Seed Genetics Direct puts farmers first in seed selections

*Chris and Todd Jeffries stand infront of silos at Seed Genetics Direct in Jeffersonville, Ohio.*

By Liz Partsch - June 19, 2025

Farm and Dairy

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ohio — Wind blows through freshly plowed fields in Jeffersonville, Ohio, on a late spring day: Planting season has come. And, there’s no better place to buy corn and soybean seeds than a local seed business focused on supporting farmers.

Seed Genetics Direct is run by father-son duo Chris and Todd Jeffries. Serving Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the core of their business is putting farmers first.

“We want to be a strong voice and a strong advocate for the American farmer,” Todd said. “That’s why (Seed Genetics Direct) was created.”

Where it started

Chris opened Seed Genetics Direct in 2017, but he had experience in the farming and seed industry long before then.

He grew up on a 64-acre farm in eastern Indiana that his grandfather bought in 1917. The farm was a small grain operation, and Chris also helped milk the neighbors’ cows. Later on, he attended Vincennes University and Purdue University, obtaining a degree in animal science in 1973.

He taught vocational agriculture for three years in Martinsville, Indiana, from 1976-79 before opening his first seed company in 1990, Seed Consultants. In 2010, Chris sold the company to DuPont, an American multinational chemical company, but he stayed on as general manager for a few more years.

However, over time, he realized he didn’t agree with the choices being made by his new corporate bosses.

“It was one of those things after running the show for a number of years, and then all of a sudden you have to answer to somebody in Iowa that doesn’t understand farmers in Ohio and Indiana and Pennsylvania,” Todd said. “He just kind of got a little bit frustrated with it.”

So, Chris left the business and opened up another seed company: Seed Genetics Direct. A lot of the employees at his former company also followed him. His experience with a large, corporate seed dealer shapes his business today.

“There’s kind of a reason why we have an anti-big business, anti-corporate kind of stance and structure to our company, because we saw how a seed company that put shareholders over customers can be detrimental to the customer,” Todd said. “So we put customers first, always.”

Growing

Todd, who graduated from Ohio University with a degree in applied management in 2018, joined his dad’s company in 2019. He initially wasn’t interested in being part of the company, majoring in physical therapy at OU instead.

But, after working at Seed Consultants one summer, traveling to farms and talking to farmers, he changed his mind. The business employs many other Jeffries’ family members, too, including Todd’s uncle, two cousins, step-sister and step-niece.

When the business first started out, it sold corn, soybeans and alfalfa seeds. Today, it’s added wheat seeds and herbicide products to the catalog. Unlike some other seed companies, Chris and Todd place an emphasis on plant health and agronomics over seeds that create high yields.

“You can have 300 bushel of corn, but if it gets clobbered with diseases and has no sustainability, then, it’s kind of a hard sell if it’s not going to hold up through harvest,” Todd said.

A lot of Seed Genetics Direct’s seed selections are eastern Corn Belt-based and are considered for agronomics first and yield second. Chris and Todd also conduct research on their seeds to ensure they are selling the best products and to determine future seed options.

The company has 27 research locations across Ohio and Indiana, with 50 test plots of corn and soybeans growing side by side. Even the Jeffries’ farm in Indiana, which is still occupied by Chris’ mother, is used as a test location.

A variety of factors are implemented in the fields to identify the best seeds. For example, the seeds are grown in soil with different compositions, and researchers take notes on yields, sustainability and different diseases the plants may come down with. Some of their fields are also used as Ohio State University research locations.

Making progress

As Chris and Todd continue to shape Seed Genetics Direct, so, too, have the farmers who buy its seeds. In 2022, some farmers were asking Todd why they put insecticide on their soybeans.

So, he decided to look into insecticides: “The only pros I could find were from companies that make insecticide,” Todd said. Then, he found a multi-state, multi-year study that found neonicotinoid seed treatments in soybeans provide minimal to no benefit in most situations.

Through more research, Todd also discovered that the insecticide seeds were killing beetles, the natural predator of the slug, which is known to eat soybean plants.

Taking all that into consideration, Chris and Todd decided to remove the insecticide from their seeds and replaced it with seed-applied inoculant that provides beneficial bacteria to legumes, enhancing nitrogen fixation.

The seeds, however, aren’t the only thing that is evolving. Seeds Genetics Direct — which sells its products at its Jeffersonville store, online and through door-to-door salespeople — is currently building a soybean cleaning warehouse to better control its inventory. The frame was built last summer in a span of three and a half days by a group of six men.

Todd hopes the new soybean cleaning warehouse will make the workflow easier by cleaning the beans themselves. As Seeds Genetics Direct looks toward new horizons, one thing always stays the same in the seed business: a love for family.

“I think one of my favorite parts is just spending time with my dad on a professional level and on a personal level,” Todd said. “Everybody here, we’re just one big family, for better, or worse some days.”

For more information on Seed Genetics Direct, visit www.seedgeneticsdirect.com.

(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)