It's in their name

AGHUB seeks to be the hub for everything ag

He has an intent to match the hard work farmers give to help feed and fuel the world, and Titan Immel hopes he and his staff can aid those farmers through all of their agricultural retail needs with the knowledge, products and service their business AGHUB MIDWEST offers.

Immel, who explains he’s been selling seed since he was a junior in high school seven years ago, began AGHUB MIDWEST in July of last year trying to help growers obtain the products they need on their farms on an individual basis to achieve the end result they are looking for.

Building on farming

“I grew up on a family farm but I knew I wasn’t going to come home and be able to just farm, I wanted to build on that,” Immel explained. “I started selling seed and learned to love the ag sales business.”

Immel admits he’s primarily sold seed up to this point, but they’ve now greatly expanded their business into seed, custom seed treatment, chemical, fertilizer, application and shortline equipment sales.

Immel is eager to continue seeing the results of the young company’s hard work show through satisfied customers who are finding their needs met and questions answered by AGHUB.

AGHUB’s location ranges across nine acres just south of the Menlo exit off Interstate 80 at 1069 Pinewood Ave., Menlo, in far northeastern Adair County. They began building in July 2018 and opened their doors in January 2019. Drivers on the interstate can’t miss the eye-catching facility.

“Our focus here is for the farmer. At the end of the day, we want our growers to be happy and informed of the decisions they are making,” Immel said.

Immel stated that knowledge, products and service are three mainstays he’s worked hard to develop at AGHUB in cooperation with his tirelessly hardworking employees, Jordan Wheatley and Kim Baker.

It’s not about what makes us the most money, it’s about what we can do to provide the farmer with the best fit for them, not something that’s easiest for us to promote,” Immel said. “At the end of the day, we want our growers to be happy and informed of the decisions they are making, not just making a decision.”

Immel stated that knowledge, products and service are three mainstays he’s worked hard to develop at AGHUB in cooperation with his tirelessly hardworking employees, Jordan Wheatley and Kim Baker.

Knowledge

Not only did Immel grow up on a farm, but he took an analytical approach to it.

“I always wanted to know why things happened when they do,” Immel said. “My parents were good teachers, they have shown me the work it takes.”

The high-level, firsthand knowledge Immel and his employees are able to pass along is something they pride themselves on.

“I’m very grateful to have the employees that I do. They’re people who will smile and welcome you, and that’s hard to find. We have some part-time help too in season. Without the support of my girlfriend, Lauren, I wouldn’t be here doing what we’re doing. She’s studying at Iowa State for graphic design and has helped a lot with our branding.”

Product

Because he farms, Immel is able to test various products before he sells them and stands behind them.

“In farming, you always have to look at a large scale approach. A test plot, you can get this hybrid or this variety to show really well, but in a whole farm situation, it might not do that. A typical test plot is 500 to 1,000 feet long and you’re looking at a few rows compared to a whole farm,” Immel said. “I personally try the product and that’s what sets us apart.”

AGHUB sells seed for five different seed companies that Immel describes as customer-focused: Wyffels Hybrids, Stine Seed, Midwest Seed Genetics, Kruger Seeds and Latham Hi-Tech Seeds. AGHUB has access to every trait on the market with those companies.

AGHUB MIDWEST is excited to have their own germination room where they will be able to test every lot number of soybeans.

“Basically, we’ll be able to verify the germination is what it says it is on the tag. We’re going to do a towel test, sand and a germination test in crusted soil,” Immel said. “It’ll be a neat differentiating factor on the germination side of it that no one else around here is doing. We’ll do a quality test with bleach and water and anything with splits or cracks will swell up showing us how the seed was handled. Our goal is to ensure to our customers that they’re getting top quality product. We farm too and want great product.”

In the chemical sector, AGHUB has built relations with various distributors, which gives opportunity for the best prices to be extended to the farmer. They have access to branded or generic chemistries and applicators should that be what the individual grower desires or needs.

“We can offer our growers the same support that all the large retailers get on those branded products”, Immel said.

AGHUB also sells many short line pieces of equipment, such as tanks, fittings, seed tenders, conveyors and rotary mowers.

“We broker [fertilizer] from the rivers so we’re able to pull product from wherever is more conducive buying-wise. We also have an impregnator that allows us to treat product inside the blender. We want to do the best we can to help each grower succeed.”

AGHUB sub-contracts a service called Veris that allows soil samples to be gathered based on similar soil types rather than a two and a half acre grid lmost companies use. This allows farmers to fertilize more accurately based on the actual soil type of a particular piece of ground named a zone.

“Soil changes within 100 feet and a two and a half acre block is not an accurate representation because there may be three different soil types in that two and a half acres,” Immel said. “Veris will cut those into zones that correspond with other similar soil types. Instead of fertilizing based on a grid, you’re able to fertilize based on your yield goal. When you pull the farm apart to look at it that way, you get more accurate samples and information for those zones.”

Service

AGHUB’s campus is centrally located for easy access.

“The reason I chose here is we want to service the customers and have a place of business that we can service the customer unlike anybody else. We hope to get the chance to work with everybody in the area in one way or another,” Immel said, noting he wishes his business to truly be a hub for all things agriculture. “That’s what’s so nice about this business, to be able to offer everything.

“Another reason we came here is that this area was lacking the service side of the business. We’re not just going to sell product, we want to sell product and service it because at the end of the day, if you’re not servicing the product, there’s a pretty good chance that product isn’t going to get sold again next year.”