MANAGER’S REPORT

by Richard Thomas

I have discovered that when you decide to have kids it’s forever. I thought that when they got out of school my worries and woes would be over. But that didn’t seem to work. I knew for sure when they got married it would stop, but then they started having kids. So now I worry about my grandchildren as much or more as I did my own kids when they were growing up. This is why I say when you decide to have kids it is forever.                                                                                                 But I am starting to get some ROI for those worries and woes. Our youngest son called this summer and wanted Bonnie and I to come to St. Louis for a Cardinals game and be honored as family of the game. He works for the Cardinals as part of the Fred Bird Team and wanted to honor his ol' dad and mom. This meant we got to set in our own sky box, have free food, and drinks, then get interviewed by him on camera, which would be on the big screen at the stadium. The interview consisted of a trivia question, which he gave us the answer to, I guess he didn’t want us to embarrass him, but then he wouldn’t give us the prize we won. Then he invited us to PaddyO’s where he entertains after the games. Bonnie and I had a great time dancing and acting crazy. Then the other day our daughter who lives in Nashville Tenn. called and wanted to know if Bonnie and I would like to spend a week in her and her husbands condo in Panama City. They had a vacancy for one week in April and just thought maybe we would like to spend a free week on them. Hey I didn’t even consult Bonnie, I just told her we would take it.  Our oldest son who lives the closest to us at Paxton, Il rewards us by being around when we need him.  He helped us clean and stain our deck this last year and he’s always here for family dinners and gatherings.  We especially enjoy being invited to his daughter’s tumbling competitions.                                                                                 This whole family raising process reminds me of the cooperative system. As you start out farming you earn cash and stock in your local cooperative, according to the amount of business you do each year. Then as the cooperative gets to those years in their stock buy back program where you earned the stock, you start to reap your rewards. Right now Topflight Grain has all their stock bought back up through 1980. So that means you’ve got a better return than me. I’ve had to wait 40 years before I’ve noticed much return on my investment. But I wouldn’t change one thing.                                                             I’m really proud of my family and Topflight Grain.

PIERSON HAPPENINGS    

By Russel Wright    

                Another winter is gone, but it sure was a nice one as winters go. Brock and his crew of Benny, Johnnie, and Willard were able to get a lot of work done. At least they didn’t have to push and scoop a lot of snow.  Willard was busy repairing spouts, rebuilding sweep augers, and general maintenance on equipment. He is always busy doing something. The rest of the operations crew were busy with lots of on-farm pickups and using the vac. When they weren’t doing that, they were loading rail cars with corn and beans. So far this season they have loaded 106 corn cars and 15 bean cars. Benny told me in the old days, before trackmobiles, it used to take them all day and half the night to load 15 cars, now with a trackmobile they can get those 15 cars loaded in 6 hours. Now you have to remember that Pierson has no spouts on bins, all the grain is legged out through one spout. Benny and Johnnie and whoever runs the trackmobile have gotten rail loading down to a science. So Scott, keep selling these trains, Pierson is becoming a rail facility.

            Now that spring is here, although it is snowing very hard as I write this, everyone is getting ready for the planting season. The United Prairie guys are gearing up for the spring rush. If you haven’t already done so, stop in and see Rob or Dennis for all your chemicals and fertilizer needs as well as seed.

            Pierson still has the two covered outside rings of corn left to pickup. The outside staff is keeping a watchful eye on these and other bins here and at Lanton and Burrowsville. Now that the germination season is here it is a good idea to keep your eyes on the condition of your grain, if you still have grain in your bins. If you need help or are concerned about your grain, give your local Topflight elevator a call, someone will help you check them. That is one of the many services that we provide. Some of the other services, to name a few are farm pick up at harvest as well as after harvest and market advisor service, as well as a marketing pool. We offer an average pricing contract, crop insurance, a variety of selling contracts, and don’t forget we have popcorn to enjoy as you discuss any of these programs we have available to make your life easier.         

 

SAFETY FIRST  

By Brock Casteel

I sure enjoyed getting to talk with many of you about our recent improvements for our facilities at the focus meetings this last march. I appreciated the opportunity to meet and talk with Topflight customers from all over our trade area. In February I attended a regional OSHA meeting that covered all of the record keeping and standard changes for this coming year, along with proposed new standards for industry. It will be a challenge to keep up with them all, but I feel TopFlight Grain can do it.

            The Non-GMO Soybean program has went over extremely well in the Atwood area with close to 80,000 bushels of Non-GMO beans delivered since harvest. So far sign up has been slow for this year’s program, but I hope to meet or exceed the number of enrolled acres that we have seen in the past years. I wish everyone a safe planting season, and I hope to see you soon.

LAPLACE  UPDATE

By Vanessa Stinson

THIS HAS BEEN A GREAT WINTER FOR THE CONSTRUCTION PROJECT HERE IN LAPLACE. CRAIG’S CONCRETE HAS THE CONCRETE POURED FOR THE PIT, LEG AND THE WALLS ARE GOING UP AT THIS WRITING. THIS IS FOR THE NEW BEAN FACILITY HERE. THEY HAVE THE FIRST BIN FOUNDATION STARTED ALSO. IT LOOKS LIKE AN EARLY SUMMER COMPLETION, JUST IN TIME FOR THE HARVEST.

IT’S HARD TO THINK ABOUT HARVEST TODAY AS I LOOK OUT THE WINDOW AND SEE ALL OF THE SNOW COMING DOWN. WHAT AWAY TO START SPRING. ONE GOOD THING WE ARE GETTING THE MOISTURE WE NEED .

WE HAVE BEEN BUSY THIS WINTER SHIPPING CORN AND BEANS OUT OF OUR FACILITY. CORN BY TRUCK  TO DECATUR AND BEANS BY RAIL TO THE SOUTHEAST. TALKING ABOUT RAIL, THE SIDING HERE IN LAPLACE HAS BEEN MOVED TO THE SOUTH NEAR THE MAIN LINE TO MAKE ROOM FOR THE 2 NEW BINS.  THIS JOB WAS DONE BY RAILWORKS.

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREAT SPRING AND SUMMER  HOPE THAT ALL OF YOU ARE TOO. GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU!

IS IT SPRING?

By Keith Whitaker

We’ve been pretty lucky to have had a nice mild winter this year, until this morning(3-26).  Mother Nature had to give us one last (hopefully) blast to remind us who’s in charge. However, before we know it the flowers will be popping out, the trees will be blooming out, the planters will be rolling out to the fields and we will start the process of coming to another harvest all over again!  It looks like we are having another good year here at TopFlight Grain.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can have another one.

We again have our Non GMO bean and Hi Oil corn specialty grain programs this year.

We have a 25 cent premium on the beans with bin run or certified seed.  On the High Oil, we have 22 cents for fall, and 27 cents premium  for buyers call.  There is still plenty of space left for both programs and if you haven’t signed up yet we encourage you to do so.

I can’t believe that Kirk is almost finished with the first grade.  He is doing very well! 

Parker is at home with his Mom and full of energy.  He likes to pester his big brother

and see how far he can push to annoy him.

It’s been good to be able to fill in at times at the branches when the managers need to be gone.  I’ve been able to get to know a lot of people when I’m out there. 

I hope everyone has a safe and prosperous spring.  Just let us know if we can help you in any way.

LONG AND SHORT FROM ATWOOD

By Sara Rawlins

Well it looks like spring might finally be trying to show itself and that means planting season is just around the corner with harvest not too far behind.  Harvest preparations are already underway in Atwood.  Since the first of the year, Bill, with the help of Benny and Johnnie, has been busy vaccing bins and cleaning out the nonGMO bean flat.  We have shipped almost all the nonGMO beans we had on hand here in Atwood, emptying the flat and the three small bins.  During harvest, we took in over 100,000 bushels of nonGMO beans.  Since December 1^st, we have taken in 100,000 more. 

            In February, Ben and I were able to go to the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville.  We spent Valentine’s Day looking at equipment, very romantic!  We had a great time and it was nice to get away for a few days.

            Topflight is hitting the College Job Fair circuit.  We have put together a display board that has pictures of all the Topflight locations, various jobs and tasks preformed by Topflight employees, and other programs and activities sponsored by Topflight.  We attended the Spring Job Fair at Lake Land College on March 20^th and will be at Heartland College in Normal on April 9^th.  Our purpose is to advertise our business and to recruit qualified people in areas like computer technology and so forth.

            On a personal note, my brother and sister-in-law had a baby girl on February 24^th.  Taylor joins two ornery brothers, Lane and Ross.  I also grew up with two older brothers so you can bet that I’m going to teach this girl everything I know.  Talk about payback time.  I have to say it’s nice to finally be able to buy things that are pink and frilly.  For some reason the boys just don’t go for that kind of stuff.   Little Taylor is healthy and happy and the whole family is doing fine.

            Well that’s the long and the short of it from Atwood.  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and have a safe planting season.  And may God’s blessings be with you always!

 

WONDERFUL SURPRISE!!

By Mikki Burns

JIM AND I HAD THE MOST WONDERFUL SURPRISE THE SUNDAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS.  THAT’S WHEN WE CELEBRATED THE HOLIDAY WITH OUR CHILDREN.  WE BOTH RECEIVED BOXES TO OPEN AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME—AND THE GIFTS WERE “BIBS”.  WE ARE GOING TO BE ‘GRAND-PARENTS’!!  AS YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO TELL, THIS IS OUR ‘FIRST’.  OUR SON, CHAD AND HIS WIFE, ANDRE’A ARE THE PROUD PARENTS-TO-BE.  THEY LIVE IN FORSYTH.  CHAD WORKS AT ADM AND ANDRE’A AT MAROA-FORSYTH GRADE SCHOOL.  THE DUE DATE IS THE FIRST PART OF AUGUST AND EVERYTHING LOOKS GREAT!

