Innovator in Agriculture: Heritage FS expansion taking root

ST. GEORGE – Helping Kankakee and Will county farmers grow their best crops is the mission of Heritage FS, located just east of the tiny St. George community in eastern Kankakee County.

But don’t think the company is only working on grain production for area agriculture professionals.

The company has also been busy for the past three years planting the seeds for what has been an approximate $10-million site expansion in the middle of corn and soybean production in this ag-based region.

“It’s been a long process,” said Jeff LaFollet, Heritage site manager. “But it’s been worth it.”

For their efforts to upgrade and invest, Heritage FS has been named the Daily Journal’s 2025 Progress Award winner for Innovator in Agriculture.

The investment started in August 2022 with a 9,600-square-foot maintenance facility.

That was just the start.

Heritage FS then constructed a 1-million-gallon liquid nitrogen tank on the property’s northern edge of a 14-acre location. The large black tank was completed in late 2022.

Management then received the construction go-ahead on the state-of-the-art liquid fertilizer and chemical storage and loading building. The project began in late 2022.

Like so many construction projects in the post-COVID-19 world, some building materials were in short supply, which lengthened the construction process. The project is expected to be completed this month, LaFollett said.

This expansion will allow the site to have 75,000 gallons of liquid herbicide on hand as well as 180,000 gallons of liquid fertilizers.

LaFollet and J.D. Marquis, of Herscher, the location’s precision farming specialist, said this increases its ability to serve the region’s farmers with its 25-member full-time staff.

“I’m impressed,” LaFollet said as he looked out his office window at the plant and its operation. “I’ve been around this type of stuff all my life. This is something.”

As there have been site consolidations throughout the FS network, Marquis said it was clear the St. George location urgently needed to increase its capacity.

“We knew we had to increase what we do here to serve our farmers,” he said.

The expansion challenge was simple. It was an existing site. How could the additions fit into the site’s layout?

Simple, the two men said. Some deconstruction had to take place before reconstruction could happen.

“We work with an existing site. Things sometimes take time,” LaFollet said.

The site is often busy with farmers coming to get their needed product. The site has become so automated that farmers can collect what they need, have it weighed and billed, and be on their way without needing assistance

In a certain way, some of the process has become self-serve.

All of this was being completed for one simple reason. Sales have grown.

Sales have grown threefold since they purchased the location in November 2000 from St. George Ag, LaFollet said. “It was a great move as a company to move here.”

While the site has had many names throughout its long history, it was an Oliver tractor and farm implement dealership dating back to the 1950s.

The site has come a long way. And it has a long future ahead. The location is one of four Heritage FS sites within Kankakee County. There are sites in Herscher, Grant Park and Kankakee (along Grinnell Road).

“There are lots of moving parts here,” LaFollet acknowledged. Planting season tends to be the most hectic as every farmer wants to get the seed in the ground as soon as possible.

Fall is also a busy season, but there’s typically a bit more time to apply treatments once the grain has been harvested.

Both men were raised on farms and are University of Illinois graduates.

While it would appear that all farmers would need service at the same time, LaFollet said that is not the case.

Different soil types and weather often lead to subtle variations in the need for certain applications. In the end, it always works out, meaning potential crises are avoided and the seed gets sown into the ground at the appropriate time.

“We take care of the first farmer who walks through our doors and the last and everyone in between,” LaFollet said.

For more information, visit heritagefs.com.