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Mid-County

CONTENT :

Page 2 - Energy Page 3 - Agronomy Page 4 - Member Spotlight Page 5 - Holiday of Cologne Page 6 - Holiday of Waverly Page 7 - Agronomy

Fall 2023 • Vol . 43 www . midcountycoop . com

Bill Reimers General Manager

( 952 ) 466-3721 billr @ midcountycoop . com

Fall 2023

Our fiscal year ended August 31st , our auditors have completed our annual audit , and we experienced a very favorable year financially . Hopefully you are able

to attend our annual meeting on December 15th to see the full report .

Many of you may have received an equity payout check this past August . This represents the purchases you made from 1995 to 2001 . Your Board of Directors has been very diligent in making these retirements , along with our continued goal to retire a patron ’ s equity at age 75 .

Make sure your address and birthdate are always current with us , in the event we need to contact you .

For many years we have discussed the future of Anhydrous Ammonia , and recently we decided to no longer offer it as a Nitrogen product . The biggest factor in our decision was the lesser demand each year from our customers . Once your volume gets to a low enough level , it no longer becomes economically viable . We were faced with a large investment in equipment and facilities to continue , which would make the economics worse . For several years now , Urea has become our major nitrogen source .

Other factors included the huge cost of maintenance to stay in compliance with state and federal authorities . Probably the biggest issue is having the staff to do the loading , delivery and application in a very compressed time frame in the fall .

We have made several investments in recent years to accommodate the increased Urea usage in facilities , application equipment and delivery trucks .

If you are a propane user , you are enjoying lower costs this year . Last year US inventories were at a 5-year low , and now they are on the high side of the chart . This too can change very rapidly . There are always new projects to export propane , so if the prices abroad are higher than ours , they can quickly lower inventories . Like all energies , the daily variability in prices makes it hard to

“ buy at the bottom ”. We suggest a good solid contracting program for propane and fuels to protect yourself for extreme jumps in the markets . In Mid-October you may have noticed a very extreme rise in diesel fuel prices in a very short period of time . On the wholesale level , we experienced an increase of $ 1.15 in 10 days . Fortunately , we had inventory in our bulk plants to stave off such large increases to our customers , but nonetheless , we still have to buy fuel on a regular basis and try to keep the average price at a level you can afford .

Starting last spring , we transitioned from Auto & Truck Repair , to Truck only . The lack of qualified Auto Technicians available was the one of the main drivers to our decision . We did our best to help our customers find other qualified shops to get their auto repair completed . Now we are focusing on truck repair , and our group in the shop has done a great job maintaining a high level of service .

As always , I appreciate your comments to improve your coop .

( 952 ) 466-3700 • 888-466-3700 • 700 Lake Street West , P . O . Box 177 , Cologne