Two Roads Farm
Shelby County, Illinois
7-26-14

Merging Vision and New Markets

Announcing a new farm merger -- and a new farm family (the Throneburgs). This 240 acre certified organic farm located in central Illinois is now part of Iroquois Valley Farms. 
Two Roads Farm produces organic blue and white corn, along with  legumes and grains (2014 organic wheat harvest above). The merger reflects  growing opportunities in specialty grain markets.  


As a corporate guideline, we do not look for specific farmland to purchase. We  develop relationships with farmers, mostly young and organic, that want to start or grow their sustainable farm business. We only move to purchase if we have a ready, willing and able farm tenant in hand.

In 2009, I was approached by our legacy tenant, Harold Wilken, with an opportunity to purchase almost 1,000 acres of organic farmland in central Illinois. The selling estate included relatives connected to Robert Frost, the poet. We chose the new farm name to evidence the "less traveled" path of sustainable agriculture and separated 400 acres into an entrepreneurial entity (Two Roads Farm LLC) to fund, preserve, and restore this farm while training a local farm tenant. 

 

The Two Roads ownership included 22 visionary investors that have spent the last five years investing in operations that naturally and ecologically improved soil productivity. The Throneburg family (pictured below and above), our new farm tenants, have been farming "down the road" for six generations. Effectively Two Roads trained a new generation to carry forward an art and practice that has mostly disappeared from the local farming community. It also developed a staged exit strategy of selling to the tenant farmer. The Throneburgs have already purchased two 80 acre parcels at fair market value while retaining existing organic practices on the remaining 240 acres - now part of Iroquois Valley Farms.  

   

Two Roads crops are targeted to human consumption - with uses ranging from organic blue corn chips and cornbread, soy milk, tofu and humus, oat bran cereals, roasted soy nuts, specialty grain products, etc. Working below the soil, earthworms and micro-bacteria provide the fertility for nutrient dense crops by naturally building organic matter, sequestering carbon, improving water/moisture capacity and minimizing erosion. Conservation impacts include an array of animal, bird and insect life that proliferates in the hay/pasture fields, the border strips surrounding the farm and filter strips along the waterways. In particular, the farm has an abundance of honey bees.  

Iroquois Valley Farms is training the next generation of responsible farmers and investors while restoring our soils and water.  

Significantly, over 50% of the membership equity of Two Roads Farm LLC has merged into new shares of Iroquois Valley Farms. The combination of these two entities helps outline the tsunami of opportunity and capital coalescing to convert conventional farming to more diverse, sustainable and healthy uses. We welcome our new members and farmers to the Iroquois Valley family. 


The Throneburg family has been farming in Shelby County for six generations. Pictured above (left to right) are Rebecca, Jacob, Rachel, Sarah and Troy Throneburg.
Cultivating this years bean crop, Troy is showing how organic farming avoids the harmful herbicides that are so pervasive in conventional farming. 

 

For more information please visit (www.iroquoisvalleyfarms.com).   


David Miller, Co-Founder and CEO
[email protected]   

 

Kevin Egolf, Managing Director of Business Operations

[email protected]  

 

Iroquois Valley Farms LLC
PO Box 267
Wilmette, Illinois 60091
847 736-0076
www.iroquoisvalleyfarms.com