SPRING IS HERE!  AND WE HAD ANOTHER SURPRISE—THE WORST ‘WINTER’ STORM THAT WE’VE HAD.  IT SURE DID SLOW DOWN THE IDEA OF PLANTING ANY CROPS IN MARCH.  AND IT CERTAINLY CREATED A LOT OF CLEAN-UP THAT WE WILL NEED TO DO.

IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT THE GUYS HERE AT CISCO ARE ALWAYS BUSY!  SINCE THE FIRST OF THE YEAR, WE HAVE SHIPPED A LOT OF GRAIN BY RAIL:  25 CARS OF BEANS, 20 CARS OF NON-GMO BEANS, 60 CARS OF HIGH-OIL CORN, AND 130 CARS OF REGULAR CORN.  THEY HAVE TO TRANSFER SOME OF THE GRAIN FROM THE BIN-SITE TO THE RAIL SIDE, BUT IT SURE IS NICE TO BE ABLE TO RAIL GRAIN. 

WE HOPE EVERYONE THAT ATTENDED OUR FOCUS MEETINGS AND OUR WOMEN’S PROGRAM ENJOYED THEM.  THERE WAS A LOT OF GOOD INFORMATION SHARED AT BOTH!!  IF YOU MISSED THEM THIS YEAR, TRY TO ATTEND NEXT YEAR 

PLEASE HAVE A SAFE PLANTING SEASON—AND A WONDERFUL SUMMER!!

WHO’S THE OLD DOG??

By Louie Tieman

Newsletter time, cause Vanessa called again and reminded me. Well, I do not have a lot this time so I saved some room for Denny and Chuck, so theirs should be longer this time.

Just about all the farmstored grain is in, just a couple of guys left and we’ll be done for the year.  Seems all the grain was in good shape this year.

Here at Topflight Grain we have been busy making farm calls and trying to visit the farm.  I have found out that a lot of my visits so far have been rewarding and interesting.

On the home front, Misty will graduate in June from nursing school.  Whew, she finally made it!  This is one of the greatest things that has happened in my life. I am really proud of her.

Brian is getting married Sept. 7, 2002.  He is marrying Tosha Hooker from Bement. Travis, my oldest, is still in Texas. His girlfriend lives in Darien, Il, which is about 15 minutes from downtown Chicago.  That’s a longterm relationship.  Well, a long ways flight anyway.

As for me, I’m trying to get back to running, but a little injury has slowed me down.  Pulled a muscle in my right hamstring and it doesn’t seem to want to heal. Somebody said my age has a lot to do with it.

Anyway I will be featured in the Second Wind newsletter for all of my running achievements, mainly my collection of running memorabilia.  I also was in the News-gazette article “Etc.”  I know Lynn Hiser saw it because he sent me a nice short letter.

I didn’t have anyone to pick on this time so that’s why this is short. One thing I can say is I’m really sorry for EDDIE. That is Duane Born’s dog and that poor thing has been thru the mill, no older than what he is.  If I were him,  I’d run away from home too.

Just ask Duane for the details.

From all of us here at TOPFLIGHT, have a safe planting season.

 

NEWS FROM EMERY

By Denny Hill

     This past winter will have to be considered one of the mildest I have seen in all my years. Usually in January we are busy taking grain off the farms and will have to take extra steps to make sure the machinery is running properly, but this year it felt like late October for the most part. When we are shipping out grain, the slides usually have to be heated first, but this year I don’t remember a time where we couldn’t get them open by just pulling the chain. Makes you wonder what Spring has in store for us!

     Since the middle of December we have taken in around 300,000 bushels of corn from off the farm and shipped approximately 750,000 bushels to ADM. The truck line at ADM has been unusually swift for the most part throughout the winter. I have seen some isolated cases of damaged corn in the farm stored bins, so if you are planning on holding your grain in the bin thru the next few months, I would be monitoring it closely. One sure way to avoid any quality problems with your grain is to haul it in to us or have us pick it up for you off the farm and put it on free Delayed –Pricing. Under this contract you can keep it without any service charge until August 31^st of this year.

     We have taken around 85,000 bushels of soybeans since the middle of December, of which about ½ have been of the Non-GMO variety. Charlie has been busy cleaning out our big tank of soybeans and just recently finished shipping the last of 320,000 bushels to ADM to clean us out of soybeans here at Emery. What a difference we have seen in soybean discounts this year compared to last year. Last year we were finding FM (usually splits) in about 50 % of the loads we shipped and this year the problem has decreased to about 1 load in 10. I want to thank the farmer for doing a better job of setting your combines and hope you will take the same steps this fall to help avoid a year like we had in 2000.

     My wife Terri and I spent most of our evenings this winter attending the Maroa-Forsyth High School basketball games where our oldest daughter, Jessica, is a cheerleader and Junior High volleyball games where our other daughter, Meghan, played on the 7^th grade team. Some nights we had to travel in different directions because both teams were playing on the same night. Jessica received her driver’s license in February, so this helped out in planning our busy schedules.

     I would like to thank all of you for the cards and gifts I received for my birthday and the special decorations that the girls came up with in my office. It certainly took me by surprise when I opened the door that morning and saw nothing but black everywhere. I really appreciated so many of my patrons coming in and celebrating my milestone birthday with me.

     Just a reminder to all, you can get the bids each evening and the current LDP by calling the Emery office @ 794-2240 or 1-800-955-2180.

     HAVE A SAVE PLANTING SEASON!!

    

BACK IN THE FIELD…

By Doug Adloff

It can’t be planting season already, can it?  The winter sure went by fast and was fairly mild until March.  Things around Seymour have been busy with taking grain in and shipping it out.  I have been by myself up here since mid-January when Steve was moved to Monticello to work.  So I have kept myself busy running back and forth weighing and dumping trucks and wagons.  In the meantime, I have been trying to get out and meet some more people, both tenants and landlords.  I will continue to visit the producers throughout Spring and Summer. 

We finished picking up the ground pile around the first of the year.  All in all, it came up in good shape.  As many of you know, the rains got to us before we were able to tarp it, and it seemed like it just wouldn’t stop raining in late October.  But I was pleasantly surprised at how well it kept outside.  This year we hope to beat Mother Nature and get the tarp over it before it gets wet.  So it’s up to you producers to haul us another bumper crop to fill that pile again!

Roger and Henry have been working hard up here to get some spouts replaced on the track side of the elevator.  We are replacing them with bigger ones to be able to load a train quicker and more efficiently.  The recent snow and ice has not made it an easy job for them to measure and cut the steel.  Those guys sure do a professional job.

I have enjoyed meeting and greeting a lot of you producers, and I look forward to the opportunity to meet more and visit with those of you I have already met.  If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to call or stop by.  Be safe in this planting season!

 

HURRY UP, SPRING!!

By Scott Docherty

I wish Spring would hurry up and get here, after receiving 6 inches of snow on top of the ice that we had and losing power for 8 hours. March and early April were not ideal for any outdoor activities. The US drought monitor map (http://drought.unl.edu/monitor/monitor.html) will be closely looked at each week as we enter the spring planting season with the East coast and the Dakotas and Minnesota in very dry conditions. You will start to see more newspaper articles and coverage concerning the dry areas keeping grain traders on edge into the July pollination period.

     Corn prices have been stuck in the narrowest range for months that I have ever seen. $1.90 to $1.96 cash corn has caught the high/low and with the large funds continuing to roll their 350 million bushel short position from one lead month to the next. The farmer continues to be tight holders of corn into spring planting season with offers above the $2.00 level. When the funds get nervous with their position and cover shorts, that will get corn to breakout of this narrow range. The February average of December corn was $2.32 for those of you that are using a crop revenue insurance product.  Fall corn has traded from $2.04 to $2.20 from December 1 until now. The USDA is projecting corn ending stocks to be1.596 Billion bushels and that corn exports will continue to struggle for the last 2 quarters of this marketing year. The USDA also estimated corn plantings at 79.04 million acres for this spring, which is 2.35 million more than last year.  Key items to watch for corn pricing are, of course, the spring and pollination weather, Argentina corn harvest and export taxes, domestic usage with all the new ethanol plants and California Gov Davis going head to head and China import/exports.

    Beans have had a nice 50 cent rally into April from the post harvest lows of $4.15 . Just the opposite of corn with the large funds long 185 million bushels of beans. I believe beans have reached their springtime price objective and could trade sideways to lower until summer. The February average of November beans was $4.495 and the USDA is still projecting a farm price range of $4.00 to $4.60 for beans. Harvest is over 50% complete for Brazil and the crop will be slightly smaller than some of the private estimates at 43.5MMT. The USDA is estimating bean acreage at 72.96 million acres this spring compared to 76.6 million acres in 2001. The domestic and export demand have been stellar for beans the first 2 quarters of this marketing year with the projected carryout at 265 million bushels.

        If you have any questions on our non-gmo bean , high oil corn or hard endo programs please give us a call or stop by one of our offices. The premiums have increased since last year and we still have acres available. We appreciate your business and I look forward to some golf and baseball type weather. 

 

ON THE WAY

By Chuck Bentley

As of the end of March, your company is on the way to another good year financially.  If all continues on the same pace thru the end of May, results should end up just under last year’s numbers.

If all continues as is, my health is also on the way to a great recovery.  I am ready to put it to the test as golf season is upon us and I am anxious to see how my golf swing will be.  I am also going turkey hunting, so I will be testing my ability to climb up and down hills looking for my trophy turkey.  It appears everything is returning to normal.

It also appears that I am on the way to another short article.  This doesn’t really bother me because I know that the length of this newsletter will be plenty long.

Have a safe spring planting season and a great summer.

