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By Scott Docherty
This title to my article is never so true as it can be applied to
running a 33,000,000 bushel Grain Cooperative compared to something as simple
as what are you going to have for your next meal. The Topflight Grain staff did
a great job of planning for a record crop, starting with the crop tour,
estimating location receipts, booking rail freight, transferring truck grain
and using all of our temporary space. Handling 26.8 million bushels of corn and
soybeans is no easy task especially with 90% delivered within a 35-day window
this fall.
What a difference between marketing years
when you see beans run from $5.00 to $10.00 and back down below $5.00 all in
about 13 months time. This type of market action definitely shows up in our
fall purchases with Topflight Grain only buying 47% of the corn versus 65% last
year and buying only 30% of the beans versus 68% last year. The September
Indian summer that we had sure took the moisture out of the corn with our
average corn moisture at 16.4% and beans getting as dry as 8% moisture.
I am sure glad the board approved the new
bin project at Cisco because they set another new record for the most dumps
award by dumping 3,680,936 bushels of grain this harvest. You can see how good
planning does pay because this facility did not have to close early because of
the heavy grain volume. You may have noticed towards the end of harvest when I
or one of our location managers called you on the combine to see how many acres
you had left cut. We are not doing this to be nosy but to make sure we had
enough labor, trucks, rail and space available to dump your grain.
I am proud that we were able to stay open
7 days a week from September 7 to October 12 and not shut down a facility or
raise storage charges in the middle of harvest as space was getting tight. When
we did get a rain break in October the sky kept falling for the next 4 weeks
and 8 ½ inches of rain later, we started to pickup our uncovered ground pile at
Emery. Again planning does pay as we moved our belt conveyor from Maroa to
Emery as they were within one day of getting full.
I have had some great experiences this fall
from getting to fly on Growmark’s corporate jet one day to vacing corn off a
customers broken down truck the next day. I am thankful for all the hard work
that our employees put in this harvest and also thankful that we did not have
any accidents or serious injuries.
If you are planning for next year’s seed
purchases, I want to inform of some changes at Topflight that may help you.
Topflight Grain will offer our NG bean contract again with the 50-cent premium
for harvest delivery and 55-cent premium for post harvest buyers call.
Topflight Grain will also accept all corn traits and varieties at 4 of our
locations, which are Laplace, Pierson, Seymour and Cisco. The interest in the
Roundup Ready and Rootworm corn from our customers has increased dramatically.
The balance of Topflight facilities will only accept EU approved traits and
varieties and hopefully the acceptance of all events will change before the
spring of 2005. It has been and will be important for our customers to
communicate and understand good grain stewardship as some of these corn traits
and stacked varieties are still pending approval.
We will be hosting some customer meetings
this winter as well as calling on our customers in the country. If you receive
a call from me or one of our location mangers, please take the time to answer
some questions as we want your feedback and let us know what we could do to
help your operation. Through these conversations we are planning for the fall
of 2005 and beyond to serve you better and earn your business.
Topflight Grain was blessed with a great
crop and we are thankful for your business. Have a Merry Christmas and
prosperous New Year!
By
Vanessa Stinson
Another harvest has came and gone. Boy! Did it start out with a Big Bang! We got started the week before Labor Day and continued until the first part of November. We could have been done by the 16th of October if someone had not made Mother Nature mad. I am still looking for that person. HAHA!
Your LaPlace facility took in 2.605 mil bu. of corn, 602,000 bu. of soybeans and 167,000 bu. of Non-GMO beans. This was all accomplished with the help of Sue Crawford, Tonya Tenney, Rhiannon Beauchamp, Ashley & Nicolle Stinson in the office. The guys who worked hard at getting the grain dumped were David Roper, Rob Drake, Gary Speagle and Kyle Shay. Without you guys we could not have done it.
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!
Also we want to say a big thank you to the truckers that kept the grain moving out of here so we could stay open for you the customers.
Not much of anything new on the home front. The girls are all in college at this time. Gretchen and Ashley are attending Richland and Nicolle is at Eastern. They are all doing great. Keith is looking forward to some good fishing before the lake freezes. Our family would like to wish all of you a great holiday season.
THE FINAL FLIGHT
By
Louie Tieman
Looks as though this will be my final newsletter for the High Flyer. I’ve decided to headline it as, “The Final Flight.” When you go through life it has its ups and downs. In my 29 years at Bement
Grain and Topflight Grain, I’ve seen a lot of changes and they were all good ones.
I had the opportunity to work for two managers, Dick & Scott. Dick did a super job through all of his years, and I can tell you, Scott will continue to do a super job. He stayed in touch with me all the time as he continued into his first flight adventure as a manager.
I started at Bement Grain on July 11, 1975, thanks to the help of Roy Wright. My first harvest was dumping trucks at the flat in Bement. The next two years I worked at Voorhies doing the inside work because Roger Burton didn’t like that kind of work. He wanted outside to do maintenance and he’s been doing it ever since with pride and determination. He’s the best there is and ole Roger and I had a bet, who would retire first. He wants out at 55, he told me. I’m out at 53.
In June of 1978, Dick came to me and asked if I would be interested in the office job at Milmine. I told him I didn’t know anything about the markets and what they would do. He said, “You’ll be all right, I’ll help you.” So, I was there for 26 years, the longest for any one manager at Milmine.
I remember my first day on the job. Ed Huffington came in and said, “Young man, let me give you some good advice. No matter how hard you try, you can’t please everyone, no matter what and how hard you try.” Ya’ know, he was right, but I gave it my best shot.
I had the chance to work with some of the best co-workers a person could ever have. I wish them all the best as they continue with Topflight and I pray their health remains in tact.
At my retirement party, I had two people tell me they could say whatever they wanted to say, now, because their name wouldn’t be in the newsletter anymore. Well, let’s see, Francis Durbin and Joyce Hendrix, it looks like you made the print. Joyce wanted her picture in it, though, she told me.
I know the “3 Norms” will miss me, cause AKA Kim told me she’d keep an eye on them. Duane Born, Les Syfert and Dave Thompson, every morning at 7:01-7:16, they meet at the office.
As Lindy’s first harvest, the “spellchecker” did not find one misspelled word. That Linda Bowlby carries a dictionary in her tractor. She’s great and now, I will learn to spell - Ha! Ha!
I can’t mention everyone, but would like to say “Thank you” to all my customers and friends who helped me through all the years. Pam was great to work with, but I didn’t put that Mustang on blocks. Hee-hee. ‘Ness, someone will still run the Horse ‘n Buggy elevator, but I know you always have it. Denny, I’m close to the Tennessean Golf Course. Thought you should know that. Mikki, enough things said in my nice card from you and Jim. It was always fun to ISO-lated with you. You and Jill will have to find someone else to take care of – Ha ! Ha!
I could go on and on about everyone, but maybe Scott and Pam might want to keep me on as an informer for the newsletter. I can still stay up on the gossip. Duane says I’m better than any woman. I will miss my collection of wood art by Dick Skagenberg, so I’ll be back from time to time to check up on it. If anyone finds a good picture of Hank Williams Jr., give it to him so he can cut me a couple of silhouettes. I live 2.2 miles from his beautiful home. Kid Rock and Cheryl Crowe have land here, too. Maybe I can B.S. my way up with the “big wigs”.
Since I have no corn or beans to sell anymore, I won’t watch the markets as close as Randy Howland, John McRae and Duane Born would like me to. I sold at $7.50, $10.21 and $6.39. It’s all yours, guys, thanks for the ride.
Thanks to the board for all your years of dedication to making your employees happy. Kim is living in the house now, all I need is someone to keep an eye on her, LOL, LOL.
By the way, thanks again to everyone for the beautiful ride of 29 years, even though I am not a pilot, (Tasha).
Take care and God bless, and remember to always be safe at spring planting and fall harvest.
“If you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good one.”
Louie
P.S. Mikki, it’s L.T.
