How Funk Farms Helped Shape Commercial Seed Corn in America

Few farms in Illinois carry as much agricultural significance as the Funk's Farm. Located in McLean County, the farm has been continuously operated by the Funk family for two centuries and its influence on American agriculture stretches far beyond its own fields.

Brian Bangert, who has managed the farm since 2013, traces that legacy directly to the seed industry. "Funk Farms is one of the most historically significant farms related specifically to the seed industry," he said. "It was the first and foremost company for selling commercial seed corn in the early 1900s, and that was all driven towards helping other local livestock producers more efficiently raise the grain that they fed livestock."

The motivation was straightforward: economics. "They were keenly aware that they needed to raise more per acre to help lower costs," Bangert said.

That drive toward efficiency produced one of the most recognizable names in Midwest corn history — Funk's G Hybrid. But the story behind the name surprises many visitors. "Many people ask if the G stood for Gene Funk, and actually it did not," Bangert explained. "Funk's G Hybrid had many different genetic lines, and they lettered them (A,B,C, etc) and they ended up on G."

Today, the farm continues the integrated livestock and grain model that defined its founding. The operation runs a feeding capacity of 1,000 head of cattle alongside a cowherd managed in partnership with Rock Creek Land and Cattle, with a focus on source-identified, farm-to-table beef sold through an on-farm retail store.

Corn remains central to it all. "A majority of the corn is retained and fed to the cattle on the operation," Bangert said. "It makes up about 20% of the ration that we feed — add to that another 20% of corn silage." Combined with distiller's byproducts, corn anchors a feed program Bangert describes as essential to the farm's productivity. "It's one of the most important things to the productivity of the farm and our efficiency in feeding cattle."

For Bangert, who came to Funk's Grove as an agronomy intern in 1992 and never left, the farm's history is inseparable from its present. What began as a mission to help farmers feed livestock more efficiently is still, 200 years on, exactly what Funk's Grove does every day.

Watch full video below to hear more from Brian.

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