FROM THE MANAGER
Dear members
& patrons
w
eather has been the main topic for most
of our producers with quite a bit of corn
planted, and some even up. The unusually
cold weather we’ve been having puts a real
question mark on whether the early planted corn
will make a stand or will need to be replanted. Our
agronomy staff has publications that can help our
producers make those decisions.
We are glad to welcome Clyde Crumley to our agronomy team.
Clyde agreed to join our team after retiring from the extension
service as our tri-county cotton and grain specialist. Clyde brings a
wealth of knowledge and experience to your agronomy department.
Besides the cold weather, the late rains have added much needed
moisture to some of our drier areas, but have also limited the early
corn plantings and field work. Everyone is itching to get in the fields
and get this crop in the ground.
One of the most anticipated events at your coop is the opening of
the new farm supply store and warehouse. The builders are right on
schedule and should be finished with almost everything by early April.
Our farm supply employees are working hard to plan the store layout
and product mix. We want this store to be a better one-stop shop for all
of our customers’ needs. We anticipate a June opening.
Work continues on repairing our gins and elevators to keep your
assets maintained and operating efficiently. With the indicated
increase in cotton acreage, continual upgrades to our gins are a priority. We strive to maintain our stature of returning to our producers
the most lint per pound of seed cotton delivered to our gins while
only using cleaning machinery that will add the best value to their
lint. No other gin around has the Intelligin system that monitors
trash and moisture throughout the ginning process and controls incoming seed cotton drying and outgoing bale moisture to maximize
pounds of lint sold.
As the corn market has given us a little bump up, we encourage
our members to look at their breakeven cost of production on corn
and sorghum and visit with our grain department about ideas to
protect the bottom side of this grain market. A good start in the Midwest could spell lower than breakeven prices, while a drought could
raise the markets. Please spend some time on your marketing plan.
Our grain elevator department is having a banner year, but we still
have lots of corn on hand. This is a very strange year for corn movement as sales have been rather slow and basis levels have not risen
as much as they normally do. Our fear now is that we may go into
harvest with some 2013 corn still in our bi