Most work on family-run operations, some that date back many generations.
This is the story of one of them, a story that begins in 1871 in Poolesville near the C&O Canal on the Potomac River.
That’s where William (Billy) Willard Sr. says his great-great grandfather Dewalt Willard began farming. “He and brother Charles bought 675 acres for a little over $10,000, which was an extraordinary amount of money back then,” he said. This is also where Willard Sr. grew up and where his family has been in business ever since.
Wisely, Willard Sr. says the family figured out early on that the secret to survival was to diversify their operations. “I’m fairly certain that [they] knew they couldn’t eke out a living on that farm. So, Harry, my great-grandfather, came to Poolesville [in 1905] and started many businesses. He had a feed mill. He built a grocery store. He had a saw mill and thrashing machines that he ran with a steam engine.”
Eventually the Willards owned a John Deere dealership.
Expansion, Innovation, Entrepreneurship
With all these resources, the family expanded into custom farming, providing clients at neighboring farms with equipment they could otherwise not afford to run their operations.
That business acumen reached Willard Sr.’s father (also named Dewalt), one of those custom hired hands, who barely out of high school in 1948 purchased his first combine, machinery that had gone into widespread use after World War II. In a Willard Agri-Service video, Dewalt (De) Willard says he spent all his savings on the combine, but was a little short. He asked his aunt for a loan so the check wouldn’t bounce. “That’s how I got started. I did not do it for the money. I [did] it because I love to be out there and part of the operation and what was going on,” he said.
Willard Sr. calls his father a visionary. “[He] was always a step ahead with technology. He’s in his 80s [and] building software. He continued that [desire to push] to the next step until a year before he died [in 2024, at 93],” he said.
While continuing to farm their own properties and custom farm others, De Willard, as he was known, traveled across the county each year in search of new ideas and best agricultural practices. He contributed to the introduction of no-till agriculture in Maryland, a technique that avoids ploughing before planting and improves soil health and reduces erosion.
Eye for New Business, Improving the Land
In 1970 De Willard founded Willard Chemical Company, later renamed Willard Agri-Service. Willard Sr. describes their work as an agricultural retailer. “We supply fertilizer, crop nutrition and chemicals to farmers in six states,” he said. “We [also] have been on the leading edge of technology with our [agricultural] software — HIGH-Q — that helps farmers collect and crunch data. It’s a complex decision-support system. We were one of the first to have it in Maryland.”
Willard Sr. is its CEO; his son Matthew, director of operations. His other son, Billy Willard Jr., manages the farm, which today consists of 2,500 acres (18 farms) in a 12-mile radius from the grain bins visible from Whites Ferry Road near downtown historic Poolesville. It’s here the innovations continue in fields of corn, wheat, soy beans and sorghum, largely grown for animal consumption.
“We don’t grow any chicken, but they eat a lot of our corn,” he said jokingly.
“Our methods of farming are very high-tech, including precision agricultural processes that protect our environment and help achieve maximum nutrient-use efficiency,” he said.
The result is more bushels with less inputs. “Our corn harvest, for example, increased from 75 bushels per acre 50 years ago to nearly 200 bushels per acre today.”
Mike Scheffel is director of agricultural services in Montgomery County. He calls their work critical to agricultural progress in the region. “They have an eye for business and they [have always] responded to market forces. And they are really leaders in the sense they are great stewards of the land,” he said. “Billy [Sr.] and his family sit on a lot of boards and commissions at the county level. So, they are giving their time back to the community.”
Protecting Farming in Agricultural Reserve
The Willard farms are located in the heart of the county’s 93,000-acre Agricultural Reserve. Created in 1980 by the Montgomery County Council, the decision to protect one-third of the county land resources was aimed at fighting off development on the metropolitan area’s edge, which in the previous decade ate up approximately 2,300 acres a year.
Willard Sr. says it was a big win for farmers and wants that land to remain in production and not converted to nonagricultural uses, such as solar. Other threats he says are white-tailed deer, traffic and navigation of narrow roads with large machinery.
He is a board member of Montgomery Agricultural Producers or M.A.P., which promotes the business of agriculture. The nonprofit also advocates for the best use of open space and informs citizens and county officials about keeping the agricultural sector viable. “It’s going to take the support and the will of [Montgomery County’s] 1.1 million people to keep the Ag Reserve and farming — not just the land and the dirt, but the industry of farming,” he said.
Willard Sr. says working the land and improving it for his family and in community with other farmers is what he was meant to do. “It’s [here] where my wife and I were able to build our home on that [same] piece of dirt [of] my ancestors [from 1871]. That’s a privilege,” he said. “And I don’t even feel like I own it. We’re just taking care of it. I love it.”
WILLARD FAMILY WORDS OF (FARMING) WISDOM
When asked how his family has stayed in the business of farming for so long, Willard Sr. offers these words of wisdom that have guided his family over the years through good seasons and those more challenging. Willard Sr. adds, “What works on the farm, works for other endeavors in life.”
• Perseverance is key to surviving in agriculture.
• Worry about the things you can control.
• Embrace change.
• Embrace new technologies.
• Enjoy what you do! Have fun!
