Lancaster Ag Products along with its sister company, Bio Farm Resources, is located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania-the "Garden Spot of the World." A quick tour through its facilities in the scenic village of Ronks reveals how rapidly this business, which serves community family farms with natural and organic products, has grown. Each time the company has expanded since its beginning in 1994, it has done so to meet the needs and requests of those it serves. Lancaster Ag's goal is to fill the gaps where no products or services existed before.
The 30-member staff works together as a team to back their Lancaster Ag products with top-notch service. An essential part of that service is to inform and educate their clientele about the products being purchased. Service and education are two key ways Lancaster Ag benefits the farming community.
Co-founder Stephen E. Stoltzfus gave his sons many opportunities on the 52-acre family farm along Old Philadelphia Pike, just east of Bird-In-Hand. One of his young sons enjoyed riding around on a wagon during playtime, pretending to sell products from the seed and cow catalogs to the farm cats and dogs. He left his furry customers with the words, "I'll be back," just like he heard the service-minded salesmen tell his own dad when they made a sale. That was most likely the early beginnings of Lancaster Ag!
Stephen and his son, Reuben, started this renewable agriculture business in 1994 in a small corner of a building on the family farm. Earlier, Reuben had left agriculture work for ten years to work in his uncles metal shop, manufacturing compost machines and other equipment. He discovered a need in Lancaster County for testing of compost and soils, and demands for his services increased. This is when he and his father began dry mixing soil amendments with compost on their farm.
A natural curiosity and desire to help their clientele prompted Reuben to educate himself about soil programs and sustainable agriculture. He credits his many teachers and mentors for what they have done for him. These include Dr. Siegfried Lubka, Dr. Dan Skow, Dr. Anfried Peifer, Dr. Arden Anderson, Dr. Paul Dettloff, Dave Larson, Bob Pike, Jerry Brunetti, Elmer Stoltzfus, and others. The more Reuben was able to pass information on to his clientele, the greater the demand for these organic products became. Out of this need to educate, inform, consult, and readily provide renewable farm products, Lancaster Ag was born.
The farming community was ready and eager for Lancaster Ag's products and the outstanding service that they offered. Responding to the needs of the farmers and gardeners they serve, Lancaster Ag has steadily added divisions throughout the past fourteen years.
In addition to these divisions, there are four specialists who staff the call center where orders are processed and information and recommendations are given. Weekly and monthly deliveries are important components of Lancaster Ag's Services. The company also offers a pallet program that ships to 23 states in the East from Maine to South Carolina and includes Midwest states as far distant as southern portions of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
To emphasis continuing education and take advantage of current research, Lancaster Ag has sponsored field days in th summer on the Stoltzfus Family Farm. Seed specialists, soil consultants, homeopathic veterinarians, and other experts have given seminars under the tents that were set up to accommodate more than 600 participants from throughout the U.S. and Canada. Through newsletters, the catalog and on farm training work shops. Lancaster Ag provides the education and promotes the use of their over 1000 products.
Lancaster Ag is a faith-based company that strives to educate and inform as well as provide sustainable agriculture products to its clientele. Our business goal is to provide products and services that give a solid foundation for sustainable agriculture; however, the true foundation for success is a faith- and spirit-based issue. Prayer and meditation, along with products and personal effects, cab provide a bountiful outcome. A high priority is to conduct business with integrity and credibility and to give back to the community the blessings this locally-owned business has received. "This is the Lord's business and we are simply vehicles by which it is run." This quote is at the heart of Lancaster Ag Products.