About WINR Center

We Don’t Believe in Waste.

Everything we call “waste” was made by Mother Nature, harvested from the soil, and put somewhere it doesn’t belong. WINR exists to put it back. Here’s the story of why.

Where It Started

A Weed Is Just a Plant Out of Place

A purple thistle in bloom

When Abe Sandquist was a boy mowing his grandmother’s lawn in small-town Iowa, he spotted a thistle growing in the grass. Every farm kid of that era knew thistles. Chopping them was the hot, sweaty job your dad sent you out to do. You hated thistles. So Abe mowed it over.

His grandmother came out of the house. “What did you do?”

“Grandma, I mowed over a weed in your yard. I did you a favor.”

“That was not a weed,” she said. “A weed is a plant out of place. I wanted that there. To me, it was a flower.”

“I’ve thought about that ever since. A waste stream is just a nutrient out of place. Mother Nature made all of it. We just need to put it back where it belongs.”

Abe Sandquist, Founder

That idea became a career, then a company, and now a new kind of facility. Every potato peel, every grain hull, every load of manure or expired produce: it’s all nutrients that were harvested from the earth to feed people. None of it is waste. It’s just out of place.

The First Win

“If You Think It’s So Easy, I Want You to Do It.”

In 2005, Abe was a young soil conservationist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, writing nutrient management plans for livestock operations around Newton, Iowa. The math on one feedlot was clear: phosphorus levels were too high. The operator couldn’t keep applying manure to his own fields.

The feedlot owner, a man in his sixties staring down a 23-year-old with a clipboard, wasn’t impressed. When Abe suggested he sell the manure to a neighbor instead, the man laughed: “If you think it’s so easy to sell manure to a farmer, I want you to do it.”

So Abe did. He got everyone around a table: the feedlot operator who just wanted the manure gone, the crop farmer who wanted better fertility, and an applicator to move it. And when the deal was done, something rare had happened: every single person at that table had won.

“Not very many times in business can you look around and see that every single person wins. The livestock producer wanted it handled. The crop producer wanted something better. Everybody walked away happy. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.”

Abe Sandquist

That deal became the blueprint. Two years later, Natural Fertilizer Services was born, built entirely on the idea that if everybody wins in the transaction, it’s impossible to fail.

Who We Are

Built by Natural Fertilizer Services

WINR Center is a Natural Fertilizer Services company. Since 2007, NFS has helped Midwestern farms, feedlots, and processors recycle nutrients, turning compliance costs into revenue streams, and organic byproducts into the natural fertility farmers ask for by name.

Over two decades, Abe and his team took livestock manure from a liability nobody wanted to handle and made it one of the most sought-after biological fertilizers in the region. They built the logistics, the agronomy, the regulatory relationships, and the farmer network to do it at scale.

WINR Centers are the next chapter: applying that proven playbook to every organic waste stream, from food processing byproducts to expired retail product, municipal organics, and more, through dedicated, permitted nutrient recovery facilities.

2007
NFS Founded
20+
Years in Nutrient Management
2025
Iowa Entrepreneur of the Year
Meet the Natural Fertilizer Team →
What We Believe

Here for the Right Reasons

Everybody Wins

We only do deals where every party comes out ahead: the generator, the farmer, the community, the environment. If somebody has to lose for us to win, we don't do it.

Nature Already Solved This

WINR isn't new technology. It's Mother Nature's nutrient cycle, applied at industrial scale with modern logistics, science, and documentation.

Make an Impact, Have Fun

We're building something our kids and our communities will be proud of, and we genuinely enjoy the work. Both of those matter.

“We are here for the right reasons. To benefit everybody, to make an impact, and to have fun.”

Abe

Our Journey

Twenty Years in the Making

2002
Abe joins the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service as a soil conservationist, writing some of Iowa's earliest comprehensive nutrient management plans.
2005
The Newton deal. Abe brokers his first manure transaction between a feedlot and a neighboring crop farm, and watches everybody win.
2007
Natural Fertilizer Services founded in Woodbine, Iowa.
2020
Abe co-founds the Iowa chapter of the US Composting Council. Policy advocacy for nutrient recovery begins.
2021
Soil Solutions acquired, expanding the family of brands. USDA FPEP grant application submitted.
2025
The breakthrough year: USDA FPEP grant approved, Iowa composting legislation achieved, and Abe named Iowa Entrepreneur of the Year.
Spring 2026
WINR Center construction begins in Western Iowa.
July 2026
Grand opening. First batch processed.
Fall 2026
First customers receiving product. Second center construction starts. Third site already purchased.
Where This Is Going

A WINR Center Near Every Community That Needs One

Western Iowa is the proving ground, not the finish line. The model of local waste streams, local processing, local fertility, and local jobs is designed to replicate anywhere food is grown, processed, and eaten. Which is everywhere.

We’re building the playbook, the training, and the partnerships to take WINR Centers national. If you see this working in your state, we’d like to talk.

Partner Your Waste Stream

Generators within ~250 miles of Western Iowa: your byproducts can be part of the first facilities. Let’s assess your stream.

Start the Conversation →

Bring WINR to Your State

Future facility partners: own a business where everybody in your community wins, with our model, coaching, and 20 years of groundwork behind you.

Ask About Partnership →
Let’s Talk

Be Part of the Story

Book a free introductory call. We'll listen to your situation, walk you through the WINR model, and tell you straight whether it's a fit, with no obligation and no pitch.

Schedule Your Call →Or call directly: (712) 647-2810, Monday–Friday