History of Dreamland
In March of 2008 the partners in ProfitMax Ag, a group of believing men felt called to pursue in a greater way a means of creating prosperity for folks in rural communities. The country was in a season of high fuel prices which were oppressing the farmers who were already experiencing low commodity pricing as well as high input costs. That group of men felt led to pursue introducing biodiesel into the Panhandle economy. They believed by doing that they could win favor sooner with farmers who would then use more of their product line that was also designed to lower input costs putting more money back into their pockets.
This all stemmed from the fact that all of the partners came from rural towns and believed that they were to help establish “self-sustaining communities”. Much of this was spurred by a prophetic word that was given to the leadership of a church, that a couple of the partners were affiliated with, several years ago that emphasized its role in the care and expansion of rural America and its values. This man, Phillip Elston, told the church leadership group to not despise their role in rural America or to think it insignificant because the greatest leaders of this country did not necessarily arise from metropolitan areas but rather from rural towns.
As all the partners could see, the rural communities around had been far from flourishing but rather dying. They believed God stirred them to begin businesses that stimulate growth in these communities so that young people growing up there would have reason to stay rather than leaving and never coming back.
This plan to begin helping to restore rural America began with the formulation of a team of unlikely partners that were all followers of Jesus. Through a series of events they were introduced to a product line that could positively impact farmers input costs, return fertility to raped soil, reduce water use, etc. However, as is well known, old habits die hard and getting this venture off the ground was extremely slow.
When fuel prices hit all-time highs in 2008 the group from ProfitMax AG began to discuss ways to address this problem through the biodiesel fuel market. They believed that they could help in putting together a biodiesel plant that would service farmers in the region and be able to reduce their input costs.
This desire sent them to Dove Creek, CO to visit with the folks there that had put in a biodiesel plant. Shortly after arriving there they discovered there was a huge shortage of feedstock to supply the plants not just there in Dove Creek, but all over the country. One partner, Amos Gray, who had worked extensively in Colorado years ago remembered a friend who was a crop research person that had been working with biofuels, greases, etc. Amos tracked down that friend who knew exactly where to send this group for information on feedstock. It was all the way to Lubbock, TX at Texas Tech where a man by the name of Dick Auld had been studying oilseeds for years and had developed what Amos’ friend called the foremost oilseed program in the country.
Charlie Thomas, one of the original partners and Amos immediately loaded up and went to Lubbock to visit. After that visit they called the president of the company, Brian Bluhm, and said, “Brian you’ve got to go see those guys up there.” So Brian went to Lubbock and met with Steve Oswalt the farm manager overseeing the growing of the oilseed crops and other crops there. After that visit Brian was as excited as Amos and Charlie.
About the time of these visits to Tech some farmers around Memphis, TX experienced a hailout of their cotton. After Amos and Tim Bluhm (another partner) visited with several of those guys they believed that there was significant enough interest in the crop as a replacement for their cotton that the company could sell a truckload of seed to be planted there in that area. However, they were under time constraints with it being a late time to plant, so they made a snap decision and ordered a truckload of seed out of Montana to plant. After getting it in they soon discovered that very few of the guys had deep interest in planting and those that were interested were having difficulty with their planters, water, etc.
It soon got dry enough that only one plot of safflower was in the ground in that area. Through additional efforts they were able to secure another plot east of Tulia, TX through one of Charlie’s friends and then one other one west of Seymour, TX. These plots all flourished except for the one west of Seymour which was planted dry. However after a rain, even it was in great shape.
About this time, Brian was seeing the scope of what this crop and idea could turn into and decided, as he had in the past, to seek the counsel of Ray Templeton, a trusted friend and entrepreneur, in regards to the business possibilities. Ray had given an initial look to it and was intrigued. Brian called Ray one Saturday afternoon requesting to spend some time looking at this in detail, but Ray was at the lake with his family. A few minutes after the call Ray called Brian back and said that he felt he was supposed to come home immediately and go with Brian to deliver some chemical to the farmer west of Seymour and that way they could talk.
During this conversation Ray stated that he had looked at the numbers Brian had given him and had done some research on his own and felt like this was a viable business opportunity. Brian told Ray that he needed help with expertise in a venture of this size and some capital to go with it. Ray said he would pray about it and talk to Gaylene (his wife) about it.
