SFG The Early Years
Lyman and Jeanne Smith married in 1945 and started the quest to farm and raise a family in Marion County Iowa. In 1972, together with two of their children, Max and John, the family corporation of Smith Fertilizer and Grain was established. In 1973, an 82,000-bushel bin was built, a commercial grain dryer added, and a liquid fertilizer blender was installed to blend NPK to be applied in a single pass.
Soon more grain storage was added and the first Terragator high flotation applicator was introduced to custom apply fertilizer and chemicals. As it does now, SFG had the most state of art equipment for the trade area, allowing business to progress to where it is at today.
In 1993 the Pleasantville location was added and is home to deicing and road maintenance operations. Albia was added in 2006 and is the distribution center for all bagged and bulk grind and mix feed. Centerville was added in 2007 and was expanded to include a bulk fertilizer mixing plant and NH3 storage. In 2019, four more locations were added from South Central Coop to SFG, making a total of 7 manned and 1 unmanned locations.
Since it's inception, grain storage for SFG has grown to over five million total bushels, and liquid storage to over one million gallons.
(Pictured: Jeanne and Lyman Smith in the original SFG office)
The original location of SFG was founded in 1972 and continues to serve the area with a focus on customer service.
In 1993, Max & Sharon added the Pleasantville facility to our Knoxville location to serve the growing needs of customers.
The Albia location was added in 2006 and is our home base for all grind and mix feed operations supplying all our locations.
The Centerville location was added in 2007, later adding an anhydrous and dry fertilizer facility.
The Knoxville city location was added in September 2019.
The Melcher-Dallas location was added in 2019.
The Milo location was added in 2019.
The Columbia fuel station was added in 2019.
Lyman passed in 2000, but his passion was carried on by the Smith Family to provide the best possible service to our friends, neighbors, and valued customers. Max and Sharon’s sons, Jason, Charles, and Kyle, joined the Commercial business, while John and Nancy’s sons, Brent and Kevin, joined the farming and construction business.
As we enter the year 2020 the third generation of the Smith family has assumed major roles in Leadership in the family run business. Max has said many times that the best is yet to come as the 3rd generation assumes their new responsibilities!
(Pictured: Lyman Smith, right, talks with a customer.)