Louie Tieman
172 Chuckwood Dr
Springville TN 38256
HARVEST REPORT
By
Eric Clements
The smoke has finally cleared and it looks as though the harvest is finally over. We definitely reached our projections on the corn crop. We only had to close two facilities early on two separate occasions. I was very proud of that fact considering the big crop and the troubles that were experienced around the state with facilities filling up. That reflects on the good planning that our company is doing each year to keep the doors open throughout the harvest. Our branches are willing to come in on Sunday mornings and stay late at night to get the grain transferred and hauled out. Everyone is committed to going the extra mile to handle your grain.
We are just about to finish picking up the Emery corn pile. This is the only corn pile that we had without a tarp. We figured that we had 600,000 bushels in the pile when we stopped piling. This corn pile received 8.6 inches of rain before we started picking it up. We are shipping this corn out and taking minimal discounts. Charlie has done a great job of planning and blending of this corn. Several men from other facilities are helping get this corn picked up before it suffers any more damage. We have another 1.4 million bushels on the ground under a tarp. We had great weather to gets these piles out on the ground and the tarps put on before any rains. This was just good luck.
I was helping load railroad cars at Monticello one day this fall. There was a family at the McDonalds that was taking an interest in our loading activities. Soon they were pointing at us and then taking pictures. They observed us for quite some time. I finally decided that I know how the monkeys at the zoo feel everyday.
We are very thankful that we did not have any major breakdowns this year. The maintenance and facility support teams did a good job of preparing us for this harvest. I am always amazed how well we can come together to get a job done.
by Russel
Wright
Another bountiful harvest at Pierson; as everyone knows, it was practically non-stop from the day after Labor Day until the first week of November. With all the good weather that we enjoyed, there were days that I thought that we would have to close down. But thanks to Eric, Brock, and all the truckers, we were able to keep the doors open. This year we took in 505,000 bu of soybeans and 1,833,000 bu of corn. Pierson’s storage capacity for corn is 1,087,000 bushels and 200,000 bu of beans. So you see we took in 300,000 bushels of beans over our capacity and 746,000 bushels of corn. This year we filled Dale Fulton’s bins south of Pierson to help with the over run of corn. I dusted off my CDL and used Bob Jamison’s spare truck and hauled down there.
I want to thank the part-time help we had this fall. Carolyn Smith helped us weigh trucks and answer the phone. Wesley Eckart and Daniel Thompson helped Fred dump all those bushels, Steve Jacobs and Angel Gingerich, and after Angel moved to Ohio, Anna Cain worked at Lanton. As mentioned before, I want to say a big THANK YOU to all the truck drivers that helped deliver grain to Decatur, Gibson City, and Champaign and all the transfer of grain between the Topflight elevators. There was a lot of late night and Sunday trucking to keep all of our facilities open. I also want to say THANK YOU to all of our customers.
As we move into the winter months, there is always something to do. I’m sure Willard will be busy with projects that need to be completed and equipment that needs fixed. Brock will be looking forward to next year’s tractor pulls. Gloria won’t have to drive her daughter anywhere. Hilary is getting her drivers license. Fred will be looking forward to loading rail cars again. My wife, Debby and I will be looking forward to attending school functions again. We have a grandson, Zac, in kindergarten and Tyler and Colin will be playing basketball.
Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a joyous Christmas season.
NEW FROM MILMINE
By
Lindy Powers
Hello everyone, my name is Lindy Powers. This is my first article for the High Flyer. I started working for Topflight Grain on August 30th. I am the branch manager at Milmine. My wife Ann and I live in Clinton, and we have both lived there our entire life. I have 3 girls, Dana 25, Tonya 21, and Katie 12. I am also the proud grandfather to 2 granddaughters, Mya, 3, and Madison, 6 months. and 1 more granddaughter on the way (March). Ann has a daughter Amanda 28, and 3 grandchildren that are deceased.
I would like to thank every customer and all the drivers who delivered grain into Milmine this fall. It is very difficult to come to a place where you are trying to take the place of a man that everyone loved, and that had been here so many years. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the kindness, friendship, and patience that you showed to me.
We had a record fall with yields that were unbelievable. Harvest started about 3 days after I started here, so as you might guess I had no time to meet anyone before the big rush started. Everything worked out fine and it didn’t take long to look out the window and see a truck coming and know who it was. I cannot tell you how much it meant to have your farm codes displayed so that we didn’t put the wrong name on the grain sheet.
I would also like to thank our harvest help for a job well done - Rick, Jeff, Mike, Henry, Roger, Michael, and Michelle.
We also take time every morning to solve the world’s problems here at Milmine so stop in and visit with Duane, Les, Tom, Dave and myself. The doors are always open and you are always welcome. The coffee is on and the popcorn is a popping.
It has been a pleasure to have worked with you this fall, and look forward to working with you in the future,
I almost forgot, I love to play golf. So, keep me in mind next spring. I am always ready to play.
GO CUBS GO !!!!!!!!!
ATWOOD NEWS
by Bill Dirks
Good weather, great people to work with, and patient customers made this harvest go very smooth. Once harvest started it was non-stop.
I want to thank Kathy Terrill and Amanda Fischer for the great job they did. With very little knowledge of the computers, they picked right up on how the on-weigh works. They always had a smile on their faces as well as friendly and accommodating to our customers. I also want to thank Ricky Fischer and Roger Benner for all their hard work and long hours dumping the grain as well as transferring to the flat and bins. They were always eager to pitch in where needed. I don’t want to forget, a big THANK YOU to all the Atwood customers as well as the truck drivers that hauled out.
The Atwood community, as well as a good Topflight customer, just recently lost a good citizen, Jake Kamm will be missed by all. He always had good basketball stories to tell. He was probably one of the oldest University of Illinois basketball players left until his passing. At the age of 93, he still drove, he even attended a U of I basketball practice last season.
With the holiday season approaching, I want to say, everyone have a healthy and happy Thanksgiving as well as a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please feel free to stop by the Atwood office, where this is always a pot of coffee brewing.
SEYMOUR NEWS
By
Doug Adloff
This year’s harvest went very quickly and very smoothly...at least until the October rains began. We had around 90% of the crop in by the 10th of October. The last load of the season came in on November 18th. All the rain and cool weather of the last month made it very difficult to harvest the rest of the crop. We were beginning to think about making plans to have Thanksgiving dinner at the elevator.
I had great help again this fall. Chris Frye ran the elevator, and he had Steve Havens and Curtis Barr helping him. Steve worked at night for a week or so running corn to the bunker. We were able to get it completely filled and tarped before any of the rains came. It should be in excellent condition for shipping later this winter. Inside at the scale I had Melissa Whitten and Coley Hoffman. Melissa worked weekdays, while Coley worked weekends. They both did a great job keeping the traffic moving in the right direction.
By the time the ground is worked and the fertilizer is applied this fall, we will be into the holiday season. We will be having our annual Christmas open house on December 22nd from 11 to 1. I would encourage you to come by for some great food and a few laughs. I wish everyone a happy holiday season and thank all of you for your business.
By
Mikki Burns
Behind us is another harvest…what a year it was!! The company set new records… and so did Cisco. We handled over 3,680,000 total bushels of grain. Corn and Hi-oil corn totaled 2,986,000 and beans and non-gmo beans totaled 695,000. We filled our new bin in about a week. We still loaded eleven trains and transferred grain, even with the extra bin space. We had nine days that we received over 100,000 bushels of corn. Harvest was a long one and actually, we still have some corn to come in here. I want to say thank-you to all of Cisco’s harvest help – Joyce Bennett, Jon Sago, Meaghann Reeves, Courtney Turner, Heath Conover and Robert ‘Levi’ Lawrence. They were all great!! They made ‘our lives easier’!!
Ahead of us is our Christmas Open House…Cisco’s will be Friday, December 17th from 11 – 1. We hope to make ‘your life easier’ that day…please come and join us for lunch!!
