Tri-States Grain Conditioning

Alfalfa and hay take center stage in the Kellen family.

CUSTOM WORK AND FINE TWINE

They take their expertise in hay further by custom seeding alfalfa and by custom mowing and baling. The custom work started 20 years ago as Rick was finishing college at Briar Cliff University. At the time, Tony was farming in partnership with their parents, Joe and Elizabeth Kenney, and additional income was needed in order to pull a third family into the mix. One thing led to another very quickly. “We were one of the first custom guys around here with net wrap,” Rick said. “But we were having trouble finding the stuff. We got hooked up with a gentleman out of Kansas, and we just started selling it for him. About a year later, everybody around here started upgrading to balers with net wrap. We started making money at it, so we just kept growing it.” The resulting business was The Fine Twine Co. which the family operates on the east edge of Alton. Tony said, “We sell product into about 15-16 states. We buy product from about seven different countries throughout the world.”

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Tony and Gina Kellen with their son, Kody; daughter, Masie; granddaughter, Caroline; daughter-in-law, Ciara; and son, Lucas.

SKYROCKETING INTO A NEW ADVENTURE

The diversity of their income stream got more colorful and a lot louder in 2017 when the family, including their brother Karl, lit the fuse on a fireworks business. Comments by their wives about the fireworks business also sizzle. Gina said, “They thought they would take on something more as if we're not busy enough as it is.” Gwen said, “I’ve learned more about fireworks in the past five, six years than I care to know about them.”

Around the interview table, there were a lot of groans about their first year in the business when they were operating out of a tent and on flatbeds, and they were hit with torrential rains. The second year, they graduated from a tent to a building, but the building didn’t have air conditioning. When they sold fireworks during the 2018 Christmas-New Year’s season, there was no heat in the building either. Gwen said, “It was 40 below outside. I sat in there and I had on a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, a fleece jacket, a winter coat and a blanket with a space heater at my feet.” Rick joked, “You want to talk about a diverse clientele? Some people are deathly afraid of fireworks and some people can't get enough of them.” Tony added, “There’s people in all walks of life who love fireworks. You’ve got doctors and lawyers and everybody else – deep down inside of them, everybody must have a little bit of pyro in them.” Gwen said, “There’s a lot of pyromaniacs in the area.” Tony said Alton area residents have been very supportive. “In the town of Alton on Fourth of July, the town is lit up all night long.” Gina said, “It's neat because you can just sit out here in our parking lot and watch them all.”

CHANGES ON THE FARM AND CHASING WHEAT IN THE HEARTLAND

Tony and Rick’s grandfather and father had a 20-cow dairy, but they quit milking in 1962, the year Joe and Liz got married. They fed cattle and the family had a farrow-to-finish hog operation until they sold the sows in 1995. But they continued to finish cattle and put up new hog barns to finish iso-wean pigs in 1997. In 1995, Tony graduated from Northwest Community College with a degree in ag business management. He spent a good share of 1996 on a wheat harvesting crew. “We started in Frederick, Okla., and chased wheat all the way to a little town in North Dakota.” It was an extremely wet year and they spent a fair share of their time sitting around drinking the boss’ beer. “We packed up and moved to Kansas – and it kept raining and raining. Finally we got to North Dakota and worked our butts off up there.” After the wheat run, Tony returned to farm with his dad. However, when the hog market was tanking in 1998, he started taking night courses at Briar Cliff and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. “I didn't know if I'd be farming or not with that mess, but we pulled through somehow.” Rick joined the partnership in 2002 and, over time, they slowly bought out their dad. “When the tractors started driving themselves, he quit crop farming. That was around ’12 or ’13,” Tony said. However, Joe kept feeding cattle and hogs almost until the day he died in spring 2018.