About this same time Beltway Park Baptist Church (the home church to Ray and Brian) hosted a prophetic conference. During this conference two words came to Brian that affirmed the direction the group was going. First was a word from one of the ministers that told he and Sherry (his wife) that he was seeing for us “State Farm”. He could not really understand the word, but Brian did. The other word that came was from James Goll who opened his talk that day with a statement that said he had an immediate impression when he got off the plane that day in Abilene. He said that the impression was that most people had written off our area of the world as a wasteland, but he said the Lord had told him that He was restoring it to a “Dreamland”. And thus the name was born.
Following these events and some time Ray agreed, upon the original groups’ approval, to join the venture and to head up the project. He was spurred by a prophetic word from a young man at Beltway who knew nothing of the venture at the time that told him he had seen him in a vision where he was standing in a field of green plants and that that field turned to gold. (Obviously, the color of safflower in full bloom).
Ray and Brian scheduled a trip to California to look at the commercial production of the crop during harvest. It was a great sight to see and they gleaned great insights to seed providers, growing the crop, and really every aspect of the crop production and processing. They looked deeply at the biodiesel opportunities and were very excited about that. Later, when fuel prices went down, they began studying the oil for food. They discovered during this process that safflower oil is one of the healthiest oils known to man and is great for frying food, cosmetics, etc. This was really great when legislation began to be introduced to eliminate trans fats in Americans diets.
Ray and Brian took a trip to Goodland, KS to visit a crushing plant there. Ray asked Brian about the possibility of bringing Shane Robertson along to discuss his interest in being a part of the Dreamland team. Of course this visit in Kansas was beneficial in a several ways: Brian got to know Shane, who was then invited on the team, the team discovered a willingness from ADM to work with them in processing their crop, and they learned that there is a shortage of trans fat free oil in the market.
Upon returning to Abilene, Ray decided to approach the elders of Beltway, where he had worked for the last 12 years, seeking their blessing to be released from employment to pursue this venture. The elders, who Brian is a part of also, were very supportive and excited about the venture. They requested that Ray stay on board part time to lead in the construction of a new building, but gave blessing to office out of the church while pursuing the venture.
Everyone on the team knew that there was a severe shortage of feedstock to operate a biodiesel plant, but by this time, after much time with the Tech staff, the team was just as excited about introducing the crop itself as they were the oil coming out of the crop. It seemed to be such a great fit for this area, so much so, that they couldn’t believe someone else hadn’t done this already. So the group began to set up seminars to introduce this crop to farmers. Shane and the group contacted hundreds of farmers over the next months to invite them to these seminars. More than 40 of these seminars were conducted and scores of farmers across the region attended.
Through these seminars more than 50000 acres were identified to be possible acres to grow on. The group was stoked and believed they would have to turn acres away due to the limited funding they had. As they waited for a price that could be offered on their growing contract they began to seek commitments from the farmers to grow the crop. Ray, in the meantime was putting together the “encyclopedia” of the business and began the pursuit of funding sources. Neither the money nor the acreage came in as expeditiously as expected from early indications.
During this season the country was also experiencing one of the worst droughts in 50 years and an economic upheaval that is the worst since the great depression. All of this caused the partners to ride a rollercoaster of emotions and faith levels. It has also caused them to pray.
As of June, 2009 over 21000 acres have been committed to the project. More than 2.1 million dollars have been invested from approximately a dozen investors and although it is has been a battle, the Lord is providing over and above what was asked in every aspect of this venture. Dreamland has secured acres of commercial safflower production from the Goodland, KS area all the way down to Menard, TX. These acres represent nearly 200 growers in a broad range of soil types and growing conditions. Dreamland also received approval for 3.75 million dollars of bank loans to aid in crop purchasing, purchase and renovation of a seed and oil facility, and the construction of a vegetable oil refinery.
As of this writing, the initial crop has been sold and work on completing the crop is under way with Dreamland field reps monitoring closely the progress of the crop and gathering a broad range of data to help in the evaluation process. Evaluation of the ’09 crop is in progress with help from experts at Texas Tech, safflower agronomists from the upper Midwest, and California, and preparations are underway for the 2010 crop. There have been multiple visitors from other parts of the country who have come to validate the work of Dreamland and who look to potentially partner with them in the coming years, which is very exciting.
It is apparent, that with the Lord’s help, the initial year of Dreamland has been a great kickoff in helping them achieve the company mission of “Creating Rural Prosperity”. The Dreamland team and partners continue to pursue operating a solid, long-term company that will operate with utmost integrity to build trust with farmers, researchers, buyers, and anyone else in the industry with the hope of making the name of Jesus famous through their efforts.