Geiger Family Growers Story
There are a number of representatives within the Growers organization who have been on the program and/or with the company for multiple generations. The Geiger family is one of these, having started in the program in 1970. Charlie Geiger had been using Brand X but was dissatisfied with its performance and the service he was getting. After seeing a small Growers ad in a small livestock publication, he talked with Wilbur Franklin and compared Growers with Brand X the following season. Growers beat Brand X in every facet. He also limed his fields with 8 tons/acre of sugar-beet lime, except for one strip where he doubled the rate. It produced fantastic navy beans the following season. In 1975, Charlie was asked to be the Michigan District Manager. It was in these circumstances that his son, Steve, was raised.
The Geiger farm has used the Growers Program since 1970. Multiple generations of the family have benefited with good crop health and high yields as a result.
Steve Geiger does not remember a time when his family was not using the Growers program. It has always made a lot of sense to him, so he has never questioned whether he would use it on his own farm. In fact, his first exposure to dry fertilizer wasn't until the age of ten. In his own words, "The Growers program is the best crop insurance I have." The best aspect of the program is, in Steve's opinion, how well it makes people money and helps them through tough years. A great example of this occurred only last year, during the corn vomitoxin issue. Though there were many people in Steve's area who had very high toxin levels, only a few of Steve's samples had any at all, and those that did registered only one-two parts per million. He chalks this up to crop health as a result of the Growers program.
Steve has seen the program perform best on his own farm in his seed oats. He grows his own seed each year and sells his best field for seed. In 2001, he bought bin-run oats from an Amish customer and grew them for seed. The following year he bought certified seed from the same customer and compared the two. Both yielded well, but the bin-run out-yielded the certified and had a better test weight. Since then, he has been replanting his own seed from the certified seed he purchased in 2002. It has been continuously grown on the Growers program, but has had no new genetics thrown into the mix from certified lines.
Though Steve has not done any further comparisons on his own farm, he has had customers who are not on the Growers program purchase seed oats off of him and do their own comparisons. Even though they would then be grown on a conventional program, Steve's oats still outperform the certified varieties in both yield and test weight. This is further proof that the Growers program offers carryover genetic benefits, such as to be expected from a healthy and vibrant crop. We believe this is because the Growers program works in harmony with the crop and soil microbiology, encouraging both quality and quantity of product.
Since 1995, Steve has been a salesman for Growers. He began delivering product for the company full time in 2007 and enjoyed that quite a bit, but now enjoys building relationships with his customers even more. He desires to see each one of them be a successful and profitable operation. One customer told him that of all the inputs he had on the farm, Growers provided the best return on investment.
Steve works with farms of all sizes, from small Amish and English up to large operations. The Growers program is effective on all sized and varied operations, and Steve's customer base is a prime example of this. I have visited Amish, produce, dairy, row crop, and other types of operations with him, and all are satisfied with the Growers program and Steve's expertise. He says he's no expert, but he clearly has enough knowledge and experience to be able to help operations of all kinds. Though Steve has been with the Growers organization for many years, he is really beginning to grow and take more of a leadership role.
Though he has many years ahead of him, Steve's children are almost in adulthood and are showing interest in taking up the reins for both the farm and Growers. It is always exciting to have so many generations of a family involved with the company.
This is an excerpt from the Summer Growers Solution (2019) written by Zach Smith.
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