Lyman Niebaum, Fremont, has retired after 35 years of service to Fontanelle Hybrids, Fontanelle, Nebraska. “The entire time Lyman spent with the Company was in the production area,” Dave Monke, production manager said. “One of our foundation principles is producing an outstanding quality product. Lyman’s personal commitment to that principle helped us ensure that our customers received quality in every bag. He’ll be missed but he’s done a good job of putting procedures in place for a high quality product to continue.”

“During that 35 years Lyman was in production the seed business experienced an ever increasing set of changes. In fact we’ve seen more changes in the past seven or eight years than the previous 20 years, not only in technology products but also in lots of areas in which Lyman had responsibility including seed treatments and different grading and production equipment. Lyman’s expertise in those areas really helped us get through them with relative ease,” Monke said.

“Lyman is known across the seed industry for his knowledge and experience in production. With his help, before his retirement we assessed the production process and realigned responsibilities so that the entire process makes more sense with the increased complexity of the seed business today,” Monke said. “This will ensure that our Company will be able to handle all of the requirements we need to be successful into the future.”

Other long time Fontanelle employees have taken on new duties to cover the areas that were once Niebaum’s responsibilities: Coy Sweet is promoted to Production Manager, Travis Beans is in charge of   Quality Assurance and Earl Hilliard has been placed in charge of all plant operations.