FACILITY IMPROVEMENTS

By Eric Clements

What a wonderful winter we had this year. Everything is so much easier when we don’t have to move snow in order to move grain. One of the Norfolk-Southern’s chief dispatchers told me that I can thank him for the nice weather during winter. He had purchased a brand new snowblower right before winter. If this is what it takes for a mild winter I will buy one next year.

Adam, Roy and Brandon have been working on emptying the big flat at Shacks. They started on this after last fall and we have about 400,000 bushels left in there. They have been moving about 30,000 bushels per day. The corn is averaging about 10% damage. I am very pleased with this damage amount because the corn has been in the flat four years. They push the corn into the uni conveyor with the end loader to load into semis. Our goal is to have this flat empty in time for harvest and we should reach this goal.

The outside staff has also been busy loading several railcar units at all of  our rail loadout facilities. Michael has been hooked up to his flatbed trailer more than he has to his hopper trailer. This allows us to own fewer trackmobiles and just move them to each location as needed. We have three operational trackmobiles and three others that we use for parts. Parts are very expensive on these units so if we can purchase wrecked or discarded units cheaply we try to do this. Roger put together a unit this winter out of three other trackmobiles.

Koehl’s has finished our leg upgrade in Bement. This will increase our dump pit two capacity to 15,000 bushels per hour from 10,000 bph. This doesn’t sound like alot but in a harvest day that will mean 60 more semis that we can dump at Bement. We put in a new drive motor, leg belt, buckets and distributor.

My youngest boy Hayden has been attending preschool this year. You may remember from previous articles that Hayden is a little on the ornery side. Well one of his first reports at the parent – teacher conference says that he is a little rambunctious. I can tell you that I didn’t need this meeting to inform me of this situation. His favorite TV show is Cops. You tell me if I’m going to have problems. Mitch is doing well in school and will be going to the fourth grade next year. He has been getting ready for the upcoming  baseball season.

I hope that everyone has a safe and productive spring planting season.

 

ALLAN’S ALLEY

By Allan Perry

            Growing up on a family farm, I have been involved with Bement/Topflight Grain since I was very young.  The people were just as friendly then, as they are today.  I remember when I was growing up, Dick would throw my brothers and me caramel candies as we delivered grain to the elevator with my mom or dad.  I have always enjoyed helping out on the farm, which has enticed me to pursue a career in agriculture.  In the fall, I am going to the University of Illinois, where I am going to study agri-business.  My goal in life is to become an elevator manager or grain merchandiser.  Now, in the second semester of my senior year at Bement High School, I have been fortunate enough to get the opportunity to learn more about these professions.  It has been a great honor for me to have the privilege of interning at the Bement office.  The people here have treated me with great kindness, and I feel as though I am part of the Topflight team.

            I have been interning for a little over a month now, and I could not be happier.  I leave school every day at 1:30, and go to the office until 3:15.  While there, I tackle all sorts of tasks.  I have purchased corn, run the scales, filed paper work, sorted checks, and watched how the employees function.  On just the second day of my internship, the board was kind enough to allow me to sit in on one of their meetings.  I was really impressed as to how informed they were and how hard they all had worked in preparation for the meeting.  The next week, I helped Chuck and Dick prepare their Power Point presentations for the focus meetings.  By helping Chuck, I learned a great deal about the financial end of how an elevator runs.  Working with Dick showed me how the manager is the glue of a company.  It is his duty to keep the customers and employees happy, all the while, making sure that the company shows a profit.  With elevator management as the profession I would like to work towards, this time spent with him was very valuable to me.

            One day, Scott took Kyle Meece (Ron Meece’s son), who was job shadowing, and me to ADM.  There, we got to see the trading floor; it is huge!!  We were told that some 400 people work on that floor alone.  It is all open with no cubicles so it is easier for the employees to communicate.  While there, we talked to Matt Bruns and Brian Burke, some of the people that Scott sells grain to every day.  They showed us what they do and the products that ADM makes, or has a hand in making.  Then, Kyle, Scott, Matt, and I went out and took a tour of the hydroponics and fish farms.  It was a very interesting day.  I am glad that I had the chance to experience another level of agri-business.

            Just the other day, Eric took me with him to Seymour.  There, we met with an engineer to discus the possible solutions for the drainage problem caused by the construction of the new temporary storage structure.  I never even thought there was such a facet to the operations of a grain elevator.  By watching Eric, I learned a lot on how to talk to people who one does not work with on a consistent basis.  He handled himself with a great demeanor, even though this project is becoming very frustrating.  Then, on the way back to Bement, we sneaked by my grandma’s house and took a look at my pigs and sheep.  Shhh!

            I’m really glad I have gotten his opportunity, but I am even happier how Pam, Angela, Keith, Chuck, Eric, Scott, and Dick have all made me feel very comfortable working with them.  I hope that it continues to go well and that I get to meet more of you.  I’ll be here until the middle of May, so stop by and see me!!!  Good luck with your spring planting.

 

MIDLIFE

By Pam Jarboe

I had tried to ignore it, hoped others were ignoring it, but it finally announced itself. (It has been whispering for several years, but this was a full blown, blatant announcement!)  Midlife has struck. 

My sister-in-law showed me the Easter cards I addressed to her daughters.  One niece had two cards; her sister had none.  For some mind-be-gone reason, I addressed two cards to Tricia, and none to Katherine.  Thank goodness, at least, Jonathan’s was right!  They had a good laugh, and so did I.

Mike’s daughter dropped a few hints at Christmas time that it was really “cool” to get boxes in the mail, at college.  It was even better if there were cookies in the box!  I’ve sent a couple of boxes of cookies to her, since Christmas.  Mom sent a box last month, too, the same week that I sent a box full.  Chelsea’s a sweet niece.  She should be sweeter now!

Chelsea is in college; I messed up the Easter cards.  I guess those are signs of midlife.  I just went through my annual medical check-ups, which are reminders that, at least, I made it to midlife. 

I hope this is the time to enjoy.  We so much enjoyed the women’s program, with great speakers and interesting topics. Especially, we enjoyed visiting with all of you who attended.  We also enjoyed the focus meetings.  Again, we were able to visit with you, about the company, and about you.  We enjoyed bowling with the 2^nd graders. We so much enjoyed helping Denny celebrate his midlife birthday!   We’re looking forward to the local community festivals this summer, to see you again.

Spring is the time to renew the spirit, plant for new growth, and tend to the body.  As you’re renewing the soil, planting new seeds, and tending the plants, I wish you a happy and safe spring, full of joy and appreciation.

UPDATE FROM MONTICELLO

By Derrick Bruhn

Monticello has been keeping very busy.  This winter has been full of projects, along with the everyday job of taking in grain.  Rob, Stason, Jim, and Tommy took an old open belt conveyor out of the basement so that a new one could be installed.  After the new one was installed, Roger and Rob made new spouts from the bottom of the bins to the conveyor and rebuilt both boots on the legs in the main house.  We haven’t figured out what Tommy is going to do with all of his spare time since he doesn’t have to clean up after the old open belt and the leaking boots.  He says he will keep busy cleaning up after the open belt upstairs that fills all the bins on the north end.  The farmers have kept Tommy busy dumping trucks.  Monticello has already taken in more grain this year than was taken after harvest all last year. 

The office has been busy with projects.  The first project was to paint.  You never realize how much a room needs painted until you paint that first section.  After graduating from school I thought that my test taking days were over.  I found that not to be true this winter.  I took the state insurance license exam.  I am now licensed to sell crop insurance for the company.  As a company we have seen an increase in the amount of grain that is being put into the marketing plans that we offer and forward contracting.  The insurance will give these people protection against a short crop.  Another thing that has kept me busy is a post harvest non-gmo hard endosperm corn program.  This program is delivered to Monticello and pays a 10-cent premium for qualified varieties.

I am sure that all of you have been busy and soon you will be going to the fields.  Have a productive and safe planting season.

PARROT TOP

An old man was sitting on a bench at the mall.  A young man walked up to the bench and sat down. He had spiked hair in all different colors; green, red, orange, blue, and yellow.  The old man just stared.  Every time the young man looked, the old man was staring.  The young man finally said sarcastically, “What’s the matter, old timer, never done anything wild in your life?”  Without batting an eye, the old man replied, “Got drunk once and had sex with a parrot.  I was just wondering if you were my son.”

 FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS

What can we do to make your life easier?  That was the “focus” of the annual focus meetings, held throughout the Topflight trade area, the first week of March.  On Monday, the Atwood-Pierson customers met at the Firehouse; on Tuesday the meeting was at the Laplace Community Building; Wednesday, the group met at the Bement Country Opry building; Thursday, the Emery-Cisco customers met in Argenta at the Friends Creek Community Building; the last meeting was held in Seymour, at the township shed.

            The meetings began with introductions by the local managers.  Chuck Bentley was first on the program.  As controller, he presented the current financial situation of the company.  He showed grain margins and various expense levels that resulted in the ending profit shown.

            Brock Casteel was next on the program, showing the facility updates within the company.  The LaPlace bean complex, the tunnel conveyor at Monticello and new leg for the east elevator in Bement were some of the pictures he presented.  Brock also discussed insurance and safety, as Topflight emphasizes safety and safety training with the employees to reduce accidents, and therefore protect insurance coverage.

            Marketing plans and the marketing pool were presented next, by Derrick Bruhn and Denny Hill.  Derrick manages the average price contract, which is a new marketing tool this year for Topflight farmers.  Derrick explained the program that sells new crop corn over a 14 week period in the spring, using the historical seasonal highs.  Denny showed the current results of the marketing pool, and the plan for the 2002 pool.

            United Prairie employees, Rob Litwiller, Joel Swartz, or Laddy Wright talked about the company status of United Prairie, of which Topflight Grain is a 28% owner.  Company profits and the chemical and fertilizer supply and price updates were presented. The new construction at Tolono was highlighted as a new, state of the art, farm service center.

