The Early Years
1871
William and Sarah Stine (with oldest child Ira Cloyd) arrive in Adel, Iowa, from Pennsylvania. The original farm was 160 acres with only 30 tillable acres at the time.
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1894
Ira Cloyd marries Lydia Sheaffer. The couple will have 4 children — all boys — including Harry‘s father, Bill (William). All four boys farm together as I.C. Stine and Sons until shortly after World War Two.
1934
Bill and Roselba Stine move to the farm where Stine Seed Farm would eventually be located. Extreme droughts in 1934 and 1936 make for a rough start.
Early 1950s
Bill Stine founds Stine Seed Farm, cleaning certified oats and public variety soybean seeds with a portable cleaner. 1950s Bill wins the Dallas County Soybean Yield Contest in 1955 and 1957.
1964
Harry Stine, President of Stine Seed Farm, joins his father, Bill, in the soybean cleaning venture.
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1965
Harry becomes interested in soybean breeding after finding some unusual soybean plants in a farm field, and goes on to found Stine Seed Farms. Harry loved to farm, but also recognized additional profit opportunities by breeding, developing and subsequently growing newer, higher-yielding soybean lines.
He began breeding and “yield checking” soybean lines (previously only done by universities), and he came to understand (while actually weighing varieties himself ) what a conventional breeding program could bring to the soybean industry and the U.S. grower.
1966
Stine Seed Farm builds a modern soybean seed production facility.
1967
Harry and Bill Eby begin soybean breeding. ISU professor Walter Fehr is an early partner in the breeding work.
1968
Harry Stine, along with four other investors, founds Improved Variety Research (IVR), a soybean breeding organization. It is the first private soybean research and development firm in the U.S.
Work for IVR is conducted at Stine Seed Farm and directed by Harry Stine and Bill Eby, the head plant breeder.
1973
IVR is dissolved. Harry Stine and Bill Eby form Midwest Oilseeds, which will go on to become the largest and most successful soybean research and development program in existence. In just a few short years, Midwest Oilseeds is the soybean genetics licensing company of choice in the United States.
1975
Stine Seed Company begins a program to breed and develop high-yielding hybrid seed corn.