DEERFIELD, Ohio — Timely equipment, facility upgrades and service-minded team members are responsible for strengthening Deerfield Farms Service and its customers and putting them above the competition.
Investments in facilities and equipment at each Deerfield Farms Service location have helped farmer-customers boost profits and efficiency while maintaining low input costs and strengthening the bottom line.
“Working with customers and helping them to be the most successful, that’s what’s important to us,” said Bill Wallbrown, president of Deerfield Farms Service.
“I feel we’ve got a really good group of [team members] and we help and add value to the agricultural community because of our people, and that makes all the difference in the world.”
Moving forward. Deerfield Farms Service is more than 50 years old and traces its roots to a small corn and hog operation started by the late Boyd Wallbrown Jr. and his wife, Joan, at the present site in Deerfield, Ohio.
The farm gradually grew and the Wallbrowns saw an opportunity to offer products and services to area farmers.
Today, that retail business has grown into a full-service grain elevator; fertilizer, seed and crop protection agronomy center; and grain drying, storage and equipment supplier. It has six locations throughout northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania and is still operated by the Wallbrown family.
With a growing team of more than 70 full- and part-time employees, Deerfield Farms Service maintains a focus on customer needs and service, which has led to long relationships with area farmers.
Grain. Offering six grain elevators with a total licensed storage capacity of 4.6 million bushels, the company services the entire region with locations in Deerfield, Louisville, and Kinsman, Ohio; and Volant, Carlton, and Mount Jackson, Pa.
The company’s grain department offers marketing strategies to area producers, including marketing workshops, target orders and one-on-one marketing assistance.
The company has also teamed up with Diversified Services to offer crop insurance, a risk management tool.
The last year saw the addition of a locally based technician to service farmers’ crop insurance needs in this area.
Equipment. In addition to grain, Deerfield Farms sells and services a full line of grain storage, drying and handling equipment, including Brock grain bins, feed bins and dryers, Hutchinson augers, DMC stirators and air systems, Baldor motors, and Honeyville bucket elevators.
Equipment division team members can offer a full line of sales, service, and installation with decades of experience to aid customers in profitability and efficiency.
Agronomy. A full service agronomy division, equipped with knowledgeable staff, is also a vital piece to the Deerfield Farms Service retail business.
Agronomy service centers, located at both Deerfield, Ohio, and New Wilmington, Pa., offer a full line of agronomic services, including custom application, crop protection, crop consulting, and agricultural seeds and commercial fertilizers.
Dry fertilizer spreader rentals and soil sampling services are a key part of the wide variety of services offered to producers to increase yields.
Continued growth. Although 2009 had ups and downs related to the overall economy, the Deerfield Farms Service team continued to grow by maintaining focus on what it does best — providing value-added service to the customer.
The Deerfield team places special emphasis on the company’s people and practices, including using the latest technology, updated equipment and personnel training, to create the greatest efficiency and least expense for the company and the customer.
For instance, the company uses GPS for custom fertilizer application; they added an additional spreader to the fleet this year and rebuilt or repaired others to improve service to customers.
A newer agronomy warehouse at the Deerfield location has also saved in labor and product damage costs.
Improvements at other locations include the addition of a 110,000-bushel storage bin and overhead conveyors at Deerfield; a 165,000-bushel bin at Louisville; and an additional 300,000 bushels of storage in addition to a new 1,000-bushel dump pit at Kinsman.
The dump pit, sized the same as those at the company’s Volant, Deerfield and Louisville locations, will allow a truck to dump an entire load and pull away, cutting down on wait time at the elevator, according to Wallbrown.
The Pennsylvania agronomy service center is also being relocated to the Volant site and should be fully open and operational by this fall, he added.
Commitment. The Deerfield Farms Service team is committed to the local agricultural industry and serving producers and focuses on building lasting partnerships that will stand the test of time.
Deerfield Farms Service’s main office is located at 9041 state Route 224, just west of the circle in Deerfield, Ohio. For more information call 330-584-4715 or 800-589-8606 or visit www.deerfieldfarms.com.