            Scott Docherty presented the market outlook, using charts and graphs that showed grain production, usage, exports, imports, and historical prices.  Bean harvest in Brazil, with 31 combines, double crop planters right behind the combines, and semi’s lined to take the beans to market, often a week away, were also a part of the market outlook. Scott gave his current recommendations for pricing grain, urging farmers to evaluate the market news.

            Pam Jarboe talked about making your life easier, through the various programs available at Topflight Grain.  Market tapes, the webpage, email, phone calls and personal visits can keep you informed of the latest prices, market news, and new projects.  Programs such as the women’s program, the focus meetings, the annual meeting, and the golf outing build relationships between customers, business associates and employees.  Services, including on the farm pickup of grain, yearend summaries, and assistance with FSA records help to make your life easier.

            Manager Richard Thomas was the last speaker.  As the Topflight airplane zoomed in and out of his presentation, he showed the growth of the company, discussed concerns of the future and concerns of the industry.  As he finished, he answered questions and thanked everyone for their support and their interest in their company.

            Lunch at each meeting included homemade chicken noodle soup, made by Bonnie Thomas, sandwiches, chips and cookies. 

            Input from the meeting participants on the focus survey which asked “What can we do to make your life easier?” included many good compliments, a desire for more pits or faster legs, better grain prices, a back rub and someone to mow the yard!  We’ll certainly do our best to make your life easier!!

 

Results of the FOCUS surveys:

15 of 86 plan to increase corn acres and decrease bean acres this year.

 

Some of the comments to “What can we do to make your life easier?”:

Make timely physical plant updates & repairs

Offer soy based products at retail stores

Email daily closing bids

Denny is very helpful

Designate drying bills more clearly

Publish traffic patterns for harvest

Send Louie out to load the planter

Try to reduce congestion at Monticello

 

Some of the comments to “What improvement would enhance your business?”

Another dump pit at Milmine

Evening women’s program

Direct delivery for high oil corn

Biodiesel available at fuel pumps

Faster elevator leg at Seymour

Mikki does a great job

 

SAVE ME A SPOT IN HEAVEN, MR. SHAMBAUGH

By Vanessa Stinson

            I have to tell you this story about Lehman.  There was a time in my life that I was getting a lot of friction from townspeople because of an expansion job that was going on here at the elevator.  So, Mr. Shambaugh, as I called him, (just to get his goat), came in and talked to me and told me to keep my chin up.  Not long after that, I received a package in the mail with a pair of suspenders in it, with a note saying “thought you might need these to keep your pants up from all of the butt chewing you have gotten lately.”

            I made many calls to people who have pulled these little pranks on me before.  I had my suspicions, but no one would own up to it.  So, time went by and then months went by, but still no confession.

            Then, one day, the culprit was caught!  Mr. Shambaugh brought a friend in to meet me.  This nice gentleman was from Texas.  He introduced us and his first words were, “So, you are the one that received the suspenders!”  BUSTED!!!  You should have seen his face turn bright red. I knew that it was him, or his son, Gary, who must have done it, but could never get it out of them. 

            There were many other stories I could tell you, but if you knew him, you probably have your own to tell.

            There are the things that I will miss about my friend, L.L. Shambaugh.

            Save me a spot in heaven, buddy.  I will get you back!!

YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE

An old man, a boy, and a donkey were going to town.  The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked.  As they went along, they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding.  The man and the boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

            Later, they passed some people that remarked, “What a shame, he makes that little boy walk.”  They then decided they both would walk!  Soon, they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride.  So, they both rode the donkey.

            Now they passed some people that shamed them by saying how awful to put such a load on a poor donkey.  The boy and man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey.  As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned. 

            The moral of the story???

            If you try to please everyone, you might as well kiss your ass goodbye.

 

GRAIN BIDS via EMAIL

            If you would like the Topflight Grain bids emailed to you every day, please let us know.  We would be glad to send them to you, if you’ll just tell us to do so.

 

CROP INSURANCE    

Topflight Grain has started selling crop insurance.  Derrick Bruhn at the Monticello office has recently been licensed to sell crop insurance.  Topflight Grain has joined an agency in Champaign and is selling insurance for ASI insurance company out of Findley, IL.  Derrick will be offering to the customers different insurance programs to fit each person’s marketing strategies.  He will be using the marketing programs that Topflight Grain offers with the crop insurance to help each customer with their farming operation.  The deadline to sign-up for crop insurance was March 15^th, but there is still time to purchase hail and wind insurance.  If you have any questions about crop insurance coverage or want to purchase hail or wind insurance call Derrick today at (888) 762-2163. 

 

Hard Endosperm Corn Program 2002/2003

Topflight Grain will have a post harvest buyers call hard endosperm corn program this year.  The program will be delivered to Monticello on a buyers call option post-harvest. 

 

Price:                                                   ****10 CENT PREMIUM****

        TO FULL-MONTH DELIVERED BID

 

Contract Specs:  Identity preserved (IP) #1 yellow PHCF (post harvest chemical free) non-gmo hard endosperm corn to meet the following specifications:

>>MINIMUM  58.0 LB Test Weight

>>MAXIMUM  15% Moisture          

                                                >>MAXIMUM  3.0% Damage

>>MAXIMUM  2.0% Foreign Material

>>MAXIMUM  20.0% Stress Cracks

 

Delivery Periods:  Buyer’s call

 

APPROVED NON-GMO HARD ENDOSPERM HYBRIDS

                                    Pioneer            3245,34B97,32H58,36B08,32D12,33J24,

                                                            34W67,33R87,3335,33G26,33P66,34K77

 

                                    Agri-Gold       A6477,A6617,A6675

 

 

SPECIALTY GRAINS

            At our high oil and non-GMO meeting in December, Brian Burke, from ADM was our guest speaker.  He helped us understand some of the rules and preferences for these specialty grains.  Some of the information was interesting.  Here is some of what we learned:

            The primary use of beans processed at ADM’s east plant is processed meats.  It binds the water to the fat, in lunchmeat and frozen meat products.

            The East plant at ADM is the edible protein plant.  It processes the nonGMO beans for human consumption.  The West plant is the “traditional” bean plant, where the product is primarily used for feed.      

            ADM tests every load of grain.  Trucks are tested at ADM before they are unloaded.  Rail cars are tested at the loading elevator.

            Audit trails are very important.  In Europe, Green Peace tested some products, positive for the RoundUp gene.  Through the audit trail, it was traced to milk processed in Hamburg, Germany.  The trail traced further back to the bean meal that had been fed to the cows.  The bean meal traced back to lot numbers.  The lot numbers traced back to scale ticket numbers.  The scale tickets were traced to nonGMO test results that were negative RoundUp, countering the Green Peace accusations.

            ADM is the largest exporter of high oil corn. All of the demand for high oil corn is overseas, mostly for poultry feed.

            The largest customers for high oil corn are Mexico, Columbia and Taiwan. Each country has one major company that uses the high oil corn.

            Once demand is established for the high oil corn, suppliers are sought.  In looking for high oil corn growers/facilities, rail flexibility is very important.  Rail flexibility allows the grain to move even when the river is frozen.

Premiums for these specialty grains have changed since last year.  If you’re interested in fall delivered, or farm stored/buyer’s call delivery, please call you local Topflight office.  Contracts are still available, for you to participate in these premium crops.

 

ROUNDUP READY CORN

            As Scott mentioned at the Focus meetings, Topflight Grain will take RoundUp Ready corn, on an individual basis only. Most of your corn is sold into the market, where it may be exported.  Some of these countries will not accept GMO corn, which includes RoundUp Ready corn, or the products made from GMO corn. As a blanket policy, our markets will not accept this corn. Therefore, it is difficult for us to segregate and market GMO corn. 

            We realize that in some cases, you may have to plant corn with the RoundUp gene because of weed penetration on your farm.  If you have this type of corn, please contact your local elevator, and we will work with you to find a market. 

            The same policy applies to the root worm resistant corn that will soon be marketed.  This corn, too, is a GMO hybrid, that is forbidden in some of the countries that buy our products.  And, we realize that it may very well fit into your crop plans, so please, once again, contact your local manager, so that your corn can be sent into the appropriate markets.

If you would like more information, and are on the Internet, the National Corn Growers Association website, www.ncga.com, will give you lots more information. 

 

LDP ASSISTANCE

            One of the ways we try to make your life easier, is by handling some of your FSA paperwork.  For your 709 forms, we can deliver or FAX your delivery sheets to the FSA office, to save your time and mileage.  We can also help you fill out the 633 form, and once you have signed it, we can also fax it to the FSA office.  We gladly do this for you, but it is your responsibility to be sure the paperwork was received.  At times, the fax may not go through, we may have misunderstood you, or we may have honestly forgotten to do the work.  Also, don’t assume that because we did it last year, that we will do it again this year.  We won’t send the papers until you tell us to do so.

            Many times, it is easier for us to send the information to the FSA office and we will willingly do so, but we encourage you to follow through with the FSA office to be sure they received the correct information and that they know what to do with the information they received.

 

MARKET POOL NEWS

By Denny Hill

     The 2002 Marketing Pool signup came to a close on January 31^st with a rush of new patrons joining during the last week. The signup period runs each year from September thru January for the next year’s crop. Totals from this year’s enrollment were a little over 2 million bushels of corn and 400,000 bushels of soybeans. This is an increase of 700,000 bushels from the 2001 Marketing Grain Pool and it has more than doubled since the 2000 Marketing Pool.

     Results from the 2001 Marketing Pool for corn was an average cash sale across the scale of $2.10 for our patrons who were signed up for fall pay and $2.11 for the people who elected to differ their money to January. With an average LDP of 18 cents our customers received $2.28 or $2.29 per bushel out of the field with no storage. We are showing a loss of around 8 cents per bushel for options we had purchased to give upside protection if the market had rallied after our cash sales or after harvest. This still leaves them with a net of $2.20 or $2.21. Compare this with an April 1st price of $1.93 and storage having pretty much eaten away the LDP a person would have received, leaving them with a net of $1.93.

