms on that. We would like to be able to take those opportunities to the farmers in that area through the location in Iowa as well. We look to expand those offerings as we go forward.?
As part of the deal, Gary Morton ? owner of Morton Fertilizer ? and his seven full-time employees will become members of Team BRANDT immediately. Gary will serve as manager of the Wyanet location. Mark Jacobs, current manager of the Grand Mound location, will continue as the BRANDT Grand Mound plant manager.
BRANDT serves more than one million acres of production farmland.