Ahead of us is the Holiday Season…it’s a special time spent with family, children and grandchildren!! Blaine, JD, and Audrey are doing great—it will be so exciting to see them enjoy the holidays! They make ‘our life easier’ because of the joy they bring us!!
We would like to thank you, our customers, for your business, and we hope we have made ‘your lives easier’ during harvest and the rest of the year. We wish you a safe and blessed Holiday Season and New Year!!
Before I was a Mom, I slept as late as I wanted and never worried about how late I got into bed. I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.
Before I was a Mom, I cleaned my house each day. I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn’t worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.
Before I was a Mom, I had never been pucked on, pooped on, spit on, chewed on, peed on. I had complete control of my mind and thoughts. I slept all night.
Before I was a Mom, I never held down a screaming child so that doctors could do tests or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.
Before I was a Mom, I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t want to put it down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.
Before I was a Mom, I didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom, I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn’t know I was capable of feeling so much before I was a Mom.
And before I was a Grandma, I didn’t know all those “Mom” feelings more than doubled when you see that little bundle being held by “your” baby.
By
Stason Kopps
The harvest of 2004 is over. I am sure no one can complain about the yields. There were a few times the Monticello elevator was almost full, but a train or many trucks would always show up in the nick of time to haul out grain and keep the doors open. Thanks to much preseason maintenance and some new equipment, truck lines were kept to a minimum in Monticello and Seymour.
Bob Boughton sure likes that new leg in Monticello. He almost never had a line. Chris Frye also kept the Seymour lines to a minimum, plus the Seymour ground pile was filled and tarped in record time. Rob Dick was very busy fixing breakdowns and loading trains. His dream of feeling like the Maytag repairman did not come true. Good ole Jim Shaffer did a great job at Lodge this year. Jim will be 65 in June, but he won’t say when he plans to retire. This year I was busy loading trains, tarping ground piles, and I even got to dry corn a few nights. We all worked hard, but harvest is the time of year when everyone must work together to get the job done.
I would like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season.
REPORT FROM VOORHIES
By
Richard Thomas
This fall I had the opportunity to work with our patrons in the Voorhies area. Actually, Jack Warren did most of the work; I just showed up to pop popcorn and wash the office windows.
We have some really good customers deliver to Voorhies. Larry the Cable Guy, Randy the Recon Ranger, Bob the Builder, Terry the Terminator, Tony the Tin Man, The Gallagher Gaggle, Loretta the Beautiful, The Howl’n Howlands, John the Dragster, Harold the Honker, Curious George, Mr. Ed, and once in a while, Duck the Doctor would show up. Larry the Cable Man, kept me entertained and the Gallagher Gaggle kept me busy. Each year Pam wants a picture taken of the employees working at the branches. So Jack and I had our picture taken in front of the Voorhies castle and christened it the World Headquarters of Topflight Grain. We were going to have a cookout like all the other facilities but wanted to make it more special so we put Randy the Recon Ranger on a FBI mission of looking up all the talented scale attendants that have worked at Voorhies in the past for a reunion cookout. It’s going to be one of Voorhies’s biggest events of the year when we get it all lined up. Larry the Cable Guy is speaking and Elizabeth the Enjoyable will be doing the entertaining.
When Randy the Recon Ranger gets all the former scale attendants located we’ll let you know and we’ll have our Voorhies cookout. Larry the Cable guy says WE’LL GET ‘ER DONE!!!!
By
Derrick Bruhn
They always say that you never forget your first and I think that will be the case with this being my first harvest merchandising. Going into harvest, all was well and I was feeling pretty good about the sales we had on the books. Eric, Scott and I got together and made out our projections for the amount of grain we were going to take in at harvest. Little did we know, beans were not good, they were really good. Many say that this was the best bean yield they have ever had. The same story holds true with the corn being even better than last year. It’s not very often that we are blessed with two good crops. Normally we can change some corn room to bean room or vice-versa, but this year we were short room on both corn and beans. The company sold and shipped 5,842,561 bu of corn and transferred 1,801,217 bu of corn within the company. Beans kept the trucks and trains moving also with the company selling and shipping 1,841,924 bu of beans and transferring 314,609 bu of beans and non-gmo beans within the company. With all of that said we have a lot of dedicated employees and truckers because this many bushels of grain doesn’t get moved overnight. The railroads were a lifesaver again this year. The company loaded 19 trains during harvest for a total of 2,670,000 bu of grain. By doing all of this we were able to keep all of our facilities open and taking in grain throughout harvest.
In the Nov. USDA report they estimated that the US has produced 11.741 billion bu of corn and 3.150 billion bu of beans. That is 1.627 billion bu more corn than last year or 18 bu per acre more corn. They are predicting record usage of corn in both feed and industrial use, which will help to gobble up this large crop. The corn ending stocks are estimated to rise to 861 million bu for a total ending stocks of 1.819 million bu. The bean crop is just as large with an increase of 696 million bu of beans or 8.7 bu per acre more beans. The ending stocks for beans will increase from 112 million bu last year to 460 million bu this year. The state of Illinois issued permits for 53 million bu of emergency and temporary storage this fall. This grain will have to move into the market shortly after harvest keeping a lid on corn. Bean outlook was not very bright until the discovery of Asian Rust in Louisiana and Mississippi. This has given the bean market an added boost that is not expected to stick around for long.
I wanted to end my article with the most amazing thing that happened to me this harvest. Lynne and I have been anticipating the arrival of our first child for quite some time. We were blessed with her arrival on November 11, 2004 at 8:29 p.m. Mabry Elizabeth Bruhn weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. and was 19 inches long. Many people told me that things were about to change when the baby arrived and they were right. It has been one of the best changes in my life. Lynne and I are very proud of her and enjoy every minute we get to spend with her. She was the first grandchild on both sides; so to say the least she is spoiled. Both sets of grandparents are in Litchfield and have made many trips already to spend time with Mabry. Birth is truly a miracle, which only God could have created.
We wish everyone a happy holiday and a safe winter!!
By
Sandy Davenport
Seems like it was just a short time ago that we were all anticipating harvest and now it is almost over. I think that I am probably pretty safe in saying most everyone was pretty pleased with their overall yields. Because of those yields, Emery had to put approximately 600,000 bushels of corn on the ground.
On November 5th, we started picking the corn up off the ground. Sure wish that it were as fast picking up as it was putting it on the ground! We have a crew from other Topflight locations come over and help Charlie and workers from Maroa work on the pile. They are all doing a great job. The corn has to be picked up, run back through the drier and then loaded out. So far we are really pleased with the condition of the corn and the grades we are receiving. Picking up the pile takes a company wide effort. Sherryl Young and Jill Kuykendall have come to help me in the office during all of this. Hopefully, the pile will be picked up by Thanksgiving.
Thank you to all of you who had your farm codes on your vehicles this harvest. It sure does make the scale operator’s job easier and there is less chance of putting a wrong farm code on a ticket. Anyone wishing a list of their farm codes for future delivery can stop by and I will give you all of your codes.
Again this year Emery had excellent harvest helpers. Helping Charlie outside were Pete Greathouse and Brian Conder. Helping me inside were Roger Lewis and Lindsey McCool.
I am working on getting delivery sheets mailed out to customers. I think I have most of them mailed out so if you haven’t received your delivery sheets please call me and I will get them to you.
I am taking a vacation week the week of Thanksgiving. Jerry and I will probably go to St. Louis for a few days and then be back for Thanksgiving dinner. I am so looking forward to the oyster dressing! Hopefully we will be going to Champaign to the State Football Playoffs after Thanksgiving. Maroa has to win on November 20th to get there, so I am excited about that game.
Charlie will be taking vacation in December. I think he has a lot of jobs around the house planned to keep him busy. Boomer will probably spend a lot of time in the office, waiting for Charlie to come back.
It is hard to believe that the holidays are fast approaching, but I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season!