     The soybeans in the Marketing Pool for 2001 were priced out in March at $4.46, with a net of $4.30 after storage charges. We encouraged our customers to take the LDP last fall in 1.20-1.40 range and we decided to store the beans due to the fact the cash price and LDP were not meeting the loan rate by an 8 to 15 cent deficit. Put options were bought to cover any downside we might encounter while we waited for the beans to come off their harvest lows.

     Usually by this time of the year we would have sold at least 50% of the corn for the 2002 Pool, but at the time of this writing we haven’t sold any bushels or worked any option strategies. We will monitor the planting progress very closely and hope to see some sort of a planting delay or weather difficulties to spur a rally in the December futures. At this time we are looking at $2.32 to $2.35 December futures to possibly get some bushels on the books. For the 2002 soybeans in the Marketing Pool, I have been taking the proper steps to be able to put the beans into the government loan program if we feel it is the best option at harvest time.

     Topflight Grain offers this program to give the customer another alternative to his marketing plan by having full-time advisors working to make better market decisions for your operation, giving you more time to direct your attention to producing and expanding your business.

     If anyone has any questions about the marketing program or the 709 forms you will be signing late this summer for the 2002 crop, please give me a call @ 1-800-955-2180.

 

THE SPOTLIGHT IS ON YOU!!

            The spotlights showed brightly on the 190 women who attended Topflight Grain’s annual women’s program.  The program was held at the Cisco Center, on Wednesday, March 13.  Coffee and pastries were served at 9:00, while the guests arrived and visited.    

            Denise Docherty began the day’s event with her presentation of “The Spotlight is on You.”  In her speech, Denise used real life examples to illustrate how to make your spotlight shine brighter.  She used a star, with its five bright points to maker her “point”. The letters L I G H T represent Love, Integrity, God, Humor, and Time.  With speech, song, and visual, Denise shined a bright spotlight on her topic.

            Sharon Williams shined her spotlight on our homes.  As co-owner of Leiper Furniture in Monticello, Sharon enjoys helping her customers find a personal style of home making.  Looking through catalogs and furniture stores is an ideal way to find the color and style that makes you comfortable.  Regardless of the latest trend, you should choose furniture, wall décor, and arrangements that make your spotlight shine at home.       Dianne Geissal shined her spotlight on our health, speaking about diabetes.  Dianne’s spotlight shines over most of Piatt County, through her work at Kirby Hospital, especially in diabetic education.  She shared with us, the symptoms of diabetes, the treatments, and lifestyle choices that may help prevent diabetes.

            Harry Porter moved the spotlight to our gardens, as a master gardener with the Extension service.  Harry’s speech was full of information and humor, as he provided many suggestions to minimum till gardening and chemical free pest control.  He really understands our desire for beautiful gardens without daily weeding!

            Lunch included grilled pork-ka-bobs, rice pilaf, broccoli-cauliflower salad, rolls, and warm peach cobbler with ice cream!!

            The afternoon spotlight shined on the Atwood-Hammond Jr high band students, as they presented a variety of solos, duets and vocal numbers.  Their talent shined brightly as these young students performed very professionally and very well!

            The day concluded as each woman took home her own “spotlight” to shine, to make her a star!

 

THREE STRIKES AND YOU’RE OUT!!

Oops!  Wrong game!  

Our adopted second grade class enjoyed an afternoon of bowling at Tom’s Bowl & Grill, on March 11.  Our hostess Terri Ekiss escorted small groups to the rear of the alleys where they could watch the pins and balls as the machinery recovered, replaced and returned them. After the tour, 6 lanes were turned on, and we enjoyed bowling for the afternoon.  A few strikes were thrown, a few gutter balls were thrown, but everyone had a good time, regardless of the score. 

Cookies and pop were served before the walk back to school, in time to catch the bus home.

 

THE BIG FLAT

By Richard Thomas

     As most of you know we have a large building out by Milmine at a facility we call Shack’s.  The name came from the person who built most of the storage at this location, Dr. Shackelford.  Anyway the building is 250’ wide and 450’ long and holds 1.8 million bushels of grain.  We have had it full of corn for 3 years.  Actually some of the corn has been in the building for 4 years.  We are emptying it this year and many stockholders have asked about the quality of the grain.  Of course it is really dry, some of it is down to 10 to 11 percent and the damage is running somewhere between 5 and 15 percent.  We are transferring it to other locations like Milmine, Bement, Cisco, Pierson, and LaPlace to blend out with some wetter corn we have stored at those locations from this years harvest.  Eric thinks we have the worst half transferred and so far we haven’t received many discounts because of quality.  Our goal is to have the building empty by the end of May, which is our fiscal year end.

     Some of the concern about the quality of the corn probably came from a scare we had this fall.  Harvest was over and we had over a million bushels of corn piled on the ground uncovered and had just received about 8 inches of rain on it, when I got this call from Louie Tieman at Milmine one morning.  He says Dick, “The big flat is on fire.”  Someone had called him on his or her cell phone and said smoke was coming out of the big building everywhere.  Several other people had driven up to the Milmine office and told Louie the same story.  Louie’s says it’s so bad cars have to slow down going by on Route 105 because they can’t see.  He could see it from the Milnmine office and he says smoke is coming out through the vents on top, out the doors, and through the exhaust fans.  I was worried enough about how we were going to blend the corn on the ground off, and now we’ve got another 1.8 million to worry about.  Eric, our operations manager showed up for work and I told him about the problem.  He said he knew it was suppose to get cold that night, so he had turned the air on.  Eric said he thought it was just steam from the warm air coming out of the corn hitting the cold air outside.  We had never had a chance to cool the corn down from summer temperatures.  So most of the corn in the building was 80 plus degrees.  If you know me, I wasn’t going to be satisfied until someone walked the building.  So a group of employees headed to Shacks to walk the corn.  They reported back to me that it was the difference in temperature that caused the problem but because of the condensation in the building, the corn on top looked like it had just been rained on.  So in a few days they went back out and raked the corn on top.

     If you think we don’t have any worries, think again.  We usually try to change the temperature of the grain gradually, but we didn’t have any cool weather this fall until that one cold snap, and then it warmed up again and stayed warm almost all winter.  So you can see why we’re really happy the corn is coming out in pretty good shape. 

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Jack Appleby, cover man for the March issue of “Farm Industry News”, reporting on new nozzles that he and Gary tested for their sprayer;

Fulk cousins, holding their 70^th annual Thanksgiving dinner at Paul & Juanita Fleener’s house;

Ralph & Violet Goken, recently celebrating their 65^th wedding anniversary;

Stephen Graliker, named Woodward Academy’s 2001 Distinguished Alumnus;

Betty & Leon McLain, recently celebrating their 50^th anniversary;

Don & Doris Thompson, recently celebrating their 60^th wedding anniversary;

Harold & Joan Stoerger, recently celebrating their 50^th anniversary;

Dan & Jean Chambers, recently celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary;

Allan Perry, Josh Hendrix and Tony Bryan, selected from Bement High School to participate in the Southern Illinois Bi-State Honor Band in Edwardsville;

Peggy Young, Bement Health Care Center’s Employee of the Year, who won a trip to the National Football League championship in New Orleans, for this award.

James Trimble and Megan Hubele, recently married;

Jared Gregg, S.A.R. recipient at Cerro Gordo High School;

Louie Tieman, cover man for the Cahmpaign News-Gazette’s “etc” supplement;

Lily Bicknell, winner of the Moultrie County Spelling bee;

James Crowe, recently celebrating his 80^th birthday;

Pat & Angela Pearl, parents of a new son;

Angela Warnick, recently engaged;

Derrick Bruhn, passing his insurance test, to sell crop insurance;

Mikki & Jim Burns, soon-to-be grandparents;

Dick & Bonnie Thomas, expecting a new grandchild in August;

Jeff & Rachel Ramsey, parents of Camden Robert Ramsey;

Monticello Railway Museum, celebrating 150 years of the Illinois Central Railroad last September;

Lindsey Morgan, daughter of Mark & Pam Morgan, Cerro Gordo High School student of the month;

Jack Funk, winner at the Lion’s Club Extravaganza.

Shannon & Jenn Carroll, parents of a new, Will

Kate Fombelle, daughter of Reed and Joanne Fombelle, received 5^th place in the State of Illinois Americanism Oratorical Contest, sponsored by the American Legion;

Jared Gregg, son of Jerry Gregg and Andrea Gregg, Illinois State Scholar at Cerro Gordo High School;

Tom Loftus, in the Farm Journal, with pictures and an article describing his new invention that lays ribbons of foam across the tops of tall crops;

Roger Harris, retired from Harris Industries;

Larry & Pam Hissong, welcomed a new granddaughter, Aaron Ann;

Kurt Robson & Kristi Kaufman, recently engaged

Brian & Tori Burke, with their new daughter, Peyton;

Terry & Tanya Lieb, recently celebrating their 25^th wedding anniversary

 

Our sympathies to the families of . . . .

