Our Founder – C. Brooks Nagel started the company in 1946 when he rebuilt an existing mill located in Harmony, MD that had been destroyed by a fire and flood. Originally, Brooks used the mill to buy cob corn that was ground into feed for local farmers as well as his own broiler operation. From the beginning, Brooks had a love for raising poultry and even today the Nagel’s maintain close ties to some of the largest poultry integrators in the world. Two years after rebuilding, Nagel’s secured a dealership with Eastern States Feed and by 1952 was making contract broiler feed for Wirthmore Feed.
The company continued to grow as Brooks combined his vigor and passion for the business with a commitment to innovation and the latest technology. In 1956 Brooks had the first feed mill on the Eastern Shore to introduce bulk feed products to its customers. While growing the feed business, Nagel’s diversified by adding commercial grain storage, a dairy herd of 125 cows, a commercial table egg operation with a flock of 60,000 birds, a hog operation and 1,500 acres of tillable land.
Passing The Baton – By 1980, Brooks’ oldest son David had assumed responsibility for daily operations of the family business. Under David’s leadership, the company began to aggressively expand the commercial grain division, while divesting its livestock, farming, and custom feed businesses. Through acquisitions and several major expansion projects, Nagel Farm Service has grown to 5 locations with total grain storage exceeding 7 million bushels in Caroline, Talbot and Queen Anne’s counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Our products and services have expanded as well to provide the farm community with everything from crop inputs to grain storage, marketing programs, crop insurance, trucking services and farm supplies through our hardware store.
The Next Generation – Today as David continues to run the company, he is assisted by his two sons Davd “Chip” Jr. and Chad who represent the third generation. Chip works at the Cordova office where he focuses his attention on company wide operations and logistics, maintenance and long-range planning for each facility. Chad’s office is in Wye Mills where he runs the companies trading desk which includes farmer origination, merchandising, hedging and other risk management procedures.
After growing up in the family business both sons pursued careers away from the grain business before returning to work full time with their father. Chip uses his past experience as an airplane mechanic and current job as a pilot with Southwest Airlines to improve the companies operating efficiencies and maintenance programs. Chad’s background as a C.P.A. enables him to assist with the finance and accounting functions of the company. After 60 years of serving the agriculture community, we remain dedicated to finding new ways of growing and improving our business to create value for our customers.