Ag Business Brings 40 Years Of Experience

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By Marlana Smith

Partners Kelsey McGee and Mark Totten, bring 40 years of working in ag retail to T&M Seed and Supply, LLC.

  McGee and Totten were born and raised in Shelby County. Agriculture has always been a part of their lives.

  Totten grew up thinking he was going to be a farmer.

  “I had no other thought process,” said Totten. “But, after the passing of my grandpa, things changed.”

  Totten went to school to become a fertilizer plant manager. A company paid for his schooling then he went and worked for his previous employer where he had worked for 28 years.

  After graduating high school, McGee didn’t really have the incentive to go into ag as she had been around it her whole life. She wanted to go into hotel and restaurant management and become an event planner on cruise ships. After talking it through with her parents, agriculture was a better suit.

  After interning with a few ag companies in college, she determined her career was fit for agriculture. Ag retail is all McGee has known for the last 12 years.

    Totten’s son, Owen, wanted to work in the same business field as his father.

  “If you’re a farmer you get to pass all your hard work down to them, but we don’t really get to do that. So, I thought, ‘How could I do that?’”

   McGee and Totten, both worked previously for the same company at two different locations and thought it was time for a change and that is how T&M Seed and Supply started.

  Construction began at the end of June 2024 and most of the work was done by local contractors.

  Starting off, the two only planned to sell seed and chemical but have found themselves doing a lot more.

  They offer almost everything ag retailers offer: Seed, chemical, fertilizer, custom application, diesel fuel, oil and grease.

  NexGen Agronomy Solutions, out of Mexico, has been a big supplier of fertilizer. As far as getting work done, Daniel Van Houten and Willy McGee, who is Kelsey’s husband, are a vital part of their workforce and have 37 years of ag retail experience between the two of them.

  “There aren’t a lot of places where you can put two people in one place that have so much experience in ag retail, who are both essentially on the same page. We complement each other well. We know what the expectations are from our customers and what needs to be done every day,” said McGee.

  Totten added, “We strive for good customer service. We want you to want to come in and ask questions. That is why we are here.

  “We want people to know they can trust us.”

  T&M Seed and Supply is located south of Shelbina on Route A.

  Contact information is: Kelsey McGee, 573-473-8837, [email protected] or Mark Totten, 660-651-1173, [email protected].