about these losses and everyone continued
to assure our members that losses would be
covered. Your board of directors were kept
updated about our progress and were very
supportive, as most all our producers were,
and we thank you all very much for the
confidence.
Grain harvest was lighter than expected,
but everything went very smoothly. The
addition of the flat storage pit helped to
disperse trucks so long lines were never
a problem. We finally got an entire fiscal
year run at our deer corn bagging plant
and it has truly paid off. We envisioned this
venture to add value to the corn crops we
produce locally, and it has lived up to its ex-
pectation. For the full year, we moved more
than 1.1 million bags of bagged corn.
To further add value and offer better
service to our cattle producers, we built a
feed mill to make some of the same feeds we
were purchasing from Purina. We are able
to do this using corn that was produced lo-
cally and handled by United Ag and Purina
concentrates to make the limiter feed that a
cattle producer would need to feed, wean,
or background his cattle. Not only does
this use our own corn, the efficiency lowers
the cost of these feeds approximately $25
to $100 per ton depending on the corn and
concentrate mix. This means a lower cost of
gain for our producers, putting pounds on
at a lower cost. The mill is built at our Da-
nevang facility and we have added delivery
units to be able to deliver truckloads of feed
straight to our producers’ cattle pens or pas-
tures. After a few delays, the mill came on
line at Thanksgiving. Between the deer corn
bagging plant and the feed mill operating
only five months, 27 percent of the corn we
took in this harvest was put through those
two facilities. All this adds value for our
corn producers’ crops and helps cattle pro-
ducers receive better delivery service and
obtain lower cost of gains on their cattle. A
win-win for everyone.
Our farm supply store continues to break
sales records, even with the oil industry
suffering throughout most of the year. We
continually strive to have the best service
for our patrons and members.
Foreign mills are blackballing some gins because
plastic in cotton ruins the fabric, and word is out
that bales that show plastic in samples this year
could be rejected by merchants because mills
will not accept them. Please take action now and
make adjustments to eliminate the problem now
and keep U.S. cotton in demand.
Moving on to 2018, after much analysis
on the growth of our cotton acres we real-
ized that expansions your board had been
contemplating in our cotton ginning opera-
tion needed to happen this year. After thor-
ough analysis and several meetings with our
gin management, we developed a plan of
expansion and are in the process of increas-
ing the capacity of our Danevang gin for the
2018 crop. Those of you who have stopped
by have witnessed the transformation of
our Danevang gin from the old facility to a
bigger building with an additional gin stand
and lint cleaners, larger conveyor distribu-
tion, new gin feeding, new steamroller, new
battery condenser, new seed auger and seal
lift, new module feeder with an automatic
round bale unwrapper, and most impor-
tantly, a new more efficient press. These
additions should take us to around 70 bales
or better per hour. Our Hillje gin has been
repaired and should average 45 to 50 bales
per hour. Our goal was to gin a larger crop
as fast as possible knowing that cotton in a
bale is much safer than cotton on the stalk
or in a module.
Also, we held a cotton gin seminar for
moduling, module placement, tarping
methods approved by our insurance, and
most importantly, eliminating the plas-
tic contamination that has increased the
last few years. We had speakers from the
National Cotton Council, USDA Classing
Office, John Deere and Case I H. These
speakers addressed picker settings and ways
to help eliminate plastic in cotton. Not
only is round bale plastic a problem, but
any plastic in fields needs to be removed
before it is picked and mixed with cotton.
This year, every classing office in the U.S.
had samples with plastic in them. Foreign
mills are blackballing some gins because
plastic in cotton ruins the fabric. The word
is out, bales that show plastic in samples
this year could be rejected by merchants
because mills will not accept them. We urge
everyone to eliminate all plastics and do
not set round modules down where cotton
stalks will puncture them. It is found that
any punctures in the plastic raise the pos-
sibility of plastic in the bale by 60 percent.
Please visit with your picker mechanics
for adjustments that need to be checked to
eliminate the problem now in order to keep
U.S. cotton in demand in foreign mills. This
is a very serious problem, one we cannot
take lightly, because if it isn’t handled, it will
cost us dearly.
United Ag has the ability to do a class on
every variety that is run through our gin,
but to accomplish this we ask producers to
please come in and let us know what variety
they plant on each farm. This report can
be crucial in letting us know how a variety
ranked over our whole area. Please help us
in getting this information by letting our
office staff know now what variety is planted
on each of your farms.
Again, I hope this gives you a better under-
standing of what is happening at your cooper-
ative. Please feel free to call or come in to talk
about any issues you may have. Here is hoping
to a great 2018 harvest, grain and cattle prices
to rise, and cotton prices to stay up. Thank you
for your confidence in your cooperative.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Roppolo
7