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Thursday May 5th Farmway Coop Annual Meeting

 

Farmway Coop 105th Annual Meeting

Thursday, May 5, 2016

By Terry Bailey

 

A crowd of around 200 patrons and employees of the Farmway Coop gathered at the St. John’s High School gymnasium om Thursday, May 5th to celebrate the organization’s 105th year of doing business.

The festivities began at 6:00 p.m. with an excellent meal catered by Ricky’s Café in Hanover. The business meeting was then called to order by Tim Porter, Board Chairman. Jacob Porter secretary, declared a quorum to be present for the meeting. The minutes of the 2015 were approved as presented.

Tim Porter the introduced the Board members to the assembled membership. They were: Alan Aufdemberge - Lincoln, Vice Chair, Jacob Porter - Mankato, Secretary, Steve Errebo - Sylvan Grove, Darrell Schroeder – Tipton, Raymond Larson – Green, Eric Eilert – Beloit, Rick Chaffee – Clay Center, Keith Keil – Concordia, Mike Jordan – Beloit, Chase Larson – Belleville, Darren Hoffman – Leonardville, Associate Director, and Matthew File – Beloit, Associate Director.

The nominating committee submitted a list of names for potential Board members to be voted upon. Those names were: Dan Krier, Jacob Porter, Steve Errebo, Nolen Sandell, Darren Hoffman. Queries were made to the audience if any other nominations were to be submitted from the floor. None were submitted. A unanimous ballot was cast for the presented candidates.

Porter announced the retirement of two Board members. He presented Chase Jordan of Belleville and Rich Chaffee of Clay Center with plaques as mementoes of appreciation for their years of service.

Porter then took a few minutes to reflect on the changes in agriculture during the current membership’s lives. Some of the senior members most likely would have had experience farming with horses and mules, commented Porter. Some saw the advent of the first crude tractors that replaced the horse during and shortly after World War II. Tractors, combines, and related implements have grown from small ones to the giants used in today’s farming. Tasks that used to take weeks now can be completed in a few hours.

Technology drives things at an accelerated pace these days. And…it is a different world with technology. Uber, the world largest taxi service owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world largest social media site, has no computes. Alibaba is the world’s largest retailer and has no inventory.

Porter shared an insightful quote with the group. “You do not have to use the most current technologies, but you will have to compete with people who do.”

Porter went on to address the impact of robotics and unmanned vehicles.

Porter then introduced the CEO of Farmway Coop, Art Duerksen. Duerkson opened with saying this was the ninth report he was responsible to present at Farmway’s annual meeting. Duerksen also mentioned the ever increasing presence of technology in the life of farmers and the agricultural setting. He made the comparison of making straight rows in the fields. In the old days, the farmer would focus on a fencepost at the other side of the field and drive the tractor and planter toward it. Today’s farmers inputs GPS data and the tractor steers itself with the help of satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above the earth.

Duerksen then reviewed statistics of importance.

This past year AgMark LLC had receipts of 60,126,078 bushels of wheat, milo, corn, soybeans, and sunflowers. Farmway had net earnings of three point four million dollars and total assets of 240 million dollars.

He added, “We had things happen that were unforeseen and unavoidable. Sometimes when you explain the reasons why things take a downturn it sounds like you are making excuses. For example, last August we put a lot of fertilizer in our facilities anticipating a big demand from the farmers as they began planting wheat. Shortly after we got the fertilizer where it needed to be some farmers could access it, the rains dried up. A lack of rain kept the farmers from sowing wheat. No wheat being drilled meant no sales of fertilizer. In November it started to rain and it got too wet for the farmers to be in the field. Sales of fertilizer were a hit and miss affair. The net result was a loss of $800,000 on poor sales of fertilizer.

One area of concern for the field of agriculture are proposed laws regulating the storage and use of anhydrous ammonia. If the worst case scenario comes pass Farmway could lose one-half of their storage facilities for anhydrous.

Duerksen summed up the outlook for the future, “I look forward to Farmway having a good year in 2016 and being here to tell you about it next year.”

 

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA