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Joe Sylvera, the Lyman Group Controller, came on board in 1969. Harvey taught Joe how to manage the hand posted accounting and pricing system, emphasizing to Joe the importance of daily accounting and always putting grower service and a “win-win” mentality first and foremost as a Lyman employee.
Les Lyman, Harvey’s Son, spent his high school and college summers learning the business from the ground up. After graduating from Cal Poly with a BS in Ag Business Management, Les spent three years with Shell Ag Chemicals gaining a broad view of the agri-service business from a national leader’s perspective. He returned home to the company on a full time basis in 1972.
Already grounded in Harvey’s philosophy of grower service and the importance of valued employees, Les brought a sensible growth mentality to the business. He added innovation and a philosophy of wise investments for continuos service improvement and better pricing into ongoing business operations.
In 1976, the company’s terminated its product and equipment affiliation with the John Taylor Company on a friendly basis. In 1977, they completed their first acquisition, acquiring the Pezzaglia Nursery operations in Rio Vista, a move that assisted the company in moving further into the liquid and dry fertilizer business.
The acquisition of the J. M. Buckley Ag Service operation in Courtland in 1979 represented an investment in custom dry fertilizer blending and liquid fertilizer manufacturing. The operation was moved to the Harvey Lyman Agservice Clarksburg location shortly after this acquisition.
The 1981 acquisition of Sacramento County Farm Supply in Wilton, CA broadened the company’s service area throughout the Galt and Elk Grove areas. During the 1980’s, the two individual Harvey Lyman operating companies were merged into one, under the new name of Harvey Lyman Ag Services, Inc.
As the company grew, so did its reputation for grower service and industry leadership on local and regional levels. With the complexity of the ag chemicals and agri-service industries increasing, Harvey Lyman Ag Services, Inc. broadened its strategic plan to include diversification in both market geography and products and services, along wit the continued development of highly qualified, service oriented staff members at all levels of the company.
Acquisitions in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s included Unlimited Agri Products, which become Harvey Lyman Ag Service - Lakeport, CA, and Tremont Supply Inc, near Dixon CA, which brought significant fertilizer manufacturing capacity and rail car access to the growing Lyman Group.
In 2003, the AgriSource operation in Maxwell, CA was formed by The Lyman Group and began operations throughout Northern CA. In 2008, the Ag Unlimited, Ukiah CA operation was acquired, broadening the company’s Northern California coastal and inland service areas.
With each of these acquisitions, the Lyman group expanded and diversified it’s grower service area, added valuable product and services capacity, and most important, increased it’s staff of highly qualified staff members who work well together in their own areas of service and as part of the Lyman Group team.
The Ag Services Seeds operations was opened in Clarksburg, CA in 2008, diversifying the company’s grower product line to include agricultural crop seeds.
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