By
Jason Geppert
What
a year to have my first harvest at Monticello.
Big yields and dry weather equal a great harvest. We shipped out over 1 million bushels of
corn again this fall and our soybean totals were up significantly over last
year. Our biggest day this fall was
132,500 total bushels. The improvements
done to the facility prior to harvest really helped. Even with the big yields in corn and soybeans, we only had to
dump 3 or 4 trucks in the old house this year.
The new leg was a huge help in keeping the corn lines to a minimum. Our scale-in to scale-out time this fall
averaged between 5 and 6 minutes.
Also
a big help was the dedication of our employees. Our inside help this year
consisted of Angie Geppert and Connie Baker.
They did a great job of working the scale and sampling grain to keep the
trucks moving. Sherryl Young did a
fabulous job helping out at the scales, keeping up on offers, and processing
rail returns in a timely manner.
Derrick Bruhn did a great job as merchandiser this fall. He was kept busy by the big harvest, making
sure that enough was sold to keep everything operating smoothly. .
Cory
Fay, Brandon Upton, and Donald Deering were the outside help this fall. They did a great job dumping trucks,
cleaning up, and loading rail cars. Bob
Boughton did an excellent job of drying grain, filling bins for rail cars, and
moving grain to keep the grain lines minimal.
Stason Kopps did an outstanding job of keeping tabs on Seymour, Lodge,
and Monticello, helping to load trains and drying corn. Rob Dick did a fantastic job of keeping
things in working order this harvest and he also found time to help us load
trains. Jim Shaffer was at Lodge again
this fall and did an outstanding job.
When he was really busy we sent Connie Baker to help. She worked out really well at Lodge. I would
like to thank everyone that helped make this harvest a success, and to all
those employees that helped load trains this fall.
Everyone
at the Monticello facility would like to congratulate Derrick and Lynne Bruhn
on the birth of their daughter Mabry.
Hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.
SISTERS WEEK
It seems like only yesterday that I
wrote my last article. Pam says it is
only three times a year. Sure seems like more than that to me. The cats are
doing fine and so far no new arrivals.(Just in case you read my last article).
My wife Jan has been off the last week entertaining her sister, Mary Jo, from Pennsylvania. It’s what she calls Sisters Week. There are four of them, (Jan , Mary Jo, Barb and Joyce) that get together for the week and shop the antique malls and stores until they drop. They also include their mother Marie sometimes. I am always interested to come home and see if there is anything new in the house. Since Jan doesn’t volunteer what she buys, I have to notice it. Sometimes I notice it right away and sometimes it takes me much longer. The best part I like is we are always eating out.
The company had a bigger harvest than ever this year. Hope all of you did too. Have a great holiday season.
MAROA NEWS
By Denny Hill
The 2004
harvest began with some big expectations for this year’s crop as for the first
time in many years there were no serious weather problems to deal with during
the growing season. Below normal temperatures in the month of August pushed the
harvest back 2 to 3 weeks but a perfect September allowed for the farmers to
harvest the majority of their crops.
Final
yields in our territory on corn were all over the board due to rootworm, wind
damage, insects and in some cases too much rain but I would say overall we
averaged around 185 bushels per acre. Soybean yields were a pleasant surprise
this year with a range of 50 to 65 bushels to the acre being reported. In some
cases, farmers were getting nearly twice as many beans per acre as they had
last year. I guess that is why we went from $10.00 beans back to $5.00.
For the 2nd
year in a row we were fortunate in getting our bunker at the bin site filled
and covered without getting any rain on it. We had 3 semi’s hauling from 6:30
A.M. to 10:00 P.M. for 6 days to fill the over 500,000 bushel bunker in a
timely manner. Hopefully this corn should stay in good condition until next
spring when we will begin to pick it up. The rest of harvest went pretty well
with only one major problem and we were able to get it fixed in just a few
hours and were able to go full speed the next day. Our harvest totals were 2.1
million bushels of corn and around 550,000 soybeans.
We had
some excellent help outside this year with Keith Willis and Darrell West, who
both put in some long hard days but we could always count on them to show up
the next morning and do it again. Inside helping Jill and myself was my
daughter Jessica on the weekends and my other daughter Meghan after school in
the evenings during the week. Jessica is a Freshman at Southern Illinois
University at Edwardsville and Meghan is a Sophomore at Maroa-Forsyth. They
were much needed help as Jill and I spent several hours each day explaining the
LDP situation to patrons and helping them fill out their forms to obtain their
loan deficiency payments.
We opened
Waller Elevator again this fall for business and were fortunate to have Sharon
Brown available to run the scales. Gary Liggett was in charge of the outside
and they both did a fine job in filling all the available bin space we had
planned on. Being able to take beans at Waller helps the bean situation at
Emery where we are not able to dump beans as fast as we would like to. The
final receipts for Waller were 330,000 bushels of corn and 138,000 beans.
From everyone here at Topflight in Maroa, I
would like to wish a very Merry Christmas to all and a happy new year.
HARVEST 2004
By
Brock Casteel
This is my fourth harvest with TopFlight and probably my biggest one yet. The number of bushels taken in by Topflight elevators company wide is impressive, to say the least. All eighteen combined locations took in over 20 million bushels of corn and nearly five million bushels of beans. Unload times for inbound trucks at full time facilities averaged six minutes and four seconds from inbound scale to outbound scale. This is a good unload interval. As TopFlight Grain continues to update and improve its storage and elevation capacities, it is a number that will keep decreasing as time goes on.
The weather for this harvest was outstanding early on, which gave us a very good opportunity to fill our outdoor storage rings here at Pierson. The wind also cooperated as we covered the rings with their respective tarps. I always sleep better at night once those rings are both covered. The beautiful weather also allowed for several great weeks for harvesting crops, with the majority of those crops coming in September and the first couple weeks of October before fall weather actually hit with the rains.
Now that this crop is in, we will regain our focus for observation and maintaining not only this new crop in the bins but required maintenance of the facilities. We have already started maintenance projects at La Place in the form of installation of a new reclaim chain in one of the unload conveyors and we will start to replace a leg belt with in the next week at the same location. The time for shipping grain is already upon us, so the completion of these projects is much needed.
In closing, thank you to all the producers and staff that helped to make this harvest a success in 2004. I look forward to seeing everyone in over the winter and again next fall. Have a safe and profitable year.
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
By
Rodd Runyen
Growing up as a child in Oreana, my Grandma Darnall lived two houses down the street from our house. She lived alone, as my grandpa died in 1966 when I was eleven months old. She was my “only” grandparent as my grandparents on my dad’s side had died before I was born. So my grandma has always been very special to me.
Christmas has always been a special time of year. We would get out of school for Christmas break and we would spend most of our time at her house. We would wrap presents for her, put up and decorate her Christmas tree, put outside decorations at her house, and help her decorate the inside of her house. Christmas morning we would have Christmas at my mom and dad’s house with her there. Then we would walk down the street to have Christmas at my grandma’s house. It seemed like a whole day of unwrapping presents!
For her Christmas tree, we would go out and cut a real tree. She always preferred the real trees to the artificial. We would always get a 10-foot tree because her house could accommodate it. We even had to build a special stand so the tree wouldn’t fall over! We would decorate the tree, and then to finish it off, we would put about 6 or 7 boxes of the icicle tinsel on it. Grandma always felt that the shiny tinsel hanging on the limbs is what made a Christmas tree. We would then put up a second Christmas tree, an artificial one decorated with nothing but antique ornaments. It would be covered in strands of glass beads, old glass ornaments, and of course, the icicle tinsel! We would then put on the antique candleholders that would clip on the end of the branches. We would put candles in them but would never light them – we didn’t want to burn the house down!! This was our special tree as it brought back many of her childhood Christmas memories.
Another fond memory was all of the cookies we would bake with her. We would bake all different kinds, and by the time Christmas arrived, we would have about 20 tins of all different kinds of cookies! Of course, they would always get eaten and we would clean up the tins to fill again the next year!
