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Northwest Iowa | What ever happened to the company, Do they still exist, I know Dad planted it and said it was good corn. Haven't heard of them in years. |
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north central ky | no, they are no more. it was founded here in my county. i'm pretty sure they sold the buisiness years ago(30 yrs or so) |
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| Don Funk was the owner. Later owned Crows, then sold it to Monsanto. They then started "Channel" with the Crows, NC+, & Midwest Genetics Seed Companies. |
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| I believe they were headquartered in Kentland Indiana by Edward J and sons. the company had spin offs. most of the boys have past away or got out of the seed business. I believe 1 may still be going as Frontiersman, a Monsanto sub. |
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North Central Iowa | I believe they are in the history of SYngenta. My dad sold Funks 30 years ago prior to being bought by Ciba seed then later Novartis then Syngenta. I found this in the McLean county Musem .....In 1967 Funk Bros. Seed Co. was purchased by CPC International, Inc. and in 1972 the company went public under the name Funk Seeds International, Inc. In 1974 the company was purchased by Ciba-Geigy. Ciba-Geigy had already been producing insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides. The company has since merged with several others: AstraZeneca and Sygenta which is still producing agricultural products |
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East Prairie, MO | And now that whole crew of guys that took Crow's that went on to become Channel have bought Pfister hybrids. Guessing they will try to ramp it up and do the same thing they did with Crow's, starting out with some of the same buying incentive programs Crow's was known for. |
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se wi | We plant some Frontiersman here, does just fine. Dick Funk and his son run it and it's still in Kentland. I've got the grill from his brother's mercedes mounted on the front of our gator. Neither one of us think it's odd either. |
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| I believe there's a little confusion here. Funk Seeds & Funk's G were two different seed companys Ibelieve due to a split from FunK Bros. Funk was locatated in Kentland IN and is now Frontiersman. Funk's G was bought out by Ciba-Giegy When they closed the Rockville, IN facility a lot of equipment was bought by Hubner Seeds in West Lebanon, IN. Some of the breeders & others left Funk's G and help start Golden Harvest. Ciba & GH were later bought by Syengenta.
My Uncle sold Funks G for 40 yrs. It was a good corn with excelent tw & yield. However in the mid '70s they began to have stalk issues. Last yr I planted any was in 1977. Pioneerdealer had given me 4 bags to try that yr. We had a big hailstorm on Sept 30th. Fub=nks G wascompletely flat. Pioneer planted next to it in a planter side by side was over 80% standing. |
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Nevada, Iowa | boog - 12/12/2011 09:18
Some of the breeders & others left Funk's G and help start Golden Harvest. Ciba & GH were later bought by Syengenta.
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I was not aware of that but I do seem to recall that RobSeeCo (later known as Golden Harvest) grew and marketed Funk's G hybrids in the western district, until they split off and founded GH. That would have been sometime shortly after the Ciba buyout in 1975.
Also, Edward J. Funk and Sons marketed hybrids under the name Super Crost (at least for awhile) . I found this interesting link which may shed light on their eventual disappearance. It seems that everything that goes around, come around. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/05/business/company-news-garst-seed-... |
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Modena, Wisconsin | Dad sold Funks G from 1950 until 1975 and in the last couple years was getting beaten badly by Pioneer so in 1976 he started selling Pioneer. He sold Pioneer until 1999. I remember unloading many trucks delivering seed here. In those days here we would deliver with a pickup and a pickup load may have covered 10-15 customers. Lots of 2-5 bag orders back then. The one number from Funks G I remember was G4252. That was the big seller here for a number of years. |
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Bloomfield, KY. | I don't believe the two Funk families were closely related. The Funk's G hybrid people were from Bloomington, IL. They were descendants of Isaac Funk, who was born in central KY., and moved to Ohio and then to IL. as a young man. He amassed thousands of acres of central IL. prairie--I believe around a 100,000 acres if I recall correctly. He was a very powerful man in politics in the mid-1800s. His grandson, Eugene Funk, was a pioneer in the development of hybrid corn, beginning as far back, I think, as the 1890s.
