History The Gli-Co Hay story begins in 1854. California was a rugged land teeming with opportunity. It was a place where passion lived; dreams became reality and hard work was rewarded. People with creativity and drive found a welcome home here and so it was with Joseph Henry Glide, a young British immigrant who planted our family name in California.

Joseph Henry was born in 1835 in Somersetshire, England, where he spent his boyhood on the family farm. Considered a bright lad he attended private school until the untimely death of his father. Financially strapped, school was no longer an option for young Joseph Henry. The death of his father dramatically changed the direction of young Joseph’s life. As a result, he started buying livestock for his older brother’s Charles and John. This early hardship and experience would lay the foundation for later success in the Sacramento Valley.

In 1854, at the age of 19, Joseph Henry Glide had made his way to California where he began buying livestock for John Davis of Grass Valley. The Davis’ butcher business supplied the growing demand of the gold miners and Joseph Henry remained in his employ for close to a year. Because of his astute abilities and hard work Joseph Henry Glide saw potential where no one else had: the swamp land surrounding Sacramento.

In order to enter the livestock business on his own with limited cash, young Joseph Henry focused on the unwanted swamp and overflow land in the Sacramento Valley and Delta. His method of reclamation required ingenuity and hard work. His creativity and efforts paid off. As a result, his stock raising business was supplying more and more of the gold mining camps. As demand for his meat products grew, he enlarged his capacity by purchasing land by the section, reclaiming it and then devoting it to pasture and grain.

To gain further control over quality of his product, Joseph Henry Glide began to import thoroughbred Short Horns from England and started breeding his own sheep. Known for supplying a quality product for a fair price his stock became highly prized by both stockmen for breeding purposes, and miners for consumption. The Glide name and method of doing business was born and hasn’t changed since.

We are proud of our family and what they represent in the California Valley. The early Glide success lead to many philanthropic endeavors. Some of the more notable are Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, Epworth Hall for girls at UC Berkeley and Glide Hall at Asbury College in Kentucky.

The current Gli-Co Hay, a subsidiary of Gli-Co Farms, was born out of one of Joseph Henry’s key principles, “vertical integration to control quality.”

Michael (Mike) Pearson Glide formed Gli-Co Farms in 1987 to grow grains and feed crops. As Mike stated, “what else was I going to do?” “A Glide has been growing hay and grain on these soils for over 150 years. When most kids were talking about baseball at the breakfast table our family was talking about the subtleties and nuances of growing hay and grains in different parts of this valley. I really feel it does give us a competitive advantage to have this much family history and specific knowledge of growing on these soils and in these micro-climates.

Mike’s son, Michael Brett Glide agrees. “It’s true. I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge after graduating from one of the top agricultural schools in the nation (California’s Polytechnic Institute at San Louis Obispo) but text book knowledge does not compare to 150 years of trial and error. For quality, we have family specific knowledge and modern farming techniques improve efficiencies and lowers cost.”

Gli-Co Hay is the hay press and export arm of Gli-Co Farms. “We have always taken a lot of pride in the quality of our products. Entering into the press and export business expands our ability to maintain quality of the product to the end consumer. It also allows us to deliver product as a more competitive cost by eliminating middle men”.

Gli-Co Hay has the largest indoor press and storage facility in Northern California, at just under half a million square feet. This assures all forage products will stay completely free of any moisture related concerns as well as free from cosmetically damaging sun bleach.

We take pride in making sure our products are properly sorted, graded, and processed to our exacting standards and criteria. Our many years of experience have led to high levels of confidence with our customers. The consistency of our processing, grading, and supply have assured our place in the market.

The things that worked for Joseph Henry Glide in 1854 are still the driving principles of Gli-Co Hay today:

1) vertical integration to control quality
2) great product at a very fair price.

I believe the Glide family secret is: Develop long-term relationships with customers; Be fair; Have a quality product; Stand behind your product; Don’t take advantage for short-term gain. It worked 150 years ago and it works today”.