The beginnings of Johnson Seeds go back to the 1930's when Kristjan and Snorri Johnson, along with their father S.S. Johnson, began producing pedigreed cereal seeds, multiplying new varieties, and retailing them to local farmers.
The beginnings of Johnson Seeds go back to the 1930's when Kristjan and Snorri Johnson, along with their father S.S. Johnson, began producing pedigreed cereal seeds, multiplying new varieties, and retailing them to local farmers. As the years progressed, they built a very small seed cleaning facility. In the early 1950's they refurbished a small implement shed and began cleaning cereal seeds for the wholesale market which were sold through other seed companies and were then distributed throughout western Canada and the United States.
The Interlake region of Manitoba is very suitable for the production of timothy seed. In the early 1960's Kristjan and Snorri began custom cleaning timothy production from the Interlake. As time went on they began to buy, contract, process and market local production on their own. By building good, solid relationships with other members of the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), they were able to expand their forage operations to the point that in 1971 they formed a separate company, S.S. Johnson Seeds Limited, which also involved their sons Brian, Lorne and Keith Johnson.