The Funks from Indiana, were descendants of Edward J. Funk. He began producing hybrid seed corn in the mid-1930s. The brand name was Super Crost.
Funk's G was the largest seed corn company in the country in the early years. When I was young, it was still one of the Big 3, along with Dekalb & Pioneer. They were acquired by CIBA-Geigy, and eventually disappeared as the result of acquisitions & mergers.
Golden Harvest & Agri-Gold were started by growers associated with Funk's G.
As far as I know, no one from the IL. Funk family is associated with the seed corn business today. The home farm of Eugene Funk is, I think, operated by a foundation or something. I think his home is open for tours.
Super Crost was never larger than a regional brand. Edward J. Funk's grandson, Don, is still a player in the seed corn industry.
Jack McClaskey |
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Kentland Indiana | And now from the sounds of things, some of them are starting to leave Pfisters. Time will tell where they end up, but wherever they land, that company will get a good set of guys to work for them |
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Henderson, Minnesota | the FFA 304 bushel challenge? |
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| You are correct. Golden Harvest and Agri-Gold have roots with Funks. It is my understanding that both Agri-Gold and LG, as well as the AgReliant Gentics Family are closely associated with the Funks corn hybrid research. Some people say they are the same company, just under a different ownership name. |
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Martinsville, Ohio | Here is the story:
http://deltafarmpress.com/corn/304-bushel-corn-1955
Funks has been discussed here many times in 10 years.
Here is a link to free download of two books on the subject. http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=subject%3A%22Funk+Brothers+Seed+Co...
Australia, of all places. Aussies ahead of us again LOL.
There is a good history on a couple of seed corn websites but don't have them handy.
When I hear Funk's I think of Hoot Gibson, my dealer. He lived in those Funk hats.
Ed
Edited by Ed Winkle 12/12/2011 19:12
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Elizabethtown,KY | My dad planted a lot of Funk's G hybrids back in the 60's, as I remember it was good corn, I never was impressed with Supercrost, we never grew any of it, but watched others who did. |
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Kossuth county, Iowa | +1 |
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Martinsville, Ohio | Yes I remember that. Isn't that sad? We lost half our farmers in the 80's. Still don't like it when I think about it.
I remember 3369A and 3352 everywhere before they hit the jackpot with 3394, that was until the Achilles Heal appeared and it crashed to the ground and Holden crosses took over.
The rest is history they say.
Ed |
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Manila, Ar | Agrigold......:) |
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Pulaski, TN | Used to plant a lot of Funk's Big G Hybrid ( I think that is what it was called). The corn blight of the early 70's wipped out the Funks while the Pioneer and Dekalb withstood it. That did Funks in around here. I wish I could think of the name of that variety we used to plant. |
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WCIN | G-94 ? |
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N.W. Illinois | The year was 1970 and it was Southern Corn Leaf Blight. Corn hybrids that had the Texas T Cytoplasm was susceptible to the blight. Corn hybrids with Texas T Cytoplasm were male sterile. Corn companies did not have to detassel the corn. The cytoplasm weakened the corns natural resistance to Southern Corn Leaf Blight. With a wet, warm, high humidity summer it spelled disaster. Corn was dying in early August from the blight. National yields we reduced over 700 million bushels from the blight. Corn prices went nuts.
None of the Funks G hybrids we planted had this cytoplasm. This included G4444 which was a fantastic hybrid way ahead of it's time. In fact in 1975 Herman Warsaw was the first farmer to grow 300 bushel corn using G4444. We planted a bunch of G4444 without the knowledge of the blight becoming such a big factor. Funks G4444 was easily 50- 100 bushels better then corn with the T Cytoplasm.
I remember DeKalb being hit very hard by the blight and that lead to huge market share loss by DeKalb.
