By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
Kansas is the wheat state. Our state has outstanding wheat farmers, world-class wheat research programs, excellent climate for growing wheat, and fields filled with golden waves of grain at harvest time.
What we don’t have is an integrated flour mill and bakery within the borders of our state. Now a team of Kansas leaders is working to change that situation with a new facility in rural Kansas.
Tony Adams is chairman and president of Golden Waves Grain. Adams, a former quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs and an avid outdoorsman, went into business in Kansas City after his NFL career.
Adams was part of Leadership Kansas in 1998. One of the class tours was to Goodland where he heard a presentation by farmer Alan Townsend. Among other things, Townsend is president of 21st Century Bean, a dry edible bean processing cooperative with headquarters in Goodland.
Adams commented to Townsend: “You’re producing the best hard red winter wheat in the world, but you’ve got no wheat mill. Why don’t we use the 21st Century Bean model for wheat? We could build a wheat milling and baking facility to benefit Kansas and the region.”
A lot of research and relationship-building followed. Adams reached out to leading businessman and former Kansas lieutenant governor Dave Owen. He also contacted Brian Linin, another leading Sherman County producer.
They and others came together to create Golden Waves Grain with the concept of creating a state-of-the-art wheat milling and baking facility under one roof in Goodland. This approach eliminates much of the transportation costs and product comingling which occurs in the current system. The company is actively seeking other investors currently.
“In 2022, Dave Owen and I came to the milling school at K-State to try to learn everything we could about the milling side of the business,” Adams said. “Three-and-a-half years ago, we were like freshmen. Now I think we’re about to get our doctorate.”
They reached out to grocery associations and nationally recognized milling and baking consultants, plus others. When they proposed a feasibility study to the Kansas Wheat Commission, it was enthusiastically approved.
They also found baking specialist Angie Singer, who developed a way to use natural enzymes rather than artificial preservatives to extend shelf-life of the bread.
“We can add a sunnier flavor and extend the shelf life of a loaf of bread up to 65 days,” Adams said. Associated Wholesale Grocers has given a letter of intent to distribute the product.
“This needs to benefit the producers,” Adams said. Golden Waves Grain will provide an opportunity for farmers to invest in units of delivery and then receive a premium above market price for their wheat. By milling the wheat and baking the flour under the same roof, extra transportation costs will be eliminated.
“We can make this a win-win for everybody along the supply chain,” Adams said.
“With a QR code on the bread wrapper, the consumer will be able to trace their wheat back to the individual farmer who produced it,” he said. “It will be a good way to share the story of Kansas farmers.”
The 200,000 square foot facility is projected to break ground in early 2026. Upon completion, it is projected to employ 142 people and produce 80 million loaves of bread and 450 million hamburger and hot dog buns annually.
The company plans to private label bread for other companies, as well as marketing its own brand of Gold N Good Bread. In the long run, similar facilities could be built in other regions of the nation as well.
It’s great to see this facility coming to a rural community such as Goodland, population 4,465 people. Now, that’s rural.
For more information, see www.goldenwavesgrain.com.
Kansas is the wheat state, yet we have no place where the wheat can be milled and baked under one roof. We commend Tony Adams, Dave Owen, Alan Townsend, Brian Linin, and all those involved with Golden Waves Grain for making a difference with this approach to adding value to Kansas wheat.
It will help us to enjoy our daily bread.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
