Weaver Popcorn Hybrids

Investment. When running a business, it’s always tempting to wait until something breaks before replacing it to squeeze out every last penny. While it’s good to obtain good value, it’s also important to know when to invest to continue to advance your business. Our research team has been happy this year to officially break in our new research combine! As can be seen from the picture of the grain wagon, it’s coming in super clean, which is a testament to our team fine tuning the new Zurn and the cleanliness of our new hybrids. Also pictured is W3036, our new, clean, early season, high balling % mushroom. It’s looking good here in Ohio! We have a lot of new, great performing hybrids in these trials which give us confidence to continue to INVEST. In fact, early yield trial results of our 2nd year tests this year (think commercially available in year 2029) have all 8 our current industry leaders checks in the bottom 25% when sorted by yield. The best is yet to come!

WE ARE GROWING! It has been a long time coming, but we officially broke ground this week at our new campus in Crawfordsville, Indiana! Weaver Popcorn started from humble beginnings back in 1928 with Reverend Ira Weaver and his horse-drawn carriage delivering popcorn. The internal breeding program started almost 50 years ago and has come a long way to produce some of the best hybrids in the market. When Weaver Popcorn Hybrids was spun off of its sister companies 5 years ago and we started selling our hybrid seed on the open market, unprecedented growth created a new problem, outgrowing our New Richmond facility. Despite already priding ourselves on having great seed quality and hybrids, we're so excited to see what our team can do with modern equipment and resources with the help of O'Mara Ag who is tackling this project. We're starting with a new seed processing and warehousing facility and then looking to add office and R&D buildings soon after. A big thank you to Mayor Barton, Cheryl Morphew, and many others with the City of Crawfordsville for making this project happen. Also, couldn't do this without our very own Todd Purple leading the charge on this build! It was a crisp but fantastic morning this week, celebrating this significant day in Weaver history and having the support of friends, family, those in the Crawfordsville community, and so many across the Weaver companies. Thank you all!

Very excited to have an opportunity to speak with some Weaver Popcorn Manufacturing growers last week at their historic, yet almost futuristic production facility. Brad Thada and Brian Hamilton gave a Hybrids update to the growers along with updates from Weaver Popcorn and Advanced Agrilytics! Afterwards, we headed over to Van Buren and the 52nd Annual Popcorn Festival where Weaver has had a very integral part over the years. Although the classic Indiana breaded tenderloin was delicious, nothing beats the fresh popcorn at this festival!

We're so excited to officially announce our new plant build! This has been a long time coming and we're eager to start this process of allowing for continued growth with our customers and to keep raising the bar for popcorn seed quality.

We're happy to announce another addition to our team! Jordan Surface is a local hire, rounding out our breeding team as a research technician! Jordan has a great work ethic and a passion for improving the local community. We've been picky as we've been looking to fill this roll for over a year, but Jordan is a perfect fit and we're excited to have him as part of our team. Welcome aboard Jordan!