PROGRESS2025 PROGRESS 2025
ShawLocal.com | Saturday, April 12, 2025
THIS WEEK’S WINNERS AGRICULTURE
Heritage FS Award sponsored by Burklow Construction See page 1
TECHNOLOGY
Converging Networks Group Award sponsored by Riverside Healthcare See page 4
MID-SIZE BUSINESS Tiffany Blanchette
Jeff LaFollet (right), Heritage FS St. George site manager, and J.D. Marquis, the site’s precision farming specialist, stand on the grounds of the recently expanded location.
Sowing innovation LaBeau Bros.
Heritage FS invests $10M to better serve area farmers
Award sponsored by Hove Nissan See page 5
By LEE PROVOST lprovost@shawmedia.com
H
LARGE BUSINESS
elping Kankakee and Will county farmers grow their best crops is the mission of
Heritage FS, located just east of the tiny St. George community in eastern Kankakee County. Urban Farmer Award sponsored by Economic Alliance of Kankakee County See page 8
SMALL BUSINESS
Electric Lady Lounge Award sponsored by Seven Birds Design See page 10
But don’t think the company is only working on grain production for area agriculture professionals. The company has also been busy for the past three years planting the seeds for what has been an approximate $10 million site expansion in the middle of corn and soybean production in this ag-based region. “It’s been a long process,” said Jeff LaFollet, Heritage site manager. “But it’s been worth it.” For their efforts to upgrade and invest, Heritage FS has been named the Daily Journal’s 2025 Progress Award winner for Innovator in Agriculture. The investment started in August 2022 with a 9,600-square-foot maintenance facility. That was just the start. Heritage FS then constructed a 1 million-gallon liquid nitrogen tank on the property’s northern edge of a 14-acre location. The large black tank was completed in late 2022. Management then received the construction go-ahead on the state-of-the-art liquid fertilizer and chemical storage and loading build-
INNOVATOR IN AGRICULTURE SPONSORED BY
ing. The project began in late 2022. Like so many construction projects in the post-COVID-19 world, some building materials were in short supply, which lengthened the construction process. The project is expected to be completed this month, LaFollett said. This expansion will allow the site to have 75,000 gallons of liquid herbicide on hand as well as 180,000 gallons of liquid fertilizers. LaFollet and J.D. Marquis, of Herscher, the location’s precision farming specialist, said this increases its ability to serve the region’s
farmers with its 25-member full-time staff. “I’m impressed,” LaFollet said as he looked out his office window at the plant and its operation. “I’ve been around this type of stuff all my life. This is something.” As there have been site consolidations throughout the FS network, Marquis said it was clear the St. George location urgently needed to increase its capacity. “We knew we had to increase what we do here to serve our farmers,” he said. The expansion challenge was simple. It was an existing site. How could the additions fit into the site’s layout? Simple, the two men said. Some deconstruction had to take place before reconstruction could happen. “We work with an existing site. Things sometimes take time,” LaFollet said. The site is often busy with farmers coming to get their needed product. The site has become so automated that farmers can collect what they need, have it weighed and billed, and be on their way without needing assistance In a certain way, some of the process has become self-serve. All of this was being completed for one simple reason. Sales have grown. Sales have grown threefold since they purchased the location in November 2000 from St. George Ag, LaFollet said. “It was a great move as a company to move here.” While the site has had many names throughout its long history, it was an Oliver tractor and farm implement dealership dating back to the 1950s.
See HERITAGE FS, page 2
CONGRATULATIONS HERITAGE FS THE 2025 INNOVATOR IN AGRICULTURE
ROOFING SPECIALISTS
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