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Featured headlines from in and around Sherman County.
Sherman County Business Spotlight
Welcome to the Sherman County Business Spotlight!
We'll feature stories about local entrepreneurs, highlight unique products and services, and showcase the diverse and dynamic business community that calls Sherman County home.
Follow along to discover hidden gems, support local businesses, and stay connected to what's happening in our community. This will be sent out on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month.
Farming is very much a family business in northwest Kansas, and 21st Century Bean has roots that reach back to the days of the infamous Dewey-Berry Feud.
“My bunch came in 1886,” said Alan Townsend, the company president.
The Townsend family homesteaded north of Brewster, but it was a risky time to be a farmer, or a rancher, in Rawlins County. Daniel Berry and his family wanted the high plains for growing crops; Chauncey Dewey wanted the area for raising cattle.
“My great granddad said, ‘We need to move. There's going to be a fight up here,’” Alan explained.
The family came to Sherman County and started a farm that has now spanned six generations.
“When I came home from college in 1974, I had 17 family members -- uncles and cousins -- who were directly involved in farming within two and a half miles of the homestead,” Alan said.
Alan still works the family farm, with his son Ross.
“Pretty much every farm within 120 miles of here is a family farm,” said Brian Linin, a member of the board at 21st Century Bean. “I think I'm the fourth generation, and my son's going to come into the business also.”
Brian says his son took to farm life at an early age.
“I remember, my son was a baby. He could just barely talk. He was sitting on my lap in the combine at harvest, and I said, ‘Blair, you ready to go home?’ He said, ‘No, I want to stay here.’ It was like five or six o'clock at night,” Brian recalled. “He sits there for about another 10 or 15 minutes and falls asleep. He’s sitting there, sleeping on my lap while I'm running the combine, until we were done that night at nine or 10 o'clock.”
“Every family you talk to out here would be able to tell you a story just like that,” Brian said.
BRINGING FARMERS TOGETHER
When 21st Century Bean was founded in the 1990s, there were roughly 30 bean companies within 60 miles of Goodland.
“There were all these little places where you took your beans in the fall, and they ran them over a cleaner, and then they packaged them in big bags and sold them,” Alan explained.
A group called 21st Century Alliance approached farmers in the area about working together to improve efficiency and streamline operations.
“They were trying to model what was going on in the Dakotas, where farmers were going together and building these large, vertical, integrated opportunities for various businesses,” Alan explained.
The group built a flour mill, then two dairies, and a facility to make fiber board from wheat straw, before they decided to start processing dry beans.
“The bean company is the only entity that survived out of that big, large push,” Alan said. “This little bean company out here is still rolling after 28 years.”
Today, 21st Century Bean currently operates a state-of-the-art cleaning and bulk packaging facility in Sharon Springs, a facility for packaging smaller quantities just west of Goodland, and a receiving and storage facility in Goodland’s Industrial Park.
The facilities currently employ around 30 people and Alan estimates there are probably another 400-500 people involved in growing and harvesting the beans. Together, they deliver 40 million pounds of food each year – providing as many as 2 million servings each day.
“It's mind boggling,” Alan said. “We really can feed the world.”
FEEDING A GROWING NEED
The USDA, which stocks food banks here in Kansas and across the country, is the company’s biggest customer. Some years, 21st Century Bean provides 50% of the beans bought by the USDA.
“They’re a good food product,” Brian said. “They’re high in protein, high fiber, and they’re cheap.”
Providing beans to food banks is 80-90% of their business, with the rest being sold to restaurants and stores, or directly to consumers.
“We have an online store,” Alan said. “We made up smaller packages and soup beans. People like to buy that stuff directly from the bean company. They know it from growers who are local.”
If you’ve dined at The Dish Room, in Burlington, Colorado, you may have already tasted the product grown by local farmers.
“There's about six varieties of beans that are grown here locally,” Brian said. “Pinto is the number one volume that we sell. But then we also have black eyed peas, black beans, small reds, great northerns, Mayocobas, garbanzos. All those all can be grown in this area. They fit the climate and they grow well.”
Shareholders in 21st Century Bean must commit to delivering a certain quantity of beans in order to share in the profits, but farmers do not have to be shareholders to sell their crops to the company.
“We'll receive beans from anyone who wants to deliver them. We're not exclusive just to stockholders,” he said.
THE MAGIC OF BEANS
Growing beans isn’t just good for the local economy, it increases soil health and improves the habitat for native wildlife.
“They're a really nice rotational crop,” Brian explained. “The beans come off early enough that you can grow wheat behind that, and the wheat stubble is really good for growing corn. The next quarter, you grow milo, and the benefits of that are just off the charts.”
They require lower water and fertilizer, which helps increase soil health and decrease greenhouse gases.
