Ag Pro Environmental Services grows with its clients

2023 Mercury 100 fastest-growing private companies

GREELEY — Pandemic-era practices that saw people shelter at home and do more of their own cooking had the effect of driving up commodity prices for farmers, which in turn uplifted ag interests such as those of Greeley-based ag services company Ag Pro Environmental Services LLC.

Agprofessionals, which it uses as its trade name, saw revenue grow 22,6% over the past two years; it is among this year’s Mercury 100 fastest growing companies in Northern Colorado. The company located at 3050 67th Ave. saw revenue rise by nearly $1 million between 2020 and 2022, when it stood at $4.956 million.

Agprofessionals was founded and is led by Tom Haren; it looks beyond the basics of agriculture in an effort to raise ag to a higher level. 

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“COVID was an interesting time, but we had a good run through COVID. We’re agriculture based, and COVID didn’t affect much in agriculture. Cows have to be milked, COVID or not,” Haren said.

Ag Pro — 29 employees plus seven land brokers — offers a range of services such as ag planning and consultation, agronomy services to help farmers develop environmentally friendly practices, engineering and geotechnical services, help with land surveys and real estate deals, and services such as legal, public relations and financial support.

Haren attributes the company’s success to providing top flight service. 

“We’re professional problem solvers. Problems aren’t always bad,” Haren said. “We help achieve client goals, and then we go a step further, and that’s gotten us client loyalty — some of our clients have been with us for 20 years. We advocate success. We’re constantly defending the industry, advocating for our clients.”
Ag Pro became a one-stop shop. When clients needed help finding property to expand their operations, the company created a division that helps with site selection. “If you’re going to build a hog farm, you can’t put those things just anywhere. Other brokers didn’t get it or didn’t treat clients right, so we decided to do it ourselves.”

While business grew on multiple fronts, its engineering and surveying division grew most rapidly. “Real estate was growing well but is flat right now,” he said.

The company, which has offices in multiple states, has expanded most recently into Idaho, Washington and Oregon. 

Ag interests seek out the company to help with their expansions. It frequently works with city and county governments, advocating for companies that need help to expand. 

“Urban encroachment causes work for us. We help people stay in agriculture as long as they want. And if they want to hang it up, we help with those transitions as well,” he said.

Its professionals help farmers expand using best practices.

“A big part of our design when looking where to put a facility,” he said when describing work with chicken and egg producers, “we don’t want it within a certain number of miles from another bird facility. We make sure personnel don’t commingle. All that goes into the planning.”

Haren said that right now the biggest issues for the company’s clients are commodity prices and regulation. Commodity prices are softening, he said, which may cause ag growth to plateau. 

“Our challenge right now is filling open positions. We could be growing more if we could fill some spots,” he said, which include engineers, surveyors, environmental engineers, planners, land use professionals and real estate brokers.