Frances Bruner, Kenny Frye, Ruth Hill, Mike Paczak, Carl Smith, Florence Swikle, Dale Comerford, Chester Jamison, Helen Marvin, Kay Pangborn, Harriett Cole, Vera Haynes, Loren Schable, Ervin Kamm, LL Shambaugh, Frank Springman, Betty J DeVore Walsh, Richard O’Dell, Bill Montgomery, Martha Wattles

MOST COMMONLY QUESTIONS ASKED ABOUT THE COMPANY

 

1.      How many bushels of permanent storage do you have?  18 million

a.      Another 750,000 temporary covered

b.     Then 1 million piled on the ground with no cover

2.      How many elevators do you operate?  17

a.      9 open year around

b.     6 more open during harvest

c.      2 for storage only

3.      How many full time employees do you have?  38

a.      95 during harvest

4.      How many bushels do you handle each year?  25,000,000

a.      Corn 20,000,000

b.     Soybeans 5,000,000

     5.  What are your total sales?  $64,500,000

6.  How much long-term debt do you have?   $1,521,192
1. Co Bank $1,142,000
2. First State Monticello $237,150
3. DOT (Cisco RR) $142,042
7. How much working capital do you have?   (2/28/02) $3,116,403
8. What is your yearly depreciation?  $ 1,080,000

9.  How much does it cost your to open your door each day?   $20,000

10. What does your insurance cost each year?

1. Health insurance $165,000
2. Facility insurance $195,000

11. How much outstanding stock does the company have?  $4,374,000

                a.   $63,000 bought back so far this year 

12. How much storage are you building at LaPlace this year? 620,000 bu

a.      Two 72’ dia. 84’ sidewall corrugated bins

b.     12,000 bph leg

13. How much money you spending at LaPlace this year? $1,300,000

14. So how much did the new office and two scales cost you built at LaPlace last year? $150,000.                                                              

a.      Two new scales cost $90,000

b.     The new office cost $60,000

15.How much money do you have in the ground pile at Seymour?

a.      56 cents per bushel

b.     It is suppose to hold 470,000 bu.

16.  Is it true the corn is all-bad in the big flat at Shacks

a.      Read the article in this newsletter titled The Big Flat

b.      As of this writing we have only 300,000 bu. of corn left in the building.

17.Do you think that Dick Thomas is smart enough to run such a large operation?

         a.  Only because he’s surrounded himself with good people.                                                 

 

  YOUTH LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

     As you know each year we send 4 young adults to Farmland Youth Leadership Conference.  It is held at the William Jewell College in Liberty Missouri.  Topflght Grain pays for the conference and provides transportation to and from the conference. This year the conference runs from June 4^th  thru June 8^th.  Anyone who is going to be a junior or senior in High School next year is eligible to attend.  If you are interested please let one of our branch mangers or Pam know.

     All we ask of the attendees is that they attend our annual meeting and tell the stockholders about their experience.

COME, JOIN US, FOR SUMMER FUN!!!

April 22 – 2^nd grade field trip

May 13 – Cerro Gordo Honors Night

May 24 – Cerro Gordo High School Graduation

June 8 – Bement Lion’s Club Chicken Fry

            All the chicken you can eat, and lots of good fellowship

June 8 & 9 – Piatt County Relay of Life

            Dwight Wilkey Sports Complex in Monticello

June 14 & 15 – Forsyth Festival

            Come, join the village for lots of activities!

June 15 – Cerro Gordo Fat Hill Fest

            Join us in the parade, and join the rest of the community in weekend activities!

June 22 – Monticello Western Days

            Join the cowboys & cowgirls for a ropin’ good time!

July 4 – Bement 4^th of July

            Join us for the Pedal Tractor Pull, after the parade

July 4 – Seymour 4^th of July celebration

Join the parade and activities!!.

July 6 – Maroa 4^th of July Celebration

            Come join the fireworks and parade!!!

July 24 – Topflight Golf Outing

            Hickory Point Golf Course

August 3 – Decatur Celebration

            Join us in the parade!!

August 9 – Topflight Grain Annual Meeting

            Be mystified by Entertainer Keith Matheny

August 17 – Atwood Apple Dumpling Festival

            Enjoy their delicious apple dumplings!!!

September 14 – Cisco Fall Festival

            Enjoy the ham & beans and lots of activities!

 

OSHA RULES FOR BABYSITTING

By Richard Thomas

Just before Christmas I was asked to baby-sit our 2-year-old grandson while his father and older sister made whoopy pies with Grandma. Since from time to time I get ridiculed for not being able to change a diaper or fill a baby bottle, my time with the grandkids runs for short periods of time. But today it was just Cole and I. It was a Saturday afternoon and we were loading a train at Seymour, and since ole Coley loves trains, I thought what a great place to entertain him. So I threw him in the back seat of my old car and we headed up north to Seymour. We no sooner got out of town and he was standing on the back seat flipping my cap off and laughing because he knew he was making me mad. I would turn around trying to keep one eye on the road and swat at him, telling him to quit it. The next thing I knew he was laying up in the back seat window. Then before I knew it he was over the back of the front seat standing next to me. About that time I came to a stop sign so I reached over with my right arm, keeping my left one on the steering wheel, blocking him from flying into the dash board. He thought that was funny, but I didn’t, so I told him to get in the back seat. The next thing I knew he was in the ashtrays and had pulled the cigarette lighter out. I told him to put it back, but of course he couldn’t so he handed it to me. I looked in my rear view mirror to see where he was at and I couldn’t see him. He was lying on the floor all stretched out like he might go to sleep. HA! About this time I began to wonder why he seemed to be having so much fun. Then I realized he had never ridden in a car without being in a car seat. He was like a Lion out of a cage.                                                    We arrived at Seymour and I got him out of the car and into the track mobile and we rode while they finished loading the cars. All I could think of the whole time we were at Seymour was what if the law catches me not having him in a car seat on our way back to Bement. I could see headlines in the local newspaper. ELEVATOR MANAGER PICKED UP FOR CHILD NEGLECT. He was ready to leave and thank God he hadn’t messed his pants yet so I strapped him in the front seat next to me with the car seatbelt (which I found out later was a no-no because of the front airbag). Anyway we got back to Bement and since he can’t talk too well I knew he couldn’t tell on me. So I decided not to tell anyone about our journey. But his older sister for some reason noticed that Grandpa hadn’t taken the car seat out of their car. So I was caught.                       Thank God, Cole didn’t get hurt and I have learned my lesson. But as I’ve told people who are my age this story we reminisced about riding in the back seat when we were kids. We could remember lying up in the back seat making faces at the cars behind us; or  lying on the floor and going to sleep on the way home from visiting relatives. Of course you couldn’t stretch out because of the hump in the floorboards for the drive shaft. We could remember sticking our heads out of the window on hot summer days and letting the wind blow through your hair; always fighting with your brothers and sisters over who got to sit next to the window. We never had four door cars because Mom was afraid one of us would open the door and fall out while we were going down the road. We also remember those velour seats that were all full of dust from the gravel roads that would cause an asthma attack if you did much jumping around.                                                                             Before I agree to baby-sit again I’m going to read up on the OSHA regulation so I will be in compliance.

BIG BUCKS                                                                                                                                          You sold a lot of grain this January.  The office crews wrote $7,000,000 for fall delivery/January payment and $7,776,000 for January contracts.  These checks were written over the New Year’s weekend, and ready for pickup, mailing or deposit on the January 2^nd.  The total amount written during the month of January was $23,565,000. 

GRAIN CHECK-OFF  

            Topflight Grain farmers contributed $45000.00 and $94245.00 to the corn and soybean checkoff funds, respectively, in the year of 2001.  Corn checkoff is collected at the rate of ¼ cents per bushel each time a check is written.  The bean checkoff is collected at a rate of ½ percent the value of the beans, each time the check is written.

            The funds are sent to the appropriate operating boards, where the money is spent too promote research and marketing of our products.

75 YEAR HISTORY BOOKS

            In 1984, the 75 year history of Bement Grain was published in a well written and documented book, by former manager Glen Durbin.  We have one book left, and are guarding it closely!!  If you discover any of these history books, as you’re cleaning old files or maybe to clean up an estate, and do not wish to keep the book, would you return it to one of our offices, please?  We are asking you to return it, only if your other choice is to throw it away.  We only want the book if you absolutely have no other interest in keeping it.

            It is a very interesting book, if you haven’t read it, or if you have read it.  Glen did an excellent job of recording the history of farming, of the rural area of Bement, Bement Grain Company, and Topflight feeds.  It ties a lot of the history of Bement back to the people who made the history.  Once we’ve collected a few extra books, we’d be happy to loan one to you, so that you, too, can share in the first 75 years of Bement Grain Company.

CASH IN CISCO                                        

            A new ATM machine has been installed at the hardware store in Cisco.  Gerber State Bank put the machine in, as a convenience to the Cisco residents.  The automated teller machine is available 24 hours a day, and we hope will be another service to you.

 

LOREN SCHABLE

By Dave Conlin

Loren Schable passed away this winter and we wanted to honor his cooperative spirit in this newsletter.  We asked Dave Conlin, who worked closely with Loren, to write this article, in memory of Loren:

Loren Schable was on the Pierson Grain & Supply Board (Unity Grain & Supply Coop) for 31 years, from 1963-1994.  Loren wasn’t only a “once a month board meeting” director, but also a working board member.  Loren and his brother, Bob, were very much responsible for the growth of the company.

            One of the first projects I remember working on was the west ramp of the old wooden elevator.  We tore the old wooden ramp away from the elevator and replaced it with a dirt ramp.  I don’t remember where they got the dirt.  We did this on the first Memorial Day that I worked for Pierson.  I thought it was a holiday and I had the day off, but as I remember, Loren called at home before I got out of bed and said we were going to do this today.

            In 1964, the board decided to go into the bulk fertilizer business.  With Loren’s and Bob’s leadership and labor, along with the rest of the board, they built the bulk fertilizer building that is still there today.  Another project they were responsible for is the expanded driveway at the west end of the old elevator with a concrete driveway and new steel pit.  They also built some retaining walls to make room for a dryer.  Loren and Bob were instrumental in getting the 300,000 flat storage built.  They weren’t so much involved in the labor of doing it, but more so in the planning and financing of it.  Using the State Bank of Hammond as the agent, the building was financed with local investors who were mostly customers of the company.  They both worked very hard on this project.

