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NOTE: After a 114 year run, D.V. Burrell was sold in 2014 and is no longer operated by the Burrell
Family. The business is now called Burrell Seed Growers, LLC.[1,2]
[ The following
article is a historical reference regarding the old D. V. Burrell Seed
Growers Company ]
Cantaloupes and Customers Are King for D. V. Burrell Seed Growers
Family's fourth generation continues service
tradition.
by Frank
Zaworski
Seed World, June 2002
A
line in the D. V. Burrell Seed Growers Company catalog states, "No
seedsman can hope to survive the critical judgment of the trade unless his
product consistently delivers satisfaction. After 102 years in the seed
business, survival is no longer a question for this Rocky Ford, Colorado,
purveyor of seed products for commercial growers, florists and home
gardeners.
Bill and Rick Burrell (pronounced as the gem, beryl) are the fourth
generation to continue the tradition of customer satisfaction at D. V.
Burrell Seed Growers, which gained early fame for outstanding varieties of
cantaloupes and other melons.
As Rick explains, great-grandfather Delvin Victor (D. V.) Burrell moved to
Colorado in 1895 to begin a farming operation near Rocky Ford which is
situated on the rich sandy loam soils of the Arkansas River Valley. Once
settled in, D. V. found a need in the area for local production of
cantaloupe seed. He started raising seed for local producers and soon
after for seed companies located in the East. The seed production business
was gathering steam.
In 1900, D. V. opened a seed house on 405 North Main in downtown Rocky
Ford. D. V. Burrell's first seed catalog was printed in 1902 and
distributed to commercial growers and home gardeners in the region. At the
same time, Burrell continued to develop the wholesale seed business and
made huge strides through the refinement of the "Rocky Ford type
cantaloupe.
D. V. Burrell Seed Growers today are still located in that seed house on
Rocky Ford's Main Street. Step through the doors and you step back in time
to another era. Hardly anything has changed in the store (computers and
other electronics are hidden away in upstairs offices) since D. V. passed
the business down to his only child, son Harold, who then passed it on to
his son Bill, Sr., who in 1990, upon official retirement, passed the
business on to his sons Bill, Jr., and Rick.
"Bill and I got our start in this seed company working the business end of
a hoe, says Rick Burrell. "We grew up right along with the business and
today take pleasure in providing leadership for the company.
Rick works the sales end of the business. Older brother Bill serves as
production manager and Rick's wife, Jenine, provides sales expertise and
office management.
On a poundage basis, the bulk of Burrell's seed business comes from the
wholesale arena, followed by the commercial roadside market. The home
gardener provides a third, but no less important, market.
While marketing a wide array of seed products, Burrell specializes in
cantaloupes, watermelons, pumpkins, squash and onions. They also produce
Zinnia seed for other seed companies as well as for their own catalog.
Over the years, the Burrell family has improved many public varieties
and they are proud of their proprietary genetics such as the watermelons
'Daisy' and 'Navajo Sweet', and a long day onion famously known as 'Burrell's
Yellow Valencia', an All-America Selections winner that is resistant to thrips and is said to be one of the largest and heaviest yielding strains
of Sweet Spanish.
While the fundamentals of running a seed business have not changed much
over the past century, Rick says customers have become more technical,
needing more sophisticated information. "Even the home gardeners are
asking more in-depth questions, Rick said. "The roadside market people
are also much more technical. I guess we have kind of had to fill the gap
left by the vanishing extension agent.
The Burrell seed catalog reflects customers' need for in-depth
information. The catalog is chock-a-block with finely detailed
descriptions of offerings and extensive growing recommendations. The
discussion of triploid watermelon seed germination, emergence and
cross-pollination is particularly informative for growers wanting to
tackle these challenging critters.
D. V. Burrell Seed Growers continues to add new products to their line-up.
Some of the new additions include hybrid cantaloupe Pikes Peak, a
full-season highly uniform variety good for long distance shipping;
triploid watermelon 'Mt. Shavano' with its dark red flesh and medium rind;
and hybrid watermelon 'Mt. Antero', excellent quality Allsweet-type. Rick
Burrell says all watermelon seed has been tested for Watermelon Fruit
Blotch before it is made available for sale.
D. V. Burrell Seed Growers does many things the old fashioned way. As the
company simply states in their 2002 catalog, "We are Old Fashioned because
we care about our customers.
Article
Source:
Seed World June 2002 Vol: 140 Num: 6,
Copyright © 2005 Scranton Gillette Communications.
Frank Zaworski is editor of Seed World.
Informational References:
-
Dave's
Garden Watchdog
-
"The
Burrell Seed legacy revitalized,"Ag Journal Online, La Junta,
Colorado, April 13, 2018.
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