The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Heap Agriculture Service, LLC
258 W. North Street, Stronghurst, IL 61480
Phone (309) 924-1060
Heap Ag is a service business. Bryan Heap is the manager and his wife, Karen, does the bookkeeping and the tax work.
Bonna White is in her 18th year employed at Heap Ag. She is the grain merchandiser, point of contact with clientele, and runs the daily office operations.
Karen said, "Bonna is a diligent, loyal worker. She worked full-time even as she battled cancer."
The main goal of Heap Ag Service is to manage and mitigate price risk to grain producers, landlords, and livestock feeders and to control price volatility associated with fuel and fertilizer consumption.
Heap Ag works with the commodity markets for corn, soybeans, wheat, and energy.
Heap Ag has served various-sized farm operations in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri.
Karen sums up Heap Ag as: "We are selling Bryan's brain."
Bryan's experience and research of the commodity markets and weather are the "product'.
In 1984, Bryan, as sole proprietor, opened Heap Ag in the old car wash building in Media. His sister, Dana Berlet, was his secretary.
In 2003, Bryan built the building at the current location on the northwest edge of Stronghurst.
At one time, Heap Ag sold Pioneer seed and PHI crop insurance services as well as offering marketing services. As Heap Ag clientele grew, the seed and insurance businesses were spun off into separate partnerships with Shane Gipe and Michelle Olin, respectively.
Later, full ownership of those enterprises were bought by Gipe and Olin.
Heap Ag provides a base service to act as an agent on behalf of the producer to cash merchandise grain with elevators, river terminals, ethanol plants and feed mills. They also hedge price risk using futures and options contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Heap Ag does not require an appointment, but is highly recommended.
Bryan has worked remotely for decades, before the pandemic made it "ordinary and necessary". He also farms during planting season and harvest.
Bryan graduated from Western Illinois University in 1981 with a business degree. His first job was as farm manager in the trust department at First National Bank in Burlington, IA. He decided to become an entrepreneur in 1984.
Bryan also taught grain marketing as an undergraduate class at Southeastern Community College and thru adult education night classes at SCC.
He left those jobs in the mid-1990's to devote his full-time efforts to Heap Ag. He still does speaking engagements in Iowa and Illinois.
Bryan and Karen live in rural Stronghurst. They have 5 adult children and their spouses.
Heap Ag's business is a niche market where the farmer hands over the full responsibility for his grain sales.
Heap Ag has a great group of customers.
If you need some assistance with your farm needs, give Heap Ag a call to see what they can do for you.