After 30 years of selling seeds to farmers, Grass & Sons Seed near LeRoy has planted a new future of its own.

The supplier of various seed products, including corn, soybeans, small grains and grass opened a new store front in the fall. Now, the new business expands what owners Dave and Jody Lunning can offer to farmers.

“We felt like this second business with the Hefty Seed Company store front complements our seed business very well,” Dave said.

Instead of just selling seed and food grade soybeans, the Lunnings now offer a variety of crop protection items, from fertilizers to pesticides and herbicides. That’s because they signed a contract and joined Hefty Seed Company’s growing chain of stores. According to Dave, that should help both his business and local farmers.

“We’ve been thinking for several years about getting into crop protection products,” Dave said. “Everybody had the same thing, and you don’t really have anything that separates you from anyone else. Working with Hefty has given us that opportunity.”

By joining Hefty, the Lunnings have nearly doubled their seed selection while entering the crop protection market, as well.

“Really, we have just expanded our offering … by a whole lot,” Dave said.

So with plenty of choices, the Lunnings can offer better package deals.

“Between the two, we can really put together a very economical price package for a farmer to produce his crop.”

According to Lunning, the winter is a good time for many farmers to pre-order their seeds and get the best prices, too. However, Dave said Hefty’s business model is more about educating farmers than pushing products on them. The business founders of Hefty have a television show, which airs on KAAL, and there may also be some informational workshops held at the Lunnings new store.

Grass & Sons Seed was started by John Grass Jr. and his wife Sharon roughly 30 years ago, and son and daughter-in-law Jody and Dave took over in 2009. With the recent expansion, they are content to wait and see how things go before any more plans.

“This is probably enough for little while,” Dave said.