Connection Summer 2014 | Page 6

IN THIS ISSUE FROM THE MANAGER connection by United Ag features 5 FROM THE MANAGER Wishing everyone a successful harvest. EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Rachael Eilts ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE Michelle Popek UNITED AG Main Office 911 S. Wharton St. El Campo, TX 77437 979-543-6284 General Stores: El Campo 907 S. Wharton St. El Campo, TX 77437 979-543-7756 Eagle Lake 201 E Hwy 3013 Eagle Lake, TX 77434 979-234-2191 Danevang 11338 S. Hwy 71 Danevang, TX 77432 979-543-6723 grain/cotton 17 10 CHANGES Sale of divisions helped eliminate risk. 17 LEGAL CORNER Plan ahead to pass down the farm. 6 GRAIN UPDATE Plan ahead for smoother harvest. 7 CHARTS Track changes in the markets. 8 POV UPDATE Sorghum increasing in popularity. 9 COTTON UPDATE Basis on the rise. 8 supply 12 IT’S OPEN! Doors open for new farm supply store. 14 CATTLE TALK View weaning as an opportunity. 12 15 WEANING OPPORTUNITY Tools to increase your calf crop’s value. 16 GARDEN TALK Getting ready for the summer heat. Edna 1116 S. Wells St. Edna, TX 77957 361-782-5051 f irst of all, I hope you all recognize the risk that selling the agronomy department took off your cooperative. This venture has taken many hours of planning and working through contracts to complete the deal. Sanders is still hiring more agronomists to offer our members the best knowledge and service available. As far as other things, many have received beneficial rains, which really helped the crop. Some received more than enough, with some fields suffering with cotton and soybeans under water. The gins have been repaired and we are finishing installing a new motor control center at the Danevang gin. The electrical was very old and gave us problems last year and it was hard finding parts for the old starters and disconnector. We felt it was very unsafe, so this was a must to continue to make the Danevang gin one of the most productive gins around. We still have some work to do on the Danevang press which should be finished in about three weeks. We are also moving the seed house from the old First Street Gin to Danevang to increase our seed holding capacity. In the grain division, we continue to make final repairs to all of the elevators. We have made significant headway in selling old crop corn recently. Basis levels are not where we thought they would be at this time, but corn is moving. We originally thought we would go into this crop with 2013 crop still in the tanks, but now it looks like we’ll be very close to empty. T Our truck dispatch will be moved to Danevang this year. There is a lot of traffic around Wharton Street and our parking lot was getting more congested and dangerous. We do need help in getting coordinates to each of your farm numbers if you plan on using the coop’s dispatched trucks. This information will be in our system, so when you order a truck we can pull up your farm number and the trucker will instantly have a map to that field. Please contact our grain department to help us collect this data. It will make harvesting and dispatch work very smoothly, and we will have mileage to every farm point to be sure you are being charged correctly for freight. Corn markets have slipped quite a bit lately, so be diligent of your break-even costs and visit with our grain department about where we can lock in profits if possible. The biggest news was the much awaited opening of our new farm supply store. The doors opened with a bang on June 2. All over town and in the country, this store has caused a lot of anticipation and excitement. Hats off to our great employees who were able to