Valley View Agri has a long history of delivering excellence in design, build and service for the grain industry, and at our Cleveland, Mississippi, location, the roots in agriculture run especially deep.
Originally founded as Simmons-Belk in 1958, the company specialized in grain bin construction, millwright work, repairs and upgrades. J.C. Belk and James Simmons partnered to serve grain systems and feed mills in the Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas markets, providing Chicago Eastern and Reed-Joseph brand bins. The most common bins were 12,000 or 15,000 bushels, and a 20,000-bushel bin was exceptionally large.
In the mid-70s, Dean Daniels and Felix Hammack took over the business, continuing to set the bar for superior grain construction from the ground up. Daniels’ background in feed mills served the company and its customers well, as he and Hammack expanded and integrated to deliver advanced grain systems across the south. Service remained a core tenet for the company, and customer loyalty reflected that.
By 1982, Daniels would partner with Kenneth Dawson, renaming the company as K&D Associates and becoming a GSI and Hutchinson dealer. This brand expansion helped make them a staple in the southeast agriculture industry, with generations relying on their expertise and quality for high-capacity production.
Daniels stayed with the company and its customers when it joined the Valley View Agri family in 2000, helping to shape the newest generation. The company continued its growth trajectory with the addition of more brands including Mueller, Niko and Ross Manufacturing.
Today, most bins are more than four times the size our founders built, and high throughput has become a way of life for agriculture. Nearly 70 years later, the same location in Cleveland serves customers. Incredibly, if you drive across the southeast today, you can still find Simmons-Belk bins in use. And, many of our customers are second or third generation, a testament to the foundation J.C. Belk and James Simmons set for excellence.
Advancements in material handling drive the industry forward, and Valley View Agri maintains the lead. Never straying from our core tenets of service and sustainability, we stay in lock step with our customers’ goals to continue leveling up productivity, profit and performance.