Seed company has roots in Ganado

By Jessica Coleman
Staff Writer
    Nestled off the beaten path, just outside of Ganado is a business that started as a small, family-owned farm and has grown to be a competitor to the likes of seed giant Monsanto, and Bart Hajovsky is in the captain’s seat. Everything about Hajovsky’s place in this business is uncommon, and that is something he is mighty proud of. 
    It isn’t common for someone to just decide to start farming with no experience to speak of,  but he did. It isn’t common for a farmer to just decide to go into the seed business, but he did. And it certainly isn’t common for a little Ganado, Texas farmer to grow into a hybrid seed businessman whose work is seen in 18 states, but he did.
    “Citizens State Bank stuck their neck out at the beginning, and we were very fortunate,” he said. “That’s how we got into agriculture. We just started and built it up and have gone and gone.”
    After several years, Hajovsky became restless farming and accepted an offer from a seed company, dropped 40 percent of his operation and went into the seed business, just like that. In fact, “just like that” would characterize quite a bit of his decades-long career, and it’s worked for him.
    “Three years later, we probably had 60 counties in Texas with three full time employees. By year four, it got to the point where if I went somewhere I was put on the agenda.”
    Not long after, it was time to branch out. Hajovsky was working for Monsanto, and was itching to get out on his own. He didn’t have a degree, and this posed a problem at the company, so he left. He says, however, he has no hard feelings.
    “I made one semester of college,” he said, “I learned in the field. At the end of the day it was a problem. I will tell you Monsanto was a great company to work for for two years, but they warned me I needed to go to night school and get a degree.”
    Hajovsky didn’t want to go to school to learn something he learned on the job, so he finally made the decision to go out on his own with the help of his wife, Karen.
    “At the end of the day, that’s what happened,” he said, “a good relationship ended, and that’s ok.”
    Hajovsky’s talent for advance planning has been integral to his success.
    “Right now, we’re talking about growing seed that we’re going to sell in 2018,” said Hajovsky, “We planted the seed last March and April, we will sell next year. The decisions about what we would plant in March was already made the prior year.”
    Today, all that planning has paid off and has rewarded the Hajovskys more than they could have imagined. They have research plots all over the United States and are planning further growth. He is a fan of good, old fashioned hard work. 
    “We aren’t reinventing the wheel,” he said, “We’re just making a bigger, stronger, better wheel.”