Many farm families had to walk away from their livelihood while others barely held on by a thread. Banker Cornelius J. Claassen, who had grown up on a Nebraska farm, realized that despite all of the difficulties farmers were facing, farming was a profession and a business, not just a way of life. He believed that with the proper business management, farms could pull out of the rut in which they were buried and become successful.

Claassen started Farmers National Company, despite the stock market crashing in the throes of the Great Depression. The launch of this business was closely followed by droughts in 1934 and 1936; crop prices plummeted. But the businessman with a farming background worked his magic, and by 1935, the farms FNC managed had grown to 500, spread out across Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.

The field managers didn’t just guide growers financially from a business standpoint, but they repaired chicken coops, rebuilt houses and fixed up properties. World War II put a dent in the business, but new technologies and on-par business strategies fueled the company’s growth.

In 2019, Farmers National Company celebrated its 90th anniversary and today manages more than 2 million acres for more than 6,500 clients on an estimated 5,000 farms, ranches and specialty operations across the country. Based in Omaha, Neb., the company operates in almost 30 states with more than 275 full- and part-time employees.

Jim Farrell, who retired from Farmers National Company Dec. 31, 2019, explained that when the company was launched, its sole focus was on managing farms with real estate sales and appraisal services. Ninety years later, the company offers 10 services.

“It allows us to essentially manage all aspects of the land investment,” Farrell said. “When we purchased the company in 2000, we had approximately 115 employees. Today, the company has grown to where we now have 280 employees. When the company started, we operated in four states, but today we touch nearly all of the contiguous 48 states with one of our landowner services.”

Its mission remains the same today as it did in 1929, the same one envisioned by its founder, to make non-resident ownership of farmland worry free and profitable.

“Since 1980, Farmers National Company Real Estate has grown from doing 87 transactions and selling less than 20,000 acres per year for a total of $23 million of sales volume to the capability of doing over 800 transactions covering 175,000 acres a year worth over $750 million,” said Randy Dickhut, senior vice president of real estate operations for Farmers National Company. “One important service that has not changed is the dedication to being the fiduciary agent for our clients when it comes to managing or selling their land or mineral asset.”

Farming has evolved in many ways in the past 90 decades, including through farm management. Farmers National Company has evolved, too, thanks to a solid staff of experts.

“The value of agricultural land today is vastly higher than when Farmers National started 90 years ago. Today, accurate GIS and satellite imagery helps buyers and sellers have much better insight into the quality and productivity of the land. Farmers actually own a higher percentage of the land in some states than they did 40 years ago,” Dickhut said. “Farmers National has met changes and challenges with good employees and associates dedicated to serving the needs of clients. Like every other profession and service, the company invests more resources in technology than in the past in order to provide the best and most accurate information to clients.”

Looking ahead to the next 10 years, Farmers National Real Estate will be offering a full lineup of property sales methods, including online bidding. The company also has added an independent insurance agency focused on crop, property, casualty and liability insurance offerings. There’s now services such as lake and pond management, the National Hunting Lease Network, oil and gas management, consultation and collateral inspections, forestry resource management and FNC Ag Stock serving the ethanol and sugar beet industries.

Farrell’s successor David Englund added that oil and gas services now are extended to more than 180,000 interests, and the forestry business in East Texas has expanded from 150,000 acres to more than 180,000 acres in four years, becoming the largest wood supplier to lumber mills in the area.

“I would say that we do much more auction business now than what we have done in the past. The tracts are also getting larger due to the general consolidation in ag. Private treaty sales were the norm for most years, but over the last 25 to 30 years, auctions have been increasing in use. Now we are starting to see sealed bid auctions in situations where the ag market is tougher and the sale of land is harder due to the economic environment of ag,” Englund said. “We are now looking at utilizing more technology in our real estate business due to the use of online auctions and the opportunity to sell land over the internet to buyers across the country and world.”