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Family owned seed business goes native"Wildflower production has certainly grown more than grass production has on our farm," Hamilton said.By Doug Rich 
When Rex and Amy Hamilton started their seed business 25 years ago, there was a real need in agriculture for warm season grasses. The need for warm season grasses is still there 25 years later, but the variety and mix of seed that the Hamilton family sells from their farm in the Missouri Ozarks has changed significantly. "Here in Missouri, we are predominantly fescue; and fescue is a good grass but it has some problems," Amy Hamilton said. "We saw that warm season grasses could complement our fescue, so we started harvesting warm season grass seed." Warm season grasses At first, they concentrated their efforts on harvesting and selling native warm season grasses like little bluestem, Indian grass, big bluestem, and eastern gamagrass. There was even one non-native warm season grass on their sales list at that time. "When we first got into this business, we thought big bluestem and one other grass was a prairie and then we started doing four and five-way grass mixes," Hamilton said. As time went by, they started adding a few wildflowers into the mixes they were selling. The wildflowers were not all endemic to Missouri. "Now, as the seed business has matured, we are tying to re-create declining habitat and what would have been in Missouri 100 to 150 years ago," Hamilton said. "To do that we need to use species that come from Missouri." In response to this new need in the seed business, the Hamilton family started their wildflower business 18 years ago. It was small at first and just for fun. Wildflowers caught their attention while they were harvesting grass seed and they brought some back to plant around their home near Elk Creek, Mo. Today they grow 200 acres of wildflowers on their farm along with 200 acres of native grass seed. "Wildflower production has certainly grown more than the grass production has on our farm," Hamilton said. Wildflowers fit in very well with their grass seed business because most of them tend to ripen earlier than the native grasses. Wildflowers start to ripen up in May and continue through early fall. Native grasses ripen mostly in September and October. Most of the time, Hamilton said, they use a stripper rather than a combine to harvest grass and wildflower seeds. This works well with a lot of the fluffy seeds that they specialize in such as little bluestem and Indian grass. Combines do better with more dense type seeds. Harvest "When the seed can be pulled off between your thumb and forefinger, it is ready to be stripped," Hamilton said. Rex and Amy Hamilton grow part of their seed, lease fields from other landowners, and some growers harvest seed and deliver it to them. Switch grass and gamma grass are two grasses that they prefer the landowner does the harvest of or arranges for the harvest. Big bluestem is better harvested with a combine most years because the seed is vertically strung out on the stalks. Wildflower seed is harvested with a stripper, a combine or, in some cases, a pocketknife. "When we harvest a small patch, we will use a pocket knife but that is very labor intensive," Hamilton said. As soon as the seed is harvested, they start putting air on it. Even out in the field, they will have a generator and fans; so, as soon as the seed starts to stack up in the trailer, they can put some air under it. "Our barn is set up to unload seed and to keep air on it," Hamilton said. "Depending on the weather it can take a week or two to dry down the seed." Seed is stored and dried down in different lots depending on their size. Hamilton said they are set up to clean and dry the seed on their farm where it is separated by weight, by length, by thickness, and by density. Before it is ready to sell, samples are sent to a seed lab to be tested for purity and germination. In a normal year, Hamilton said, they will collect 80 different species, which includes 10 to 15 different grasses and 60 to 70 different wildflowers. They are always looking for something new and will experiment with a specific seed variety just to see how it fits into their operation. They watch native prairies to see how Mother Nature plants these flowers and grasses. The Hamiltons sell seed to individuals who want to increase wildlife habitat on their land, to re-create native habitat, to do landscaping projects, to meet the requirements of government programs, or to improve the grazing capacity of their pastures. Many of their customers buy a mix that includes grass and wildflower seeds. "As government programs put more emphasis on declining habitat it puts more demand on our product," Hamilton said. "A lot of the government programs do require a mix of grass and wildflowers, particularly, if wildlife habitat is the goal of the program. If grazing is the goal then the mix is not as big an emphasis." Seed mix Hamilton puts mixes together based on soil types and available moisture. They can also provide customized mixes of wildflowers and native grasses to meet customers specific needs. Hamilton said 25 to 50 percent of a wildflower planting should be grasses. The grasses fill voids which holds down weeds, supports the wildflowers, and provides winter color and fuel for burning in the spring. "We try to stay as flexible as possible so we can provide exactly what the customer wants," Hamilton said. On their own farm Hamilton said they graze their production fields with goats or cattle in the winter and burn older stands in February. This stimulates the wildflowers to bloom. "Less aggressive native grasses work best because they don't compete with the flowers but do keep the weeds down," Hamilton said. Energy prices seem to have an effect on everything today and the seed business is no exception. High energy prices are creating a new need for warm season grasses, which don't require as much fertility and can help extend the grazing season. The motivation to plant native grasses and wildflowers may have changed over the years but the need for these seed varieties is still very strong. Editor's note: For more information on Hamilton Seed you can call 417-967-2190 or go to their website at www.hamiltonseed.com. Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com. 8/4/08 Date: 7/31/08
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