About 10 years ago, Randy Beasley sold his feed store in Houston to owners of a feed store business based in Hartville. Beasley recently bought it back, and the store’s name changed from Hartville Feed back to Beasley Feed and Farm Supply.
A lifelong Houston resident and a graduate of Houston High School, Beasley first bought the store about 13 years ago before selling it. He continued running it before buying it back.
“The owner told me he was going in a different direction,” Beasley said. “He said he had three ideas: Closing it down, keeping it open only three days a week or selling it back to me. I told him if he kept it open only three days that he’d be locking the doors in a few months.
“I would have hated to see this store not being here, so I had to do something.”
Located on Highway B just east of U.S. 63, the store has over the years also been a feed store under multiple other names.
After being in the restaurant business, Beasley moved into the feed and farm supply field working at the same store when it was Bentley’s. He then got back out of the field for a while and “milked cows” before buying the store the first time.
Beasley has increased the store’s inventory since he bought it back. Available items include everything from various types of livestock feed to nine varieties of dog food.
“I had been wanting to get back on my own,” Beasley said, “but with them still here, along with Orscheln and MFA, it was kind of out of the question for me to put in a store somewhere.”
Beasley Feed and Farm Supply is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. The phone number is 417-967-8909.
“The owner of another business called me the other day and said Houston’s going to dry up and blow away one of these days if people don’t keep the smaller businesses open,” Beasley said. “There used to be tons of stuff in this town, but most of it’s gone now. People need to start buying local more, or there’s going to come a day when you won’t have a choice but to go to Springfield.”
Beasley Feed and Farm Supply carries a variety of farm-related products.