INDIANOLA, Iowa — An Indianola family has been selling hay bales and corn stalks for years to farmers experiencing drought conditions.
When there's a drought, less precipitation leads to slower growing grass and translates to less hay bales being created.
Some ranchers travel to The Hay Depot from Warren County, while others come from states as far south as Texas and Florida.
The Koenig family's business started 9-10 years ago when parents Caroline and Jeret wanted their boys to learn how to work on a farm and learn about running a business.
"Just to learn how to work together as a group," Caroline Koenig explained, "and to communicate with other adults, and to just learn how to run a business has been really good for them."
The demand for hay bales has increased so much the family has had to create a system of how customers line up when they arrive to purchase hay bales. The business is set up like a fast-food drive-thru.
The number of bales of hay sold to ranchers varies per sale. Whether it's one or 945 hay bales, the family's purpose of helping farmers battle drought conditions remains imperative all the time.
"We didn't know there was a demand for small square bales like there was, and so every year, we continued to produce more and more small square bales," Jeret Koenig told Local 5 News.
The Koenig family plans to offer feed later on into the month of May.