On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, farming is both a way of life and a global business. Few people understand that intersection better than Chad Nagel, a third-generation leader of Nagel Farm Service. Chad grew up across the road from the family feed mill in Preston, surrounded by farmers, livestock and the daily movement of grain. Before he could fully read The Wall Street Journal, he says, he was already turning to its market pages, fascinated by the columns of stocks and commodity prices and whether they were moving up or down.
The family business began in 1946, when Chad’s grandfather, C. Brooks Nagel, rebuilt a mill in Harmony, Maryland, that fire and flooding had destroyed. What started as a way to grind corn for the family’s own poultry operation soon became a feed business serving neighboring farmers. The company continued to diversify, adding grain storage, a 125-cow dairy herd, a 60,000-bird egg operation, hogs and roughly 1,500 acres of farmland. In 1956, according to the company’s history, Nagel Farm Service became the first feed mill on the Eastern Shore to offer bulk feed to its customers.
As agriculture changed, the Nagels changed with it. The rise of vertically integrated poultry companies reduced demand for independently produced feed but created an enormous appetite for corn and other locally grown grain. Under Chad’s father, David, the company gradually left livestock production and custom feed behind and expanded into grain storage, merchandising and marketing. At its height, Nagel Farm Service operated five locations with more than seven million bushels of storage capacity across Caroline, Talbot and Queen Anne’s counties.
Chad eventually returned home as a CPA and brought his financial training to the company’s trading desk, overseeing grain purchasing, merchandising, hedging and risk management. In December 2023, the family sold its elevators in Preston, Cordova and Wye Mills to Mountaire Farms while retaining its trucking, hardware and crop-insurance businesses. The transaction closed one important chapter, but it also sharpened the focus of the next: helping farmers navigate volatile markets, rising costs and risks that increasingly originate far beyond the Eastern Shore.
In our Spy chat, Chad reflects on nearly 80 years of family enterprise, the difficult decisions required to keep it relevant, and what it means to carry a legacy forward without being trapped by it.
This video is approximately eight minutes in length.
2 Responses
Incredible family and legacy! So grateful for the Nagel Family and the way they have grown with the times without losing what makes the agricultural community on the Eastern Shore unique and special.
We love the Nagels. This is only the beginning!