Harry Stine (center) smiles with 2024-25 National FFA Eastern Region Vice President Mary Schrieber (left) and 2024-25 National FFA President Thaddeus Bergschneider (right) during their visit to Stine Seed.
Harry Stine holds many titles — entrepreneur and business leader, to name a couple — but he considers himself a farmer first.
Raised on his family’s farm in central Iowa, Stine’s interest in seed breeding led to the founding of the first private soybean and genetic research company in the United States. Today, Stine Seed is the world’s largest private seed company. Stine Seed and its affiliates own more than 800 seed and technology-affiliated patents, at least 750 of which are directly related to soybeans.
It all began, however, on Stine family property, where Harry grew up and joined FFA in high school. After graduating from McPherson College, he joined his father, Bill Stine, on Stine Seed Farm, a soybean cleaning venture. One day, after finding some unusual-looking soybean plants growing in a field, Harry Stine became intrigued by the idea of soybean breeding. He loved farming but realized the increased opportunity for profits by developing higher-yielding soybean lines. So, he began breeding soybeans and checking yields to improve genetics and yields — the beginnings of his impressive career.
We recently caught up with Harry Stine to talk about his early years on the family farm, his formative experiences in agriculture and why he continues to support FFA.
Q: What was your upbringing like?
A: We had a very typical farm for the 1940s and ’50s, growing a few acres of alfalfa, oats and corn. We also had a few pigs, milk cows, beef cattle and hogs. There’s nothing like that anymore.
Q: What are some of your earliest memories on the farm?
A: When I was four years old, I was driving a Farmall B tractor picking up bales of hay. In those days, we would drive between two rows of small bales on the ground. A person walked on each side and put the bales on the hayrack, where another person stacked the bales. I remember thinking very clearly, as I guided the tractor coming to the end of the row, ‘What am I going to do now?’ I couldn’t reach the pedals and had no idea where the gear shift or the throttle was. One of the people walking beside me got up on the tractor, turned it around and headed it in the other direction.
My parents would be put in jail these days for letting a 4-year-old drive a tractor, but I think it was a good experience. We worked hard, but that was good.
Q: What were your experiences in FFA?
A: Most of my schooling was at Washington Township, which was a little rural school. Our advisor, Bill Schnelle, took us on a trip every summer, and we would go to Chicago, Kansas City or somewhere else. We pulled a little trailer behind his car with our tents and supplies in it. We’d stop at a city park, pitch our tents and cook our food. It all cost very little because none of us at that time could afford anything expensive.
Here we were, farm kids with no experience whatsoever, in larger cities and with big businesses, and [Schnelle] didn’t have to do any of this. I greatly admired the fact that he was willing to expose us to the city environment, and I think the particular companies we visited in those cities were secondary to his intent of the big-city exposure. I kept up with him until he passed away.
Q: Why is it important for you and Stine Seed to support FFA?
A: I appreciated both FFA and 4-H as I grew up, and I think both organizations contributed significantly to who I am today. We need to support the same organizations that put us where we are. The number of farmers is declining, and FFA is one of the strongest components in bringing new people into agriculture. Anything we can do to support that is good.
Continued Collaboration
Stine Seed is a sponsor and partner of the Iowa FFA Foundation. The company invests in future leaders at every level — from local chapters and state officers to FFA Alumni and ambassadors — helping to grow a strong agricultural workforce in Iowa and beyond.
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