I don't know about Pioneers genetics at that time. We did not plant any. That was to change quickly for us as Pioneer in 1973 introduced 3780 and then 3732 soon after. 3780 and 3732 were both game changers in the seed industry and were soon the most dominate hybrids ever. Funks never had a replacement for G4444. That along with Ciba Geigy mismanagement spelled the end of Funks G hybrids. |
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deep SW On. | We also grew G4444 which was a long season hybrid and 1977 was a wet,nasty fall and we also had 3780A from P and it was much drierer and smaller fodder,plowed better,ect.-1978-all P3780A-extremely dry and guess how 3780A performed,,not drought tolerant..fwiw P seed that year was net ,early pay $35 a bag..after Ciba-then sygenta bought seed plant here which they closed a few years ago I don't think we grew any more Funk G...dad said dekalb 45 was hot corn in '60's |
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| They didn't buy Pfister. They're just Dow employees. |
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| You are "right on" with these facts.
I was a DSManager for 20 years with; first, Funk Bros. Seed Company, then Funk Seeds International. I was there when CIBA-GEIGY bought them and promised to "never change that grand old logo", (hogwash).
Swallowed up it eventually lost it's own identity but my 401K when eventually cashed in came through Sygenta! |
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| Nope,,,,, here's the straight poop,,, I was with Funk Seeds (not Edward J Funk and Sons-that's a completely different company), for 20 years. And saw it go from Funk Bros. Seed Co. to Funk Seeds International, then eventually bought out and owned by CPC International later then to go "public" before CIBA GEIGY purchased it and eventually swallowed up by the Swiss owners of CIBA GEIGY to end up under the 'umbrella' of Syngenta! |
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| Oops, forgot to post this which tells the story of Funk's G Hybrids.
https://archive.org/stream/funkfarmsbirthpl00funk#page/n3/mode/2up
It's worth a look. |
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| I was a District Sales Manager in southeastern Wisconsin for, (1st) Funk Bros. Seed Co. then Funk Seeds International. Eventually after being publicly owned at one time and being owned by Corn Products Company International (CPC International), they were bought by CIBA GEIGY soon to be swallowed up by the parent company and eventually under the "umbrella" of Syngenta.
I was there when Southern Corn Leaf Blight hit and it was a great day for Funk's G Hybrids, for we were the ONLY company that had forseen this occurance, (I recall a meeting in Chicago when ALL the district reps were brought in for the announcement that "next year we will be going back to detassling our seed because of a thing called "T Cytoplasm" that created male sterility, but ALSO allowed a "new disease" to attach offspring of that parent).
There was a huge groan in the room for we all knew that was going to increase seed prices, and at that point we had no idea how bad SCLB would turn out to be.
Yes G-4444 was "king of the hill" not only because of SCLB but also because it far surpassed DeKalb's XL45 which was the "hot hybrid" prior to G-4444.
The Funk company that produced G-4444 was NOT Edw. J Funk and son's of Kentland In. !!!! Edw. J. used to love it when they were confused with Funk's G Hybrids!!!
Here is a link that will take you to the story of Eugene Funk and his brother of McClean Co., Ill. who are the forefathers of Funk Bros. Seed Co.
https://archive.org/stream/funkfarmsbirthpl00funk#page/n3/mode/2up
As I read through this old thread I find that some of you guys are at least partially correct, and some are WAY off base.
Just a bit more about the Funk Associates. Funk Bros. Seed Company had what were called "Associated Growers". These were (mostly) smaller seed companies that had contracts with Funk's to access parent stock and grow Funk products. The original company in their quest to expand could not cover the entire US and so they made these contracts with people like RobSeeCo, )Robinson Seed Company, even a producer in Canada and a number of others whose names I do not recall at the moment. Actually Wisconsin and a couple of counties in north western Ill were under contract with the Schissler Seed Company until about the time I was hired and the parent company bought back the contract for Wisconsin.
These Associates banded together about the time that CIBA GEIGY got into the act and they pulled out of Funk Seeds to form Golden Harvest. That's a sketch of how THAT happened.
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| You pretty much have nailed it. You will find this link interesting. Nice little 36 page history. The last I knew there was a small museum type thing in a place called Funk's Grove. It's just south of Bloomington, Ill if I remember right and it might still be there.
Here's the booklet.
https://archive.org/stream/funkfarmsbirthpl00funk#page/n3/mode/2up
Here's a link to the Funk's Grove site, quite nice, check it out.
http://www.funkprairiehomemuseum.com/index.php |
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Funk's seed corn