As we grew older and started families of our own, we would still go over to grandma’s house to help her. We didn’t get to bake the cookies like before because of all the activities our kids are in, but we would still decorate the Christmas tree and the inside of her house. Christmas Day we would have Christmas at my mom and dad’s house and then again at her house. It was our continuing tradition.
But this year, things will be a little different. This year will be the first Christmas without my grandma, as she died in August at the age of 90. Although she will not be with us, she will definitely be there in spirit. We are lucky because since we were the closest family to her, she has left our family with so many wonderful memories of Christmas time spent with her. And though a few tears will probably be shed when “Blue Christmas” is heard, we will still have all of those precious memories to treasure and share with each other.
So as our family begins new Christmas traditions and clings to some of the old, I hope that you too will go out and create traditions and fond memories for all of your families to cherish. Also, reflect back on some of your Christmas memories, and share them with your family and friends. Enjoy the beauty and the wonder of the season, as it will soon be over, but the memories will last forever.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
By
Pam Jarboe
Thanksgiving is a special holiday for all of us in agriculture, as we can share some of the sentiments of the early Pilgrims, giving thanks for their completed harvest. I’m sure they had no idea that 200 bushel corn could be grown, and then harvested, mostly, in 6 weeks. I don’t think they had seen soybeans yet, nor the excellent yields of harvest 2004. The conclusion of a successful growing season is a mutual celebration, whether now, or for the early settlers.
It was a fast and furious harvest. The weather was perfect for the first 5 or 6 weeks, and the crop just kept coming!! Sitting in the Bement office, each evening, Eric, Scott and Chuck would analyze the day’s numbers, calculating the receipts versus the shipments, to determine how much space was left, and where we could move grain to make more room. Then, how do we move it? It was a day-to-day decision. Numbers had been estimated prior to harvest, which provided the over-all plan, but daily verification and modification were necessary to ensure it was still working. Without any rain delays, we didn’t have much time for error!
It did work, and worked well. Topflight Grain took records amount of grain in a record amount of time. We also prepared a lot of information and forms, to assist in LDP filing. We did what we could to save you time off the combine, to collect numbers, complete forms, and fax the information. It was a hectic season!
The Bement office was fortunate to have Peg Bargon weighing trucks and sampling grain. Bill Benson, Tony Brittenham, and Scott Reed helped Jim dump the grain, fill the flat, and dry corn. We appreciate their long hours and dedication.
As busy as the employees were during harvest, the “birthday elves” found time to help me celebrate my birthday in early September. My desk was draped in black crepe paper, covered with confetti, black balloons, and a few other “black” items. I also received some pretty flowers and plants from some good friends and co-workers, so the day was well worth it. Each year is a celebration and each decade is worth a major celebration! My thanks to all who helped with the day, including my mom and dad, who casually arranged for dinner at the Rib-eye the prior evening, so the mischievous elves could scamper around the office in a cloak of secrecy.
We are thankful for the bounteous harvest, and for your business. We hope that your harvest was also plentiful and safe. We also hope that your Thanksgiving table was filled with good food, surrounded with family and friends. May your Christmas be joyful and may your New Year be happy and prosperous.
Our sympathies to the families
of . . .
Francis Allen, Charles Body, Phyliss Oldfield, Cliff Hale, Mary Eloise Jurgens, Larry Foster, Dale Albert, Everett Grissom, George Morgan, Julia Larimore, Dale Robinson, Paul Fleener, Ruth Vanhorn, Walter Ray Smith, Byron B Brown (from Boody, IL), Tim Boyd, Helen Dyson, Marion Westerman, Redith Mattix, Alberta Fombelle, A J Kamm, Fay Weaver, Harold Burcham, Violet Goken, Albert Kauffman, Paul Sprague, Stacy & Frances Nichols, Faye Malone, Helen Groves, Paul Carder, Richard Heath
Our congratulations to . . .
John W Boslen, who celebrated his 80th birthday with a family gathering; Jake and Jenny Moore, parents of a son, Brady Daniel; Matthew Einhorn, graduate of the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps Leader Development and Assessment Course at Fort Lewis, WA; Kimberly Bushman and Craig Stille, married in July. Kimberly is the granddaughter of Joan Hendrix; Laura Einhorn and Mark Meyer, married on November 13; Wayne and Claudette Foran, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in August; Chris Perkins, third place winner for his Americanism essay, at the State ALA Convention; Mary Fulk, who celebrated her 80th birthday in August; Lindsey Fisher and Andrew Hanes, married in July; Bruce Stahl, who celebrated his 90th birthday in September; Howard Kamm, retiring after 31 years at Cabot; Joe & Virginia Ponder, celebrating 63 years of marriage; Jim & Norma Hartman, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on November 27; Hildred Webb, celebrating her 94th birthday; Ralph Traxler, who celebrated his 80th birthday on November 28; Willard Park, on his 80th birthday, on November 30; Coy Agee Jr, who celebrated his 85th birthday on November 22; Lynne Bruhn, selected “Best teacher in Piatt County”, as voted in the Piatt County Journal Republican poll of Piatt County; Derrick & Lynne Bruhn, parents of Mabry Elizabeth; local football teams from Cerro Gordo, Argenta-Oreana, Mahomet-Seymour, Mt. Zion, and Clinton, who competed in the play-off games; local football teams from Arthur-Lovington and Maroa-Forsyth, who competed in the state semi-final games; Neil & Paula Quick, proud parents of Anna. The proud grandparents are Ken & Brenda Quick and Diana Wood.
We have had many questions since the last TopFlight newsletter about the Edwin Withers family being mentioned in the sympathy section of the paper. We would like to make the correction that Edwin “Doc” Withers should have been in the congratulations section celebrating his 80th birthday back in July, not the sympathy section. Yes, Doc is alive and well and can be found most any day at the M & M Café, visiting with the other local coffee drinkers. Happy Birthday, Doc!!
BIG HARVEST!!
It was a big harvest this year, with overall
good corn yields and good bean yields.
The first six weeks ran straight, without a rain delay, despite wishes
and requests of anyone working with the harvest process. At Topflight, truckers were hauling corn and
beans into the late night hours, to processors, terminals, ground piles, and
between Topflight facilities. Space was
getting tighter everyday, and the grain just kept coming!
Finally, the rain arrived and it really gave
everyone a break – a three-week break!
Topflight had a chance to make space for the balance of the harvest
receipts, and farmers had a chance to perform maintenance on equipment and to
begin to sift through the mountains of bookwork on their desks.
To accommodate the huge crop, Topflight utilized
the two rings at Pierson, rings at Maroa, the bunkers at Maroa and Seymour, the
flat at Shackelfords, and the emergency ground pile at Emery. The Pierson rings and the bunkers at Seymour
and Maroa are protected with tarps and aeration tubes, and an asphalt or
limestone base. The emergency pile at
Emery is used as very short-term storage, using the belt conveyor to pile the
corn on the ground. Pickup of the pile began in early November, with plans to
move all of the corn to market, as soon as possible.
HARVEST FACTS:
(November 4, 2004)
2004 2003
Purchased 9,549,151 bu 47% 12,484,574bu 65%
Delay Priced 2,611,079 13% 1,118,399 6%
Stored 8,320,321 40% 5,634,375 30%
Ave price $2.37 $2.17
Ave moisture 16.4 17.2
Purchased 95,153 41% 336,945 78%
Delay priced 116,759 50% 85,818 20%
Stored 21,088 9% 8,402 2%
Ave price $2.49 $2.23
Ave moisture 14.6 15.3
Purchased 1,486,770 30% 2,809,612 68%
Delay priced 178,529 4% 202,724 5%
Stored 3,214,023 66% 1,105,297 27%
Ave price $6.27 $6.28
Ave moisture 10.4 11.5
Purchased 222,062 43% 369,115 74%
Delay priced 107,072 21% 45,956 9%
Stored 190,419 37% 83,006 17%
Ave price $6.07 $6.40
Ave moisture 10.4 11.4
On October 1, 2004 - 1,322,508 bu of grain were unloaded at all locations.
