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Solon has more than tripled in population since 1978, when Frank and Shelly Kuennen bought Solon Feed Mill. The business has grown and changed with the town, as many of today’s 3,300 residents live subdivisions that were once the mill’s farm customers.

“Where we live between two growing cities, this area is urbanizing much more rapidly than other rural parts of the state,” Greg Kuennen said one recent morning. “Some of the bigger challenges have been trying to shift product focus where we need to. Years ago, there were hog confinements everywhere. Now there’s no more in this immediate area, so my dad had to shift his focus: what else can we do? It was dairy, and now dairy has gone away in a se

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