            Loren and Joan traveled with Bonnie and me several times on elevator related trips.  I remember a trip to Acapulco and one to Phoenix, in particular.  It was truly a pleasure to travel with them.  They always had so much fun and they seem to fit in with the crowd whoever they were.

            As I mentioned before, Loren was a director for 31 years.  I was manager there for 36 years of which Loren was on the board 31 years. I can honestly tell you that his work and dedication to the company for those years help made the company what it was when I retired.  He had a lot to do with my personal success as the manager. I know his wife, children and grandchildren are proud of the life that he lived.  It was a great pleasure for me to work with him for all those years.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SERVING YOUR COMPANY?

            Each year, at least 4 board members are elected, or re-elected, to the Topflight Grain Board of Directors.  With a 13 member board, terms are staggered, so that at least 4 directors are nominated and elected each year, to serve a three year term.  If you are interested in serving as a director of your company, and would like to be placed on the slate of nominees, please let us know before June 15^th.

            A director’s duties include guiding the company toward a successful future.  That usually includes decisions about facility improvements, policy changes, and the growth of the company.  The board meets monthly to review the financial statements, receive updates of improvement projects, and set direction on new concerns.  Committees may meet at different times throughout the year, as needed. 

            Serving as a director of your company is a great way to learn more about your company, and to have input to the future direction and how that future is achieved.  Let us know if you’d be interested!!

TRIP TO THE CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE

I (Doug at Seymour) am organizing a day trip to the Chicago Board of Trade.  It will be sometime in June after everyone is done planting and gets slowed down a bit.   We will get to see the trading floor and how the CBOT operates during a trading session.  Afterwards, we will have lunch with a broker and get some more insight into how the market operates.  The cost will most likely be $25-35 a person, which basically covers the transportation.  Meals would be extra.  Give me a call if you are interested in this trip, and I will be in touch with those interested to make arrangements.  My number is (217) 687-4540.  Hope to see you there!

WHAT WE LEARNED

            The women’s program is always fun, and interesting.  This year, we felt that we learned so much, we’d like to share some of the information with you.

            From Dianne’s speech about diabetes, we learned that 16 million people in the US have diabetes.  It is the 6^th leading cause of death nationwide and 7^th leading cause in Illinois.  The disease in now considered an epidemic, related to our society being extremely overweight and sedentary.  From 1990 – 2000, the nationwide incidence of diabetes has increased 49%; in Illinois it has increased 83%.

            The total cost of diabetes is estimated to be $98.2 billion, annually.  This includes direct medical costs and other payments such as disability, premature death, time lost from work, etc. 

            Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease involving a problem with insulin.  Insulin is produced in the pancreas.  It is needed to convert sugar, starches and other foods into energy.  Diagnosis of diabetes requires a blood test, taken when the patient has fasted.  Risk of acquiring diabetes is increased in individuals whose family members have diabetes, in individuals who are obese, in certain ethnic groups, in individuals who are 45 years old or older, or individuals who have hypertension.

            Symptoms of diabetes include frequent urination, excessive thirst, unexplained weight loss, extreme hunger, feeling tired all of the time, or sores that are slow to heal. 

            To treat diabetes, patients should eat a healthy diet, including less fat, moderate protein and high fiber sources of carbohydrates.  Increased physical activity is included with a healthy lifestyle.  There are many types of oral medications and different combinations of insulin injections to aid in the treatment.  Then, blood sugar levels must be monitored to be sure that the lifestyle changes and medications are working effectively.

            The complications of diabetes affect the entire body and may not appear for many years after the initial onset.  Not all people develop all of the complications, but the problems can be severe. Some of the complications include blindness, heart disease and stroke, kidney disease, neuropathy, sexual dysfunction, and infections.

            At this time, prevention and a cure for diabetes are not known.  Research has shown that maintaining a normal body weight with a healthy diet and physical exercise may help to prevent or delay the disease.  Research and tests are underway to identify individuals who may be more likely to develop the disease, and a few “cures”, such as pancreas transplants, islet cell transplants and the production of an artificial pancreas may be a solution.

            Since our program, Dianne has provided us with more information about diabetes.  The incidence of diabetes has risen from 16 million to 17 million.  Another 16 million are afflicted with what they are now calling “pre-diabetes”.  This stage has blood sugars ranging between 110 and 126 mg/dl.  Most people with pre-diabetes go from this stage to develop type 2 diabetes within 10 years.

            It is also strongly recommended that doctors order the appropriate blood test for overweight people age 45 and older, for both pre- and type 2 diabetes.  Younger adults should be screened if they are significantly overweight and have one or more risk factors.  The goal of the testing and screening is better control the disease and hopefully prevent/postpone the terrible complications.

            If you have any questions about diabetes, you may contact Dianne Geissal at Kirby Hospital.  The address is P O Box 20, Monticello, IL  61856; or you may call her at 217-762-2115.  She is very informed about the disease, and is concerned that more people need to be aware of the symptoms, problems and treatments.  She will be glad to answer your questions, or spend some time with you.

From Harry Porter, we learned that the master gardener program has a mission to “help others grow”, through horticultural education, applied research, and the resources of the University of Illinois.  Master gardeners come in all shapes, sizes and descriptions.  Most of them volunteer 60 hours a year to the program, and participate in 30 hours of continual education.  The best part of Harry’s program, in most of our opinions, was when he said, “Go home this afternoon and throw your hoe away.  Let’s talk about having a nice garden without a lot of work.”

            “You might want to try . . . “

To prepare a flower bed, cover the bed with black plastic garbage bags.  Cover that with sand, dirt, rocks, or anything to keep it in place.  Wait two weeks and take it up.  The grass will be gone, the ground will be moist, and ready to plant.  Put your plants in the ground.  Then, put newspapers down over the area, at least three layers thick. Don’t let the paper touch the plants.  Cover the newspaper with mulch, and water as needed.  Fertilize as needed.

            To get rid of slugs in your Hostas, put down small copper strips under the mulch or just under the plants.  Copper gives off an electric currant that destroys the slug’s brain wave currents.

            To solve rabbit or squirrel problems, grind up hot pepper, add cinnamon and garlic.  Put in a gallon pan, add one cup of sugar and fill the pan with water.  Bring it to a boil.  Strain through a cotton cloth, into your sprinkler.  Sprinkle around the garden, but NOT on the plants.  Harry suggested that the pan be boiled on the grill outside, not on the stove inside the house.  It really, really stinks!

            To keep squirrels from digging up flower bulbs, sprinkle oyster shell (like we used to feed the chickens) on top of the bulb when you plant it.  If you have established bulbs, apply the oyster shell in the soil.

            To get rid of powdery mildew, you can make your treatment with a can of Coca-Cola and a tablespoon of hand anti-bacterial soap.  Mix it up and spray it on your plants.  This will kill a wide range of indoor and outdoor pests.

            Canola oil can be diluted into a spray to be used on ornamental and vegetable plants, to control most common pests.

            For an ant killer, try sugar water in a bait container.

            To get the bugs that eat from your fruit tree, plant wild flowers around the tree, to and a little past the drip line.  Spray the wild flowers with sugar water once a week, and after it rains.  The “bad” bugs love the wild flowers, and the “good” bugs love to eat the bad bugs!  The sugar water draws the good guy to where the bad guys are.

            If you have tomato wilt, dig up all the tomatoes and the biggest roots, in the fall.  Take them far away from the garden and burn them or put them in the garbage.  Do not plant tomatoes where you had tomatoes before, or within 6 feet of where you had tomatoes.  Once the plant is well established, put small sugar water containers around them.  If you see mold or mildew, get out the coke and detergent.

            Don’t plant strawberries near tomatoes.  The two together will draw more bugs than you can kill.

            Ladybugs are one of the best of the “good” guys, along with green bellied stink bugs and praying Mantis.  Ladybugs eat several times their weight in aphids every week. 

            Bees are one of your flowers’ best friends.  Don’t spray when the bees are out.  Spray early in the morning or late in the evening.  The bees spread pollen and run the bad guys off.

            Queen Anne’s Lace is a wild carrot.  It is great for gardens as a wild flower to draw away insects. 

            Earthworms are necessary for a great garden.  When we spray insects, we kill earthworms.  Mulching and putting down newspapers is a big help to earthworms.

            For a mosquito problem, try amazing lemon grass and lemon geraniums as repellents.

            Garlic barriers work well against rabbits and squirrels.

            When you purchase a prepared product as an insecticide or herbicide, read the label.  It may kill more good guys than bad guys.  Use only the recommended rates.  Use only when necessary.

            Harry, or any of your local Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners would be happy to help you with any of your gardening questions or problems.  Just call the extension office, usually listed under the University of Illinois (if you’re in Illinois) in your phone book.

THINGS THEY SAID IN 1959 . . . .

1.  I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it’s going to be impossible to buy a week’s groceries for $20.

2.  Have you seen the new cars coming out next year?  It won’t be long before $5000 will only buy a used one.

3.  If cigarettes keep going up in price, I’m going to quit.  A quarter a pack is ridiculous!

4.  Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?

5.  If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.

6. When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 50 cents a gallon?

7.  I’m afraid to send my kids to the movies any more.  Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying “damn” in “Gone with the Wind”, it seems like very movie has a “hell” or “damn” in it.

8.  Also, it won’t be long until couples are sleeping in the same bed in the movies.

9.  Pretty soon, you won’t be able to buy a good 10 cent cigar.

10.  Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year, just to play ball?  It wouldn’t surprise me if someday they’ll be making more than the president.

11.  It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays.  I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.

12.  It won’t be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids, so they can both work.

13.  I’ll tell you one thing.  If my kid ever talks back to me, they won’t be able to sit down for a week.

14.  Thank goodness I won’t live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes.

15. Why in the world would you want to send you daughter to college?  Isn’t she going to get married?  It would be different if she could be a doctor or lawyer.