On October 14 – 518,170 bushels of grain were shipped and transferred.
Two facilities each exceeded over 3.3 million bushels of receipts at harvest.
Five facilities each received over 2.5 million bushels of grain at harvest.
Total corn receipts were over 21 million bushels.
Total soybean receipts were over 5.5 million bushels.
During harvest, Topflight shipped 5.8 million bushels of corn,
And 1.8 million bushels of soybeans.
During harvest, Topflight transferred 1.8 million bushels of corn,
And .2 million bushels of soybeans.
Specialty grains received this fall:
233,000 bu of high oil corn
578,000 bu of nongmo beans
Another study we ran after harvest, was the “average unload time” at our main facilities.
In Atwood, it was 7 minutes
In Bement, it was 5 minutes
In Cisco, it was 6 minutes
In Emery, it was 6 minutes
In Laplace, it was 6 minutes
In Maroa, it was 9 minutes
In Milmine, it was 6 minutes
In Monticello, it was 5 minutes
In Pierson, it was 8 minutes
In Seymour, it was 6 minutes
This means, that from the time your truck was weighed, and you drove to the dump pit, and dumped your truck, then drove back to the scale, to the time the truck weighed empty, the average time at any of your elevators was from 5 – 9 minutes. We’re proud of these numbers, and do our best to keep your trucks moving quickly back to the field. As we see opportunities for improvement, we will continue to work towards fast, efficient handling of your deliveries.
If you are storing nongmo beans in your farm bins, be sure that you have contracted those beans for the nongmo premium program. The grower contract for nongmo soybeans will ensure that you receive the premium for growing these specialty beans. We have been warned that with the better than expected yields, the program is exceeding the projections. Without the commitment of a signed contract, growers could risk the 50 – 55 cent premium paid to non-RoundUp Ready soybeans.
Whether you delivered nongmo beans at harvest, or plan to deliver them from the farm bin after harvest, please be sure that you have signed the grower contract, in order to receive the premium for growing these beans. The grower contract states that you have met the requirements for growing nongmo soybeans; it is not pricing contract. You still have the right to price the nongmo soybeans in the cash market. You may be asked to apply the nongmo beans to a delayed pricing contract, so that they can be shipped when the processor calls for them. Again, the nongmo beans are priced in the cash market.
Be sure that you signed the nongmo grower agreement.
Please be certain when you sell your nongmo beans, that you specify to your grain buyer that they are nongmo beans, rather than beans. Accounting for the nongmo beans, compared to beans, is similar to the accounting between corn and beans. They are viewed as two separate commodities. The pricing contracts are different, the storage is segregated, and the testing procedures are more stringent.
You must specify nongmo beans, as you price them.
When you sell high oil corn, be certain that you specify to your grain buyer that it is high oil corn, rather than corn. As with nongmo soybeans, high oil corn and corn are two separate commodities. Pricing of high oil corn is also calculated differently than corn; it is based on the export market, where as corn is based on many market differentials.
By
Derrick Bruhn
In the past couple of years Topflight has been working with customers to develop marketing plans that each customer is comfortable with. A big part of this process is the use of crop insurance to help protect farmers that forward contract grain throughout the crop year. There is not one certain type of insurance that fits everyone’s needs. Last year the spring prices that were established gave the insured a very high dollar guarantee if they chose to purchase revenue insurance. The GRIP-HRO program at this point looks to be the only one in which customers will be able to collect a loss. This product is based off of the county average yield and that will not be published until March. There were isolated problems that allowed other revenue insurances to cover losses, but for the most part yields were excellent and the insurance did the job it was intended to do. I will be able to answer any questions that anyone has about the different programs that are offered. Call 1(217) 762-2163 and ask for Derrick.
With confirmation of Asian Soybean Rust, in the southern United States, the bean market rallied post-harvest to better prices. We watched the fungus grip parts of South America last winter, and listened to experts predict its arrival in the US. The multiple and severe hurricanes are believed to brought the fungus to the US, this past season.
Asian soybean rust is a very fast acting and deadly disease to soybeans. It can be fought with fungicide application, if treated quickly. There are several websites providing information about the fungus and the treatments. A couple of those sites can be found at http://www.soybeanrustinfo.com/, and http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/issues/sbr/sbr.html. Other sights can be found through search engines. If you don’t have Internet access, your local Topflight manager will be glad to look up these websites for you.
Your local agronomist will also be able to answer questions, and provide information to you about the latest tracking, scouting and treatment of the disease.
RoundUp Ready NK 603 corn stacked with BT or RW traits is NOT yet approved.
Topflight Grain will accept all corn traits at 4 facilities for delivery of all corn starting in the fall of 2005. These locations are Laplace, Pierson, Seymour and Cisco. This will give farmers the ability to plant RR and Rootworm corn and deliver to Topflight Grain during harvest.
The balance of Topflight Grain facilities will accept the EU approved traits and varieties and, hopefully, the review process and acceptance will change before the spring of 2005. It is important that everyone communicates and understands good grain stewardship as these corn events and stacked events are still pending approval.
Topflight Grain is full of corn and beans. Many years, soon after harvest, we are able to make some space and offer “free dp” for farm-stored grain. This year, that space isn’t readily available. The first grain sales allowed us to begin picking up the Emery corn pile that was untarped and un-aired. That very short-term storage had to be picked up right after harvest – into an elevator that was full to the top. Grain sales were made, and about 70,000 bushels a day were shipped out. That only allowed us to pick up the corn pile, condition it and ship it out. It did not create any extra space. Now, as we look at December corn sales, the space that those shipments will generate will be filled with January deliveries.
Extra space for “free dp” will come later than usual this year. Please monitor your farm-stored grain to be sure that it stays in good condition. If you start to see problems, please contact your local Topflight facility for assistance.
Little did we know, in 1989, when Gina Stoerger visited Bement Grain, that she would return 15 years later to visit again, as Miss Moultrie-Douglas.
When Gina was just a little girl, she would visit us, with her grandparents, Larry and Loretta Bartram. We started her, young, working on the keyboard. Gina has grown from that little girl, to a young woman, crowned Miss Moultrie-Douglas last summer. Gina returned for a visit this harvest. She toured the elevator, weighed trucks, and sampled grain. Jim took her to the top of the elevator, where she could see the harvest progress, and the beginning of the fall colors.
We enjoyed Gina’s visit, and appreciated her help. We wish her the best of luck as she pursues her education and hope the she enjoys her reign as Miss Moultrie-Douglas.
We welcome Lindy Powers to the Topflight staff. Lindy jumped right in at harvest time, in the Milmine office, meeting the customers and learning the computer system.
Lindy worked at an elevator in Clinton for many years. That experience helped him fit right in the grain business at Milmine. Stop by and visit with him!
LDP
Before you pick up your checks for stored grain, be sure that you have claimed the LDP on those bushels. If you have not filed for the LDP on your stored bushels, you must complete the 633 form prior to losing title to the grain. Don’t forget it; once the check is written, it’s too late!
If you have sold your grain, or applied it to delayed pricing, you will need to submit the delivery sheets to the FSA office to claim the LDP on the dates the grain was delivered.
Please call us if you need the 633 form, or if you need delivery sheets, or if you need other information to claim the LDP.
Keep all records associated with your LDP claims, in case your claim is spot-checked. We may be able to help you reproduce these records, but it is your responsibility to maintain the files to validate the LDP claims.
LDP is Loan Deficiency Payment, authorized with the last farm bill. It’s intent is to compensate the producer for low grain prices by paying the difference between the county’s average cash price, and the loan price ($2.04 and $5.17 in Piatt County). Information is submitted to the local FSA office by the producer, where the LDP values are calculated, and checks written to the producer. Grain that has been submitted for LDP payments is not eligible for the government loan program.
