(L to R) Patrick Carter Reisdorf Bros., Inc, Scott Gaedner, President./CEO of Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce, Norb Fuest, Chair, Wyoming Co. Chamber of Commerce, Jim Carter Reisdorf Bros., Inc. The company was named the 2022/2023 "Agri-Business of the Year" by the Wyoming County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism.
By Eric Jenks, Special to NEAFA
For May, NEAFA spoke with Jim Carter, President of Reisdorf Bros., Inc., for our member highlight. “Reisdorf Bros. was founded in North Java, NY, in 1912 by John F. Reisdorf,” said Carter. “I met my wife, Rebecca Reisdorf, at Cansisu College, where I was studying business management. I’ve been involved with the family business since 1987; 39 years. I didn’t grow up on a farm, I learned the animal feed industry from Richard Reisdorf. Our son, Patrick, is currently the treasurer for the company, and our oldest son, James Richard, also works for the mill. Our other children, Tyler and Courtney, have brought their talents to other agricultural companies in the Northeast. Tyler works for Bordeaux Bros in Vermont, and Courtney works for Baskins in Batavia. Working in agriculture is fun. It’s never dull. There’s always something going on, there’s always growth happening in the industry. I get to the mill at 5 in the morning, making animal feed and loading trucks.
Reisdorf Bros. has a 110 mile service radius around North Java. “We are the one stop shop for North Java,” said Carter. “We employee approximately 50 people year-round. We make dog food, agronomy seed corn, fertilizer, and do custom applications and have grain banking facilities for our local growers. We service the Finger Lakes region and Northern Pennsylvania.”
Carter is a member of NEAFA’s Board of Directors as well. “Reisdorf Bros. is always involved in agricultural groups,” said Carter. “It’s important for the future of agriculture to be involved. With NEAFA, everyone that you normally do business with is in this group. It’s interesting to me as well that there are people involved with transportation in NEAFA. I was worried originally that being on the board would be difficult with my busy schedule, but NEAFA is great about working around that. My son Patrick has gone to Golf for Good Works, which he likes. When I got the email from Charlie Elrod (NEAFA President), to be on the board, my son told me to get involved, and I’m glad I did.”
For Carter, NYS Dairy has a bright future. “There’s a lot of growth in the industry right now,” said Carter. “It’s going to get bigger. There’s a lot of vertical integration going on. New York State has an endless supply of fresh water and a huge population, there’s a lot of growth potential because of that. New York State gave dairy producers a twenty percent tax credit to grow, and we’ve definitely seen a lot of growth recently. Where we were selling a truckload of feed a week, now we’re selling three truckloads to the same farms. It’s exciting to see.”
For more information on Reisdorf Bros., visit https://www.reisdorfbros.com/
You can also find a YouTube video made by Chris Duffy (Duffy Ag) titled "Tour of our American Feed Mill operation" at the following link: https://share.google/k8xGVSsG3MseN0d7K