Jacklin Seed celebrates 75 years

POST FALLS - Jacklin Seed marks its 75th business anniversary this year. According to Chris Claypool, Jacklin general manager, the company has been successful because of its employees, growers, customers, and distributors.

POST FALLS - Jacklin Seed marks its 75th business anniversary this year.

According to Chris Claypool, Jacklin general manager, the company has been successful because of its employees, growers, customers, and distributors.

"They are the key to our 75 years of success," he said. "We've experienced more challenges in our industry the past five years than the 70 before that, and they've supported us through it."

Claypool said the support of the Simplot Company and its owners since the Boise-based firm acquired Jacklin in 1997 has also been important.

"Most of all, we owe our continued success to the Simplot family, the board, and management," he said. "Their decision-making, diversification, and the sincere way in which they care about employees make Simplot feel like home."

The organization - which is now known in the industry as Jacklin Seed by Simplot - was started in 1936 by Arden Jacklin and his father, brothers, and other relatives at Dishman, Wash., in the Spokane Valley.

The company's first seed crops were peas and beans, not grass.

The organization flourished during World War II, thanks in large part to supplying dried foodstuffs to the military. A side business of raising horses also proved to be profitable.

In 1942, Jacklin Seed planted its first grass seed fields in the Spokane suburb of Millwood near Mt. Spokane with two species: blue wildrye and chewings fescue. After enjoying initial successes, the company leaped forward when local grower Karl Pauleon suggested that the family try burning the dry grass stubble that was left over after harvest.

According to Arden Jacklin's memoirs, "seed yields increased spectacularly (and) open field grass burning had begun."

In the late 1940s, word reached Arden that farmer Ed Geary of Klamath Falls, Ore., had successfully grown and marketed a crop of Kentucky bluegrass seed. Arden immediately obtained seed stock from Geary and planted a production field adjacent to Jacklin Seed's present Post Falls headquarters, which was built in 1977 a mile east of the Idaho-Washington state line.

Two years later, the company's first use of Merion Kentucky bluegrass seed set the tone for Jacklin's most significant early successes. Merion shattered the $1-per-pound price barrier for lawn seed and the business grew rapidly from that point.

Today, the company seasonally employs 100 people, primarily in Idaho and Oregon. Some employees are located in other states and an office in China that is shared with Simplot Food Group personnel.

Jacklin operates the largest privately funded grass research facility in the world at its Post Falls site and sells grass seed to customers such as golf course superintendents and developers, landscape and lawn care maintenance companies, sod producers, athletic field managers, and commercial nurseries.

Jacklin seed is used in many different venues around the planet, including the Kremlin in Russia and the White House in Washington, D.C., and the company is considered a leader in seed research, production, and marketing in more than 60 countries.

Over the years, Jacklin has been an innovator and pioneer in the grass seed business. The company's accomplishments include pioneering Northwest grass seed production in the 1940s, being a key player in Merion Kentucky bluegrass in the 1950s, introducing Fylking, the first proprietary Kentucky bluegrass, in the 1960s and Adelphi, the first proprietary turfgrass, in the 1970s, and stepping forward as an industry leader the past 15 years with a majority of top-rated Kentucky bluegrasses at the National Turf Evaluation Program trials.

According to Claypool, there are a number of qualities that have helped the organization remain successful after 75 years in business.

"Jacklin has survived tumultuous times in the turfgrass industry because of its reputation for quality, service, accountability, integrity, and passion," he said. "These traits mirror the characteristics at Simplot as we all strive to honor the company's mission statement of Bringing Earth's Resources to Life."