Your records at Topflight must agree, in name and share, with the FSA records. If the farm is listed in a partnership, your delivery sheets from Topflight must show ownership to the partnership. If you split the grain with a spouse at the FSA office, it must be split at Topflight.
HAVE FUN WITH THIS
Answer these 29 questions, without cheating!! The national average for correct answers is 7. Are you better than average?
By
Tasha Murphy
On August 13, 2004, my dad and I went to Mattoon to get Hall of Famer Lou Brock’s autograph.
We got there at 5:00 pm, one hour before Brock was to be there. We got in line and there were only 16 people ahead of us. My dad suggested that we bring our lawn chairs so we didn’t have to stand. When Lou Brock arrived, he was wearing his Cardinal uniform. On his way to the autographing booth, he was clapping hands and talking to people.
When the line started to move, my dad was checking what people brought for Brock to sign. When our turn came to meet Brock, he was asking me questions. My dad and I both thought he was very polite. My dad and I got I in line for a second time. When we got up there again, he remembered what grade I was in. This time, my dad took pictures of me with Brock and his wife.
We got three baseballs and a record signed. On the record, and on one of the baseballs, Brock put on “HOF ‘85”. My dad said the he put that on ours only.
* 50-cent premium for fall delivery or 55 cents for post harvest delivery (buyers call)
* Accepted delivery locations are Atwood, Cisco, Emery, Laplace, Seymour, and Shacks
* Purity: 99% NON-GMO soybeans
* 10% maximum splits
* Must sign contract and certificate upon delivery
* 25 cent premium
* Accepted delivery locations are Bement and Monticello
* Pioneer and Beck seed only
* #2 corn specifications with purity of 95%
* Must sign bushel contract prior to harvest
Nutridense corn is usually marketed to the livestock producers. This corn has a higher amino acid content, and provides more metabolic energy, as feed. We are currently pursuing this program. If you have an interest in it, please contact your local Topflight office.
Winter wheat, grown for the variety specific program, must be contracted into the program by December 15. This premium is 10 cents per bushel.
2004-2005 MARKETING PROGRAMS
TOPFLIGHT GRAIN MARKETING POOL
By Denny Hill
Each year Topflight Grain offers to their patrons a Marketing Pool where they can commit a certain percentage of his or her grain production for the Topflight staff to market for them.
We had close to 2 million bushels in our 2004 Marketing Pool and our average price across the scale this fall was $2.45 on corn and $6.40 on soybeans, plus they were able to capture LDP on top of these prices.
For a producer to sign up, he or she just needs to determine how many bushels of corn or soybeans to enroll in the program, choose the pay dates you need to fit your cash flow requirements, read the marketing pool agreement thoroughly and sign-up.
Some of the features of the marketing pool concept:
1. The Topflight staff makes all marketing decisions.
2. The only charge is the service fees on options we purchase and this cost is part of the contract price.
3. Conservative risk management strategies will be used to accomplish pricing of the grain.
4. Participants will be provided an update on the pricing progress of the pool bushels as the year unfolds.
5. Margins and option premiums will be covered by Topflight Grain. Costs of the option premiums paid or earned will be charged or credited to the pool account.
We feel offering you this program gives the customer an alternative to his marketing plan by having full-time advisors working to make better marketing decisions for your operation, giving you more time to direct your attention to producing and expanding your operation.
The sign-up for the 2005 crop year will end on December 31, 2004, so if you are interested in this program please give me a call @ 1-800-955-2180 and I will be glad to answer any questions you might have or you can ask your local branch manager and he or she will be glad to help you.
By Derrick
Bruhn
The average price contract was a huge success this past year. The pricing started on Jan 8th and ended on May 29th. At the end of the pricing period there was an average price of $2.775 for fall delivery. This program prices corn during the historical contract highs. We will be signing up participants for the 2005 crop year in December. We need everyone interested in the program to sign up by December 31,2004. The first pricing date will be Jan 6th. If you have any questions or are interested contact your local Topflight Grain location.
Northstar Marketing will present a marketing plan, in the Monticello office, on January 11, 2005 at 11:00. This marketing program combines three different market approaches: 1) daily average, 2) Relative strength index, and 3) market advisor, Al Kluiss.
The program has several benefits, including improvement of pricing opportunity, improvement in price-risk management, diversified marketing plan, 24 hour access to your account, and documented pricing performance to share with lenders.
If you’re interested in this plan, please plan to attend the meeting in Monticello on Janary 11.
**Commodity trading is risky and Topflight Grain Cooperative assumes no
liability for the use of any information contained herein. Past financial results are not necessarily
indicative of future performance. Neither the information, nor any opinion
expressed, constitutes a solicitation to buy or sell futures or options on
futures contracts, or OTC products. All
rights reserved. If you wish to not
receive this e-mail then reply to sender or contact you local Topflight office.
We would appreciate any help you can give us in locating an address, or any kind of information for these stockholders. Some of the people have moved, and we don’t have a forwarding address. Some of the accounts are estates, now, without a trustee’s address. If you can help us with addresses for any of these stockholder accounts, please contact your local Topflight office. Most of these are stockholder accounts, with voting rights and monetary value.
From
the Bement area:
Maxwell
Trust Ray
Christison Noel Jamison
Hettinger
Farms Shirley
Anderson R Wayne Baker Est
Frank Coussens John Maxwell Tr Marvel Moore
From
the Cisco area: Amy Prochnow
From
the Emery area: D J Edwards Daisy Likins Est
From
the LaPlace area: C C Hull Barbara Jean
Staggs
From
the Maroa area:
Rebecca
Lynn Vickers W C Fenton Gary McConnell II
Harold
V Johnson Roland R
Birt Ruth Cunningham Est
Keith
Dial Don
Hiter GW & ME
Gallagher Tr
Roger
Ferguson Shirley
Isaac Ronald Oakley
Lewis
Mitchell Wayne
Westerman Orville Babcock
W R
Stoutenborough TTEE Sally Ann
Schnobrich Patterson Farm Partnership
Floyd
Birt Frank
Neovalls Forrest Wikoff
Hazel
Stine Reed Janet L
Ellis Beatrice Shull Tr
E F
Heinz Marily
Ousley William A Jones
Ann
Gray James-Maroa-Stoutenborough-Waller
W R
Martin Doane
Ag Service Robert Prevedall
T G
Bolen Sr Chilles
Lakin Helen Hughes
Mary
Stoutenborough Jesse
Campbell Velma Beccue
Charles
Carney Dudley
Trust William P
Montgomery
Eva
Fancher Esther
Waller Waller/Geo Farm
Otis
Weaver A G
Webber III Mrs Ralph Widick
Whelan
Farms Mildred
Davidson J T Liming Est
Maxine
Michl Dorothy
Pumpelly
From
the Monticello area:
William
D Kirkland Marion
Rudisill Est Gerald Cox Est
Henrietta
Porterfield Kenneth
Musick Dean Rayburn
Raymond
Hearn Jeffrey
Lynn McCartney
David
Johnson Rick
Hickenbottom Jim Wagner
Seymour
Farm #638 Roberson
Farms Inc Don Reed
Elaine Raney Mike Feeney Miriam N Freeman
From
the Pierson area:
Robert
Henningsen Kenneth
Lowder Robert Lorenson
L
Robert Wolfe Delmer
Day John Livengood Jr
Franklin
Pickerell Anthony
Kleiss Irma Eskridge Est
Mrs
Jane Harshbarger Sylvanus
Yoder Woodbury Farm
Maude
Wierman Est Helen
Thompson Don Blacker
Kent
Brown Eli
Chupp Daniel Connor
Marjorie
Eads Est Malone
Farms Catherine Reedy
Elizabeth
Read
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
In observance of the Holiday season, the Topflight Grain offices will be closed Friday, December 24 and Friday, December 31.
