Ag Com’s roots can be traced back to 1904, when Davie Sharrer and his family moved to New Chester, where the strong flow of the Conewago Creek assured a successful beginning to a family business that would continue for many generations.  Davie came to New Chester with his wife Annie and his four children after he had lost his leg in a terrible mill accident.  Due to his disability, he found difficulty in getting his old job back as a head miller or finding any way of supporting his family.  Determined to succeed, he heard about the mill for rent in New Chester and decided to risk everything to come there.  The old mill was built in 1838 by Henry Myers on the site of another mill that dated back to 1771, when William Penn deeded the original land grant.  The original Callico millstone, imported from France around 1730 was reset in the present mill and remains a precious artifact today.  Davie was impressed with the strong flow of the creek that would power the mill throughout the year.  It is over one hundred years later and the Conewago Creek still runs strong by the old mill, but much has changed from those humble beginnings.

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Davie and his oldest son Melvin continued efforts to expand the business. Melvin learned much about flour milling from his father and it became his passion. Melvin, who was known as ‘Pappy’ by everyone in the community, saw much progress in his seventy years that he worked at the mill.  Pappy would reminisce about sending two tons of flour to Littlestown on a horse drawn buckboard, with two men that would take all day.  In later years he would marvel at the firm’s tractor trailer fleet hauling thousands of tons of feed, flour and commodities in the same twenty four hours.

During the difficult times of depression, it was necessary for Melvin’s son Bud to drop out of high school to help keep the family business alive.  Bud would become a vital part of the company’s success growth in the next forty years.  In the 1950’s, Bud helped to develop the poultry business in South Central Pennsylvania by offering the first broiler and layer contracts to farmers in the area. The feed business grew dramatically during those years.  In 1970 Bud designed and built a new, fully automated feed mill near Gettysburg; as well as, a fertilizer blend plant. His goal was to create horizontal integration and diversification.

In the 1990’s the company began to further diversify and grow and was fortunate to attract key employees to the company. The growth of key personnel brought expertise to meet the many challenges that were to be part of that growth.  All of the company’s operations and assets grew and became more automated to meet the growing demand.  The commodity trans-load operation grew as it unloaded train cars from processors in the Midwest, providing competitive commodities for the local farmers and mills.   All natural soybean meal processing also commenced in the mid 1990’s and would become a key component in future years as Ag Com began to specialize in feed made naturally.

Today, Ag Com is a diversified agricultural company.  The feed mill at Granite Station specializes in the custom manufacture of all natural feeds for large animal grow outs in south central Pennsylvania.  The company continues to off load the many feed commodities providing logistical advantage to its customers. The fertilizer blend plant still provides nutrients for the corn, wheat and soybeans that supply the operations, which was the plan from generations ago. Today, the fourth and fifth generation of the Sharrer family remain exceedingly proud that the old flour mill that runs by the Conewago Creek is still grinding flour, with superior ratings from AIB.