ADVENTURES IN AGRICULTURE

S&S Ag Supply LLC has been growing and diversifying steadily the past 20 years to the point where a new headquarters of operation was necessary. The result? A brand-new 21,000 square-foot facility in Freeman that helps accent Highway 81.

When Paula (Schmeichel) VerDouw left to study accounting at Augustana University after graduating from Freeman Academy in 2004, she had no aspirations of returning to work with her dad, Steve, and her younger brother, Ethan, on the Schmeichel family farm.

None whatsoever.

“When I left for Augie, the last thing on my mind was: A. working for the family business, or; B. working in agriculture, and here I am doing both,” says Paula, who returned to S&S Ag Supply LLC in late 2016 after working in business and land operations for Sonstegard Foods, an egg wholesaler in Sioux Falls. “Some days it can be challenging, but these two guys are very knowledgeable and know what’s going on in this industry. So, it’s fun for me to be able to support them in what they’re doing here and be a part of it.”

Paula, 37, doesn’t mind her new office space, either, which is located at the front of the sales floor inside the still-smells-new headquarters of S&S Ag Supply. The Schmeichels and their five other full-time employees moved into their new building, located on the east side of Highway 81 just southeast of the Freeman Country Inn, on March 1 after a ground-up construction project that began last fall.

“It’s awesome,” says Paula, who handles the business side of the operation and reasoned that her time with Sonstegard Foods helped lead her back home. “I saw how (my brother and dad) were growing here, and I was like, ‘If I can help this business grow in the ag industry, I may as well use that knowledge to help my family’s business.’”

“She also said, ‘Hey, you guys got too much (stuff) going on that you’re not keeping track of,’” says Steve. “And that was true.”

It’s all been part of a perfect storm for a true family business that has seen unexpected and diversified growth.

The new, 21,000 square-foot building is the biggest move yet for an operation that goes back to Steve’s grandfather, Charley Fliginger, a farmer and entrepreneur himself who built relationships through his purebred Shorthorn cattle and hog operations before starting a used car dealership — Willow Inn on Freeman’s Sixth Street — in 1972.

Steve’s dad, Melvin, followed suit with seed and pigs in the 1950s, and Steve did the same after graduating from Freeman Academy in 1974 — and then some. By the time Ethan, 34 in June, returned to the operation in 2006 after three years at South Dakota State University, it had grown to the point where it needed a new name, so S&S Ag Supply LLC was born — S&S for Steve and Son.

“You’d think that enough was enough, but we’ve just kept on going,” Steve says.

It wasn’t long before precision planting products, chemical and fertilizer, and wood-pellet grills and lawnmowers joined the more traditional livestock and grain crop practices — and all of it from their farming operation southeast of Freeman toward Hurley.

“We’re a little weird,” says Steve. “From the get-go we were in the seed business and then we dabbled a little bit here and there, and then we do some other stuff …”

“We do so many things that aren’t normal, and much of it is seasonal,” he continued. “I wish we could say this is exactly how we planned for this to happen …”

New digs, same philosophy

Given the growth and diversity of the business, putting up a new building to complement the on-farm operation just made sense, and the result can be plainly seen by those passing by Freeman’s eastern edge.

Headquarters for S&S Ag Supply is located on what had been used as farmland by the Schmeichel family at the corner of Highway 81 and 279th St. The front entrance faces west and the building features a 3,600 square foot showroom/sales floor with offices around the perimeter and a coffee corner for the coffee guys.

The products on display reflect the diversity of S&S Ag — Fromm dog food and 9Lives cat food, Louisiana smokers and Pit Boss flattops, Boars Night Out and B & B seasonings, eXmark lawn mowers and engine oil, Kawasaki oil filters and Roundup herbicide.

Further east through the sales floor is a climate-controlled room with a treater system and shop area, and beyond that is cold storage — the largest area of the three-section building.

“So far everything’s been fun,” says Steve. “It’s been putting everything where it needs to go and we’re trying to add products that we think people can use.”

Not long ago, he said, somebody called wondering if they sold chicken feed.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know; I don’t think so. Should we?’” Steve responded. “And he was like, ‘Yeah, you should get chicken feed.’ And I was, ‘OK, we’ll talk about it.’”

Guess what product is coming next to S&S Ag Supply?

“It’s real now,” Ethan says of the new big step forward. “It was a fantasy a little while ago, but now it’s here. We’re doing our best to make it all work, and we’re looking to grow.”

Part of that growth is the addition of three new full-time employees since construction of the new building began last September, and more may be coming as business growth dictates.

But the Schmeichels will remain true to who they have always been. The products they sell are products they use themselves; “a lot of this stuff is here because they are items and products that we we’ve used in our family and we’ve really enjoyed it, and we want to share them with others,” says Paula.

And they won’t sell anything they don’t believe will offer their customers a return on investment — even if it makes the business money.

“There are certain products that we won’t push because we know it’s not going to make money for the people we’re selling them to,” Ethan says.

That’s just part of the customer service S&S Ag Supply has built its business on.

“Service will hopefully drive our sales,” says Steve. “We know we’ve got a lot of competition. We have CHS that way, you have Hefty over there and you have Helena over there. People might think, ‘What are you doing?’ But we are up for the challenge, knowing that it’s a competitive business, but I think that’s good. I think it makes everybody better.

“For us, we have to try to do everything we promised and then some.”

At 67 years old, Steve has no want to step away, but he has no problem stepping back. And that’s been the trend in more recent years.

“With Paula and Ethan more involved, I usually ask more questions than I tell them what to do, and it’s time,” he says. “There are some people who don’t want to let go, but I’m OK with that. I’m OK just showing up.”

But he’s got plenty of working hours left in him, too, and not just the hours of operation posted on the front door.

“Our hours really don’t mean anything,” Steve says. “If somebody needs seed at 9 at night, guess what? They’re going to get it.

“That’s the way our business started and that’s the way we want to grow.”