Beans promote sustainable agriculture. They utilize nutrients in the soil that other crops leave behind, reducing the need for fertilizer. Beans also require less pesticide and require half the water needed to grow corn or milo.
“You have to use some chemicals early on to help prevent weeds, but then you don't use a lot later in the season,” Alan said. “You can save water, and then your production on the other crops is better after growing beans.”
Rotating beans into the growing cycle also helps wildlife thrive on the high plains. Alan says deer favor corn, but antelope prefer to eat beans.
“I always see more antelope than deer out there,” said Brian. “Deer like to hide, they like to go into the big corn. The antelope don't go in the corn, they like to see. They like the bean fields. They like to eat them when they're green. And then they hang around, because you’ve got wheat behind there.”
RISKS AND REWARDS
There’s no magic formula for successfully growing beans. Alan and Brian admit it can be tough, but say it is also rewarding.
“I mean, ‘22 and ‘23 were really devastating on the drought end of things, and in ‘23 and ’24, we had bad hail,” Alan said.
“Beans do not respond well to hail. When they get hail, they're usually pretty much done,” Brian added.
Compared to other crops, beans are a little more sensitive to changes in the environment.
“If the weather's not somewhat favorable to their growing conditions, they're tougher to grow than corn,” Brian explained. “You have to be committed to growing them, and trying to make it work, because it's just a little more challenging."
"But the reward is there, because they're usually worth more than other crops.”
Weather isn’t the only factor that bean producers have to consider. Running a successful agriculture business requires a mastery of finance and logistics, and expert knowledge of market trends and economic issues that could impact delivery.
“What do we think freight is going to do? What's fuel doing? Is Iraq going to bomb something?” Alan said. “Do we have enough bean to fill the order? If we don't, where are we going to get them? How much are they going to cost? How long is it going to take us to clean them?”
Alan says it’s always a gamble when you bid on those contracts.
“Get out the dice, right?” he laughed.
“You're bidding a two-week delivery window, at a food bank somewhere in the United States, three months in advance,” he explained. “You're putting a freight number in there that you think you can make work. It's slim enough that you think you might get the bid, but it's fat enough that you know you could cover the cost of the freight.”
Even with all those challenges and the inherent risk, Brian and Alan say beans are a crop worth growing.
“When you see it, when you experience it, you see what the potential is there, and you recognize the benefits, you want to go on with it,” Brian said.
IT TAKES ALL KINDS
There’s a lot more to making a farm work than just working the land. Every farm has different needs, and those needs change from generation to generation. Brian says people looking for employment may not realize how many options there are at local farms.
“There are opportunities that I never thought would be available,” Brian said. “I always thought it was going to be a manager, with a bunch of people working on a packing line. But now we've got a whole office full of people that are professionals – accounting people and marketing people.”
Brian stressed that getting an education is important, because every farm has different needs. While farms will always need people with mechanical and fabrication skills, who can repair equipment and machinery, they also need employees with the knowledge to manage a business and help position it for the future.
Alan and Brian say 21st Century Bean has benefited from having the technical college, Fort Hays Tech Northwest, here in Goodland.
“We're really fortunate to have that, with their diesel program, the tech program, and the engineering, the whole nine yards,” Brian said.
Stacey Masters, the manager at 21st Century Bean, graduated from the tech college, and now puts together bids for contracts, helps anticipate changes in the market, and works to develop new accounts.
“It's big business when you're selling 200 million servings a year,” Brian said.
“She’s really good,” he added. “She brought a level of professionalism to the bean company that I never thought would be there.”
CHANGING WITH THE TIMES
The agriculture industry has changed dramatically since the Townsends and the Linins started their family farms all those years ago, and there is always new technology coming into the field. Brian says it’s exciting to see a new generation get interested in new ways to work on a farm.
“One of the most important things about that is you've got kids coming into agriculture that previously wouldn't have come in, because it wasn't sexy, right?” Brian laughed.
“Kids want to do drones and robotics and stuff. Well, that wasn't an agriculture thing until the last 15 or 20 years. Now it's huge.”
Alan and Brian say 21st Century Bean is always evaluating new technologies, so that they're ready for the next big opportunity.
“We're on the list to get a robot next year that's a spray robot that's unmanned and it's solar powered,” he added. “I mean, it's crazy.”
Brian wants young people to know there’s a future in farming, right here in Sherman County.
“They should come and take a look. It might be a fit for them,” Brian said. "They might make it bigger and better than we ever thought we could."
21st Century Bean
1048 Old Hwy 24 (Packaging Facility)
1701 N. Industry Rd. (Goodland Industrial Park - Receiving, Storage, and Loading Docks Facility for overflow)
Goodland, KS 67735
785-898-0007
www.21stcenturybean.com
https://www.facebook.com/21stcenturybean
Comments and questions can be sent to anicapadilla@outlook.com
