Way back in 1990, aspiring milkweed mogul Herb Knudsen predicted his newly launched Natural Fibers Corp. could use several million pounds of milkweed floss within five years.
By that point in his life, the product of Lincoln Southeast High School had achieved plenty of confidence-boosting success: president of the student body at Dana College in Blair, law school graduate at the University of Nebraska, patent attorney for Standard Oil, one of six entrepreneurs of the year chosen by former Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr in 1988.
But in the two decades since his prediction, Knudsen has found that making elegant pillows and comforters from the innards of milkweed pods -- yes, those perennial invaders of Nebraska road ditches and cornfields -- was a steeper climb.
This despite prices that have climbed as high as $2,800 for a lightweight, warm and completely natural covering for a king-sized mattress.
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Headed toward 2012, he's hoping the family business at Ogallala can move beyond this year's 25,000 pounds of annual output to 40,000 pounds.
"Basically, we're trying to create a new industry based on milkweed," he said, "and it's not something the faint of heart should attempt."
On some days, even the stout of heart feel weak.
But at age 70 -- "Mentally I'm 13," he says -- Knudsen can look back and laugh.
And he also can look ahead to marketing milkweed balm, which the Natural Fibers workforce of seven, including his wife, Karen, son Peter and daughter Debbie, has begun to extract as amber-colored oil from milkweed seeds.
The Natural Fibers boss credits milkweed balm with canceling his need for hip-replacement surgery.
"Almost immediately, my pain went away and my hip mobility was restored."
Although scientific proof may be lacking at this stage, he thinks milkweed balm has potential for easing headaches, too.
That information would have come in mighty handy earlier as Knudsen's adventures in the world of business took some dark and headache-inducing turns.
Among the lessons learned:
* It takes too much capital for a small business to make a quick dent in the diaper business or in bedding markets as distant as Japan and Germany.
* Concentrating milkweed production in a few Nebraska fields, where it's vulnerable to hailstorms and fungus infestations, was not the smartest choice.
* If you're making comforters, and potential customers call for milkweed-stuffed pillows, you should add pillows to your inventory and do it quickly.
And so from this host of problems have come these solutions in place in late 2011.
* Natural Fibers is a force in Internet sales and especially in high-end specialty stores in cities like New York and Dallas.
* Milkweed pods are harvested in the wild, often in prairie-type pastures, in New York state, Michigan and Nebraska, and in that order. Seasonal workers are paid on the order of $10 for every 20 pounds they jam into an onion-style sack. The Ogallala business also pays trucking costs.
* Pillows are very much in the picture, in four weight classes.
And these well-learned lessons add up to success.
"Starting from not knowing anything about it, we're in a position now where we're generally considered one of the top quality pillow and mattress enhancers in the United States."
Color selection is not a big part of the sales equation.
"We're kind of like Henry Ford," maker of the black Model T. "You can have any color you want as long as it's white."
Yankee ingenuity -- perhaps better described as Danish ingenuity -- helped push back the boundaries of ignorance.
Portions of a John Deere combine made in 1942, for example, provided "a very good processor that's still in use today" to separate milkweed floss from pods. "You fill up the hopper and let her go."
The processor survived the 2002 cloudburst that washed out area bridges and put 18 inches of water in the Natural Fibers plant near the Interstate 80 interchange. Unfortunately, all of the outer shells available for bed coverings at that point did not survive.
"We had airboats going up and down the road in front of us."
In between periods of adversity, Herb and Karen Knudsen have discovered they can sleep with the windows wide open, even in winter, under their milkweed comforter.
And Herb discovered that not every brainstorm has to pay off.
For example, when he visited Valley Forge National Historic Park in Pennsylvania, he beheld a profusion of milkweed.
"I went up the ranger, and I said, 'Can we pick your milkweed?' And he was, like, 'No.'"
