A leader in agricultural services, Van Horn Inc. has worked with Central Illinois growers for more than 75 years as a partner in the field.  Van Horn Inc. is the only 100 percent employee owned agriculture service-company in Illinois, operating eight  facilities including Warrensburg, Dewitt, Macon, Findlay, Bethany, Sullivan , Cerro Gordo and Goodwine. Van Horn serves more than 4500 customers in 13 counties, providing fertilizers, seed, crop protection, consultation and custom application services to local farmers.

Van Horn Inc. started in 1934 as Van Horn Seed Company, a small family owned business. Forty-two years later, owner Lyle Van Horn sold the company to his employees before he retired. Today, Van Horn Inc has 70 employees, servicing more than 800,000 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in Central Illinois.

Van Horn Inc. is a nationally recognized agriculture corporation. In 2010, Van Horn Inc.was ranked 51 of the top 100 dealers in the United States by Crop Life Magazine. In2009 the company celebrated their 75th Anniversary and 35 years of employee ownership.

A Rich History…

The Van Horn Seed Company was started in 1934 by W.C. Van Horn and his son, Lyle. Lyle planted the first hybrid seed corn in the spring of 1934 near LaPlace on the Piatt County farm owned by his father. It produced one bushel of seed corn. By 1936, five acres were planted and the farm slowly continued to grow.

In 1950, Lyle Van Horn purchased his father’s interest in the company and it was incorporated in 1955 as Van Horn Hybrids, Inc. with Lyle, Ruth Van Horn and Melvin Keepper as stockholders. As commercial fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides were developed, the company added these products for their customers, along with spray equipment by 1968.

When Lyle decided to retire in 1974, he offered to sell Van Horn Hybrids, Inc. to the employees, which started one of the first Employee Stock Ownership Programs in the state of Illinois.

In 1988 Roger Oliver was named president upon Keepper’s retirement.  In order to expand the service area, the company purchased a second location at Warrensburg in 1993. Over the next 15 years Van Horn continued to grow with the purchases of facilities in Dewitt in 1997, Bethany in 2000, Sullivan in 2001, Findlay in 2004 ,Macon in 2008 and Goodwine in 2011.