MESSENGER
Fall 2012 • Vol. 22
www.midcountycoop.com
HONEST Y • INTEGRIT Y • VALUE
INSIDE:
PAGE 2
General
PAGE 3
Energy
PAGE 4 & 5
Agronomy
PAGE 6
Agronomy &
Auto, Truck
& Tire
PAGE 7
Holiday®
Stationstore
PAGE 8
Mid-County In
Action
LET ME OUT OF HERE!
That is what a lot
of people who have
recently
visited
Cologne have been
saying with the road
construction
sur-
rounding
the
town.
Bill Reimers
General Manager By the time you read
this, the new road
(952) 466-3721
[email protected] will be open and
though the traffic
patterns will change from before, you will
still have full access to all parts of the
community. We put up a valiant fight to
try and get MNDOT to listen to reason,
and to minimize the short term and long
term impact on the community, but with
no luck. Lanes were closed, narrowed,
and shortened in the name of safety. We
felt that many of the short term chang-
es would actually decrease safety at a
greater cost to the public.
As Winston Churchill said in one of his
great speeches – “Never Give In.” So we
continue to move ahead and installed a
new car wash, we also re-imaged and
painted the whole building to give it a
new and modern feel. Our neighbors
attached to the car wash recently remod-
eled their building, and that really raised
the bar for us to promote a professional
image at our site. Even though we took
it in the chin for a few months with the
road closure, we are looking forward to a
great future, as we just finished a record
sales year at our Holiday Store.
Agronomy also had a record year. We
are here to grow a better crop for our cus-
tomers, and we are doing that with top-
of-the-line technology such as extremely
accurate anhydrous application, Variable
Rate fertilizer application (VRT) and side
dressing nitrogen on a young corn crop
to get top yields. As you may know, we
applied side dressed nitrogen on several
acres last summer. The results were very
promising and we have many customers
making plans to utilize this type of nitro-
gen management program in the upcom-
ing year. Our new John Deere row crop
unit for side dressing nitrogen is being
built soon, and will be ready for the next
crop year.
Our energy division had limited growth
due to heating fuels and propane this
past year with the warm winter, but we
still held our own financially and record-
ed a good profit. We continue to invest in
that department as well. You may have
seen our shiny new fuel trucks rolling
through the countryside; with larger and
improved units we are handling more
gallons with less miles. We also painted
and reimaged our Green Isle bulk fuel
plant and our Cologne propane plant this
past year.
Our service department has continued
to grow in the truck service area. Adver-
tising is important, but word of mouth
referrals is what continues to bring in
new business.
We just finished another strong year
financially. We hope you join us for the
upcoming annual meeting on November
30th so we can share the details of the
improvements to the financial condition
of your coop. We think you will again be
pleased with the patronage dividends you
will receive for supporting your coop.
As always I appreciate your comments
and suggestions to make your co-op
better.
COLOGNE
710 W. Lake St., Cologne, MN 55322
(952) 466-3710
700 W. Lake St., Cologne, MN 55322
(952) 466-3720
700 W. Lake St., Cologne, MN 55322
(952) 466-3730
Hwy. 212 & Hwy. 284, Cologne, MN 55322
(952) 466-5657
(952) 466-3700 • 888-466-3700 • 700 West Lake Street , P.O. Box 177, Cologne