Photo by Deb Gau Ralco remains a family-owned company half a century after its creation. From left to right, Jon Knochenmus, Niter Knochenmus, Lou Galbraith and Brian Knochenmus spoke with the Independent about Ralco’s history and future.

MARSHALL — It started out small — in the back of a pickup truck and in Bob Galbraith’s garage. But the company Galbraith founded not only expanded across the globe, it’s reached a major milestone.

Ralco, a family-owned agricultural company based out of Marshall, just celebrated its 50th anniversary this week. Through it all, company leaders and members of Galbraith’s family say they’ve kept the connections they have to southwest Minnesota.

“Our families are here, our churches are here. It would take a lot to take us away,” said Brian Knochenmus, president of Ralco. “Marshall itself has been very good to Ralco.”

Ralco had its start with founder Robert “Bob” Galbraith. Galbraith grew up in Balaton, and later moved to Marshall with his wife Lou. Bob worked in sales, for companies including the JR Watkins Co. But Bob had plans for his own animal nutrition business in mind, Lou Galbraith said.

“He came home one day and said, ‘I’m going to start a company,'” she said.

Ralco was officially incorporated on April 21, 1971. Bob created the name of his company using his family’s initials — R for Robert and his son Randy, A for “and,” and L for his wife Lou and daughters Linda and Lanita.

In the beginning, Bob worked with a company in Lake Crystal in order to make feed products. But he, Lou, Randy and Lanita would work to help load the truck and deliver those products themselves.

“It was just what we did,” said Lanita “Niter” Knochenmus.

“We’d go to Lake Crystal and get a load of feed,” and then on the weekend they’d drive out to meet with distributors, Lou Galbraith said. “We were in a pickup to start with.” Over time they graduated to a fifth wheel, and then to a straight truck, she said.

Putting in long hours on the road was a tiring job, and one that had an impact on Bob’s health. Lou said Bob got Guillain-Barre syndrome, and felt the some of the effects of the disease through his life. But it didn’t stop Bob’s drive.

“Bob had a real gift. He liked people, and people liked him,” said Jon Knochenmus, Galbraith’s son-in-law and president emeritus of Ralco. Building personal relationships was part of Bob’s business philosophy. “He always said, people don’t buy from companies. People buy from people,” Knochenmus said. Bob also put an emphasis on selling products with natural ingredients that was “pretty well unheard-of” in the 1970s, Knochenmus said.

Over the years, “We stuck with that philosophy,” Knochenmus said. “(Bob’s) business principles turned out to be right.”

Eventually, Ralco grew from Bob’s garage to a warehouse in Marshall. But in a lot of ways it was still a family business — Lou Galbraith started as the company’s first secretary, and Niter Knochenmus said she also worked as a secretary and receptionist in the warehouse.

The company “hit some tough times” in the 1980s, just like much of the agricultural industry, Jon Knochenmus said. But Ralco survived, and the business has also been through some good times.

When Bob retired in 1992, leadership of the company passed to Randy Galbraith, and then to Jon Knochenmus in 2003. Today, Jon’s son Brian Knochenmus is president of Ralco.

In the past two decades, Ralco has continued to grow and change with the times, Jon and Brian Knochenmus said.

Jon Knochenmus estimated Ralco has gone from having around 23 employees in 2003 to around 240 today.

“We do business in over 40 countries worldwide,” Brian Knochenmus said. Ralco has traveled to countries in Central and South America, Asia and Europe. “I’ve met so many great people,” and discovered they had a lot of common values, he said.

Brian Knochenmus said it was one product in particular — a milk replacer for baby pigs — that first helped spark a lot of international interest in Ralco. “It was difficult to convince people that milk replacer worked,” he said. But piglets actually did well on the company’s Birthright milk replacer.

Ralco has shifted to have a greater focus on science and technology, and it’s resulted in innovations like an expansion into products for soil and plant health.

“We’re always re-thinking nutrient conversion,” Brian Knochenmus said. A lot of Ralco’s products are about helping crops and livestock make the most out of the nutrients and food they consume, he said.

Another innovation was a process that would make it possible to commercially raise shrimp in specialized indoor tanks. That led Ralco to become the founding investor of tru Shrimp in 2014. Tru Shrimp is a separate company from Ralco, which is currently raising capital to start its first production facility in Madison, S.D.

While it’s still part of the Marshall area community, Ralco is also continuing to plan for future innovations, Knochenmus said. Last year, the company announced it would the McLaughlin estate outside of Marshall. The farm will serve as a site for Ralco to expand its research and development efforts.

“It’s going to be a unique research farm for us,” Knochenmus said. The new research farm’s groundbreaking will be celebrated during the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business After Hours event on April 29.

Knochenmus said it’s “a little surreal” to think about Ralco turning 50. It’s a good opportunity for reflection, he said. “It’s really important to just stop, and realize where the company has been, and where we’re going.”