16.  There is no sense in going to St Louis or Chicago for the weekend.  It costs nearly $15 a night to stay in a hotel.

17. No one can afford to be sick anymore.  $35 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood.

18.  If they raise the price of coffee to 15 cents, I’ll just have to drink mine at home.

19.  If they think I’ll pay 50 cents for a hair cut, forget it.  I’ll have my wife learn to cut hair.

20. Cars which dim their lights by sensors, automatic transmissions, and who knows what else?  Pretty soon, they will drive themselves.

 COMMUNICATION

Communications with our customers is very important to our business.  Communications within the company is also important.  Once a month the office staff meets to help keep the lines of communications open.  Leadership and secretarial duties rotate each meeting, so that everyone can share in the experience! 

            Chuck usually talks a little about the financial statement.  Scott shows the company grain position and lists grain to be shipped in various time frames.  Eric brings everyone up to date on facility improvements and safety procedures.  Pam usually has a list of meetings and programs.  Denny reports on the marketing pool sales and paperwork.  Derrick reviews the average price contract.  Sara, Russell, Vanessa, Louie, Mikki, Denny, Derrick, and Doug describe activities at each location and bring customer concerns questions up for discussion.

            This is just one of the ways we try to keep informed about what’s going on in the company, and try to find ways to make your life easier.

The operations staff also meets monthly.  They usually meet in three groups, the north, the south, and the middle groups.  Their main topic is safety, often viewing a movie or meeting with a safety specialist.  These meetings encourage safe practices from our operations staff, and remind them of the procedures that should be followed to prevent accidents.

 

BEMENT NATIVE VOLUNTEERS AT 2002 OLYMPICS

            Dr. Jon Wall, formerly of Bement, was on of 23,000 volunteers to help Salt Lake City host the world winter Olympics.

            Dr. Wall was stationed at Deer Valley, which was the venue for the men’s and women’s moguls, slaloms, and aerials.

            The volunteers saved the Utah taxpayer $63 million.

            Dr. Wall’s colleague was Dr. DeWeer, an orthopedic surgeon from Madison, Wisconsin.

WHAT’S HAPPENIN’

The flat at Bement is empty.  The soybeans have been shipped out.

Eric, Brock and Jim Murphy attended pesticide training in Springfield.

Doug enjoyed his trip to the Sugar Bowl.

Pam, Chuck, Scott & Dick met with 4 members of the Ursa Coop in January, to compare company procedures and policy.

Kirk Whitaker, Keith & Laura’s son, won third place in the pine wood derby.

Yearend statements, customer status statements, and pool and average price contract information was sent out to all customers in January.

It’s been a good winter for our farm pick up program. 

Topflight Grain, Monticello, will accept hard endosperm corn, as a post-harvest, buyer’s call specialty crop.

Allan Perry is interning with us, from the Bement High School.  Allan will be visiting several of our locations, and working with several of our employees this semester.

Doug Adloff attended the Farm Show in Louisville.

Keith is pursuing ISO approval for Topflight Grain.  He and Dick met with two professors from Millikin and Paul Mariman from the Macon County Extension Service.

The new conveyor in the Monticello tunnel has been installed.

We’re working with the Champaign County Zoning Committee, on our outside storage at Seymour.

It’s beginning to a little suspicious!!  Dick & Bonnie won a night’s stay at the Adam’s Mark, in a Grain & Feed drawing.  Brock and Stason each won $100 in a GEAPs drawing.

Sara Rawlins attended the Farm Show in Louisville.

Denny Hill watched one of the Missouri Valley Tournament NCAA games in St. Louis

Emily Brackebusch spent an afternoon, as an intern, with Dick.  Emily attends the University of Illinois, and is a special friend of Doug Adloff.

We’ve been meeting with health insurance companies, trying to find the best coverage for the money. 

Dick attended the National Grain & Feed meeting, in March.

Dillon Docherty shot hoops in the KC free throw contest, in March.

Pam joined many of our Macon County farmers at the Ag Breakfast on March 20.

 

 

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

By Richard Thomas

It has been some time since I have appealed our personal property taxes.  If you remember the last time I filed a petition, the News Gazette wrote an article about “that big burly guy from Bement Grain Co.”, who was appealing the company’s personal property taxes.  This is to inform you that I am doing it again.  It all started with me looking at Monticello’s taxes and seeing how they were so far out of line with the rest of the grain elevators in the county.  So while we were filing for Monticello we decided to include Bement, Pierson, Shackelfords, and LaPlace.  The total savings to the company on all the facilities could amount to $55,300.  Our total real estate and personal property taxes for this year will amount to over $275,000.

     So what would you do?  We have some stockholders who think we shouldn’t be protesting our taxes.  Just pay whatever is levied and go on with our business.  Others, however, think they have elected a board of directors and a manager to look after the company’s finances and part of the responsibility is prudent management decisions.     

     As your manager I feel like Topflight Grain should pay their fair share of the taxes.  However, I don’t think we should pay more than our share.  That’s all we’re asking.

FARMLAND SYSTEM CONFERENCE

Dick and two of your board members, Kenny Ruff and Richard Larimore, attended the Farmland System Conference in Indianapolis, early in February.

            In the opening session, Harry Fehrenbaher, president of Farmland and Bob Honse, CEO of Farmland talked about Farmland’s current position, a grain partnership with ADM, the fertilizer and chemical division called Agri Alliance, and selling the petroleum division to Land of Lakes.  Both men were optimistic about the future of Farmland.

            In the break out sessions, our men split up, so that someone attended each of the meetings: 

            Lew Batchelder from ADM spoke about the Impact of Global Markets on Agriculture.  He said that Mexico want to put a tax on soft drinks, with fructose, coming into their country.   ADM has 16,300 railcars, 85 towboats, 2180 barges, 650 trucks, 287 domestic elevators and 142 foreign elevators.  They grind 8.5 acres of corn per minute for processing.

            Harvest Land Coop, from Indiana listed the Successful Growth Strategies that have worked for them.  This included their business principle, “We never forget that our organization and our employer are the very customers that we do business with, and our future is dependent on their success”.  This is partially accomplished through mutual respect for one another, honesty, goals and time lines, an open mind and a willingness to compromise.

            Dan Alexander presented “Improving your Profitablility”.  He listed three types of customers, the price buyer, the business buyer, and the relationship buyer.  The business buyer and the relationship buyer like to be shown appreciation for their business.  The keys to profit improvement are growing to stay even, providing valuable services, and consistently improving the skills of your people.

            “The Agriculture of Today and a Look at Tomorrow” praised genetic engineering for the promise of improving human health, while making note that activists attack the benefits. The new farm technology will be needed to feed the world’s population in keeping a balance with nature.

            Doc Blakely was the closing speaker, with the “Gift of Laughter”.  His humorous speech also encouraged the listeners to think more of others than you do of yourself; don’t criticize, condemn, or complain; explain benefit – request action; and laugh with one another, rather than at one another.

           

AROUND THE WORLD

Bement residents, Lynn & Doris Cazier and their family plan to become missionaries, later this summer.  Lynn, Doris and the daughter Crystal visited their new “home”, taking along with them, caps from Topflight Grain, and Dan Jarboe.  These are the leaders of the Maasai Church at Ngatataek.

 

GRAIN INSURANCE FUND

By Richard Thomas

     After the elevator in Minooka filed for bankruptcy, the Illinois Grain Insurance Fund started to get a lot of attention.  According to reports, the elevator lost over 30 million dollars.  The amount owed to the 300 or so farmers that filed claims to the insurance fund amounted to about 9 million dollars.  There was 5 million dollars in the fund so the State of Illinois had to come up with the other 4 million.  The grain elevators and farmers have to pay the state back the 4 million and here is what the task force has given to the director of agriculture to approve.

     One tenth of 1% of all grain sales by farmers will be deducted until the fund pays the state back the 4 million.  The elevators will be assessed double the amount they usually paid until the state is paid off.  After the fund is paid back to 0 then one half of one tenth of 1% will be deducted from the farmer’s sales.  The elevators will go back to their regular assessment until the fund reaches 7 million dollars. 

     Everyone seems to think the 4 million can be paid back the first year and then in two more years the fund could be up to the 7 million figure they want to keep it at.     

     Here is something else you should know.  You have 21 days to deliver and sell your grain to be covered 100% under the grain insurance fund.  If you deliver and sell your grain and don’t pick the check up within the 21 days you are covered up to 160 days at 85% of the value.  So if you sell your grain in the fall and defer the money until January the fund would cover 85% of the grain value.  If you wait longer than 160 days to pick up your check, you have no coverage under the fund. 

     On price later grain you have 85% coverage for 270 days.  The 270 days start from the date on the first load delivered.  So if you D.P. grain at harvest you should have it sold and collected for by June to be covered under the fund.

     Moral of the story: Make sure you know who you’re doing business with, and if the deal is to good to be true, I’d get my money right away.

IN YOUR SPRING GARDEN

For the garden of your daily living,

Plant three rows of peas:

1.  Peace of mind

2.  Peace of heart

3.  Peace of soul

Plant four rows of squash:

1.  Squash gossip

2.  Squash indifference

3.  Squash grumbling

4.  Squash selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce:

1.  Lettuce be faithful

2.  Lettuce be kind

3.  Lettuce be patient

4.  Lettuce really love one another

No garden is without turnips:

1.  Turnip for meetings

2.  Turnip for service

3.  Turnip to help one another

To conclude our garden we must have thyme:

1.  Thyme for each other

2.  Thyme for family

3.  Thyme for friends

Water freely with patience and cultivate with love.  There is much fruit in your garden because you reap what you sow.

We must never forget that our organization and our employer are the very customers that we do business with, and our future is dependent on their success.