Congressman Balderson Visits Baltic Feed Maker Celebrating 120 Years of Growth

Congressman Troy Balderson toured Gerber & Sons in Baltic, stopping at one of Holmes County's oldest family businesses as it pursues a $26.3 million expansion that will more than double its feed production capacity and consolidate storage spread across five separate sites into a single modern facility.

The visit arrived at a milestone moment for the company. Gerber & Sons, founded in 1905 and operating under the BOB WHITE brand of livestock and poultry feeds, is now more than 120 years old and running under its fifth generation of family leadership. Seth Gerber, the company's President and General Manager, rejoined the business in 2011 after a stint at ProVia as a Production Scheduling and Credit Manager and now oversees a workforce of nearly 60 employees, some of whom have been with the company for more than 40 years. Gerber also serves as a director of Baltic State Bank and Frontier Power and sits on the board of the Ohio AgriBusiness Association.

The expansion centers on a 60-acre unused industrial parcel in the Holmes County section of Baltic, where a new automated mill will replace the current facility, built in the 1970s after a fire destroyed much of the original plant. The new site will double annual corn processing capacity from 1.65 million bushels and pull together more than 500,000 bushels of raw material currently dispersed among five locations.

Financing came primarily through $25 million in USDA Business and Industry Loan Guarantees administered through The Commercial & Savings Bank: a $20.5 million guaranteed loan covering construction and a $4.5 million loan for new equipment. JobsOhio, Ohio Southeast Economic Development, and the Holmes County Economic Development Council all backed the project. Holmes County Commissioners approved a 10-year, 50% tax break through an enterprise zone agreement.

Seth Gerber credited the USDA partnership as essential. "Working with USDA has been a tremendous benefit," he said. "They've helped us secure financing; they've helped us be able to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for our feed mill that will benefit the farmer and the customer so we can produce quality, consistent feed for our customers." He described the broader purpose plainly: "This project is about our employees, to make sure we have a solid family-owned company in the community."

Mark Leininger, Executive Director of the Holmes County Economic Development Council, pointed to the expansion's market reach. "The new facility will significantly increase the company's production capacity and will enable it to distribute its feed products to a much broader market," Leininger said, noting the Gerber family has operated in Baltic for more than 105 years.

Balderson, a Republican from Zanesville who has represented Ohio's 12th Congressional District since September 2018, regularly uses congressional recesses to visit private-sector operations across a district that spans Holmes, Coshocton, Tuscarawas, Muskingum, and eight other counties. He serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

The company's growth arc sharpens the scale of what the expansion represents. Gerber & Sons began producing roughly 23,000 tons of feed per year and now exceeds 100,000 tons annually, serving more than 2,300 farmers within a 100-mile radius across eleven Ohio counties. Gerber called the investment "a viable option for another 100 years for feed.