Grain records and accounting will close out at noon on
Thursday, December 30. If you
have any grain transactions for the 2004 calendar year, such as grain to sell,
or drying and storage to pre-pay, please do so before noon on December 30.
HARVEST LUNCH
One day, during the busy harvest season, the Topflight facilities served lunch to their customers. It was a fun day, and good to visit with the ones who had time to stop for a few minutes.
Vanessa
would like to thank Ed Cain, Ryan Cain, Shelby Cain, Lisa Jinks, and Gretchen
Stinson for serving the lunch to the farmers this fall and taking time out of
your lives to serve others.
Also, at LaPlace, the Richland Surgery
Tech class served lunch one Saturday.
Mary Donovan, is the teacher of that class, and organized the delicious
lunch.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE HOLIDAY
FOOD?
Our roving reporter (Vanessa Stinson) queried some of the Topflight staff about their favorite holiday foods:
Mark Albert Grandma’s Green Salad
Russel Wright Christmas Cookies
Mikki Burns Pecan Pie
Rodd Runyen Egg nog
Sandy Davenport My mom’s oyster dressing
Charles Bliss Everything
Sherryl Young Pumpkin Pie
Gary Liggett Fried ham
Aaron Hill All of it, and lots of it
Jason Geppert Turkey and dressing
Doug Adloff White chocolate covered pretzel sticks
Eric Clements Pumpkin pie
Pam Jarboe Desserts (Do I have to name just one?)
Scott Docherty Pecan Pie
Bill Dirks Oyster dressing
Lindy Powers My mom’s baked pork shops
Rick Chestnut Ham and cherry junk
Gloria Litwiller I like it all
Vanessa Stinson My mom’s baked sweet potatoes
Jill Kuykendall Mashed potatoes
Michael Burton All of it
Jack Warren Candied ham
Roger Burton Turkey
Jeff Stout Duck
Henry Lust You choose one
Russ Durham Turkey salad sandwiches
Brock Casteel Pineapple glazed ham, plum pudding, homemade hot cider
Answers to “Have fun with this”:
AND THE WINNER IS . . . .
Mike Rose was the August winner of the Topflight Grain Trivia contest. The September winner was Jack Laley, and the October winner was Jim Payne.
Each Friday, a new Trivia question is posted on Topflight Grain’s website. Each month, a winner is drawn from all the correct answers. The winner receives a very famous Topflight Grain T-shirt.
We’ve had fun with the contest. We hope you have some fun, too.
STILL A BARGAIN
Farm pickup is still 2 cents a bushel. If you have farm stored grain, Topflight Grain will arrange for delivery to the nearest Topflight facility for just 2 cents per bushel. Just call your local Topflight office to schedule this service, designed “to make your life easier”.
HOLDING THE LINE
By
Richard Thomas
This fall an interesting thing happened when everyone realized there was going to be a demand for storage space. Some of our competitors saw an opportunity to raise their storage rates. If you noticed, Topflight Grain held the line and sold grain (at a wide basis), rented storage space from farmers, and put more grain on the ground than planned. If you remember, they talked about the storage problem on T.V. and several articles were written in the newspapers about grain companies taking advantage of the farmer.
Ever wonder what storage and drying rates would be if you didn’t have your local cooperative to keep things competitive? I wonder what things would be like today if back in 1903 those seven farmers hadn’t gotten together and formed your local cooperatives? We may not have the best price all the time and we may not post the cheapest drying and storage rates, but we are competitive.
The manager recommends to the full board, for their approval, the storage and drying rates for a given year before harvest begins. Then the board and management discuss the pros and cons of the recommendation. You have heard many times how a board member has to take off his farmer’s hat and put on his business hat to make these tough decisions. Sometimes the choice is very difficult because of circumstances beyond their control. This year, for instance, drying rates were raised because of the increase in natural gas prices. As it turned out, the corn came in so dry it made no significant difference to the farmer or the elevator anyway. The corn storage rate was NOT increased and remained the same as the year before. Making decisions like this by a board is both advantageous and disadvantageous. But at least you don’t have some corporate individual sitting in some remote office, far-away from the area making these policy decisions. We are proud of the fact that we didn’t raise our storage rate even though the opportunity was there to do it.
By
Jill Kuykendall
The weekend of September 17th, 18th, and 19th was Maroa’s 150th birthday celebration. The weather was beautiful and harvest was just beginning, so most everyone could join in the festivities. There was something for everyone---the parade, all kinds of music, food, birthday cake, the carnival, crafts, displays in the old grade school, a style show, the church service, the cemetery walk, trolley rides around town, a car show and tractor show, fireworks and more.
Edna Rogers and Ernestine Crabtree were chosen Sesquicentennial Queens and Stanton Malone and Harold Crosno were chosen as Kings. Also, Stanton and his wife Faye, were honored for being the longest married couple—63 years.
There were visitors from 29 states attending and also some from the countries of England, Cuba and Nova Scotia. A big thank-you goes to the festival committee and all who worked to make this weekend a very special one, here at Maroa.
Jack Laley sent us a picture of an alligator captured at a Bunge elevator near St. Joseph, LA. The alligator was 13 feet long, and weight 700 pounds.
Jack told us we might like to add “the lack of alligators” to the list of “good things about central Illinois”.
WHAT A GREAT DECISION
By
Richard Thomas
The new storage at Cisco and the upgrade to the receiving capacity at Cisco and Monticello couldn’t have come at a better time. Getting railroad cars delivered to Cisco on time was a big problem this year. Even after building the 682,000-bushel storage bin we had to ship out over 10 trains of corn. The bigger receiving legs at Cisco and Monticello helped move the trucks through much faster and with this large crop it really was appreciated by our customers.
One of the other benefits of making the decision was the fact that we got it all contracted before the price of steel went up. To do the same project this year would cost 60% more. So that means the decision to build last year was worth $900,000. Almost enough to put up another bin this year.
The average futures price of corn and beans, from January 2, 2004, to October 29, 2004, was $2.6525 and $6.55. Estimating a 20 cent basis, the average cash price since the first of the year, through the end of October was $2.45 for corn and $6.35 for beans.
THOSE WOMEN FROM ILLINOIS!!
Three men were sitting together bragging about
how they had given duties to their new wives.
The first man had married a woman from Iowa
and bragged that he had told his wife she was going to do all the dishes
and house cleaning that needed done at their house. He said that it took a couple days but on the third day he came home to a clean house and the dishes were
all washed and put away.
The second man had married a woman from
Indiana. He bragged that he had given
his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the
cooking. He told them that the first
day he didn't see any results, but the next day it was better. By the third day, his house was clean, the
dishes were done, and he had a huge dinner on the table.
The third man had married an Illinois
girl. He boasted that he told her that
her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry
washed, and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he
didn't see anything, but by the third day most of the swelling had gone down
and he could see a little out of his left eye...enough to fix himself a bite to
eat, load the dishwasher, and telephone a landscaper.
Ahhhh yes...you've got to love those girls
from Illinois!
PRODUCER REPORTS
We think it’s working now.
As harvest began, we planned to have a new Internet based program in place that would allow producers to view their grain information through the worldwide web. It looked great, it was simple to use, and it would easily interface with our Agris accounting system. It just didn’t work that easily.
After many conversations, emails and verifications, we think the program is working now. With the producer report package, once a producer has registered, and had the accounts set up, this information is available at any time from the comfort of your office chair.
The opening page shows current grain balances. Another link shows open contracts, and another link shows scale tickets by the dates selected by the user. Columns can be sorted by commodity, date, or price. Totals of open contracts and scale tickets as delivered by farm are shown at the bottom of the page.
This program was chosen because it appeared to be easy to use, for quick, basic information. If you are not signed up, you can register by logging onto http://www.topflightgrain.com/; choosing the bids and market comments link; then login; then register for free. Once you have registered, your information will be available, following the 8:00 pm update of the information. If you have problems, or questions, please call the Bement office.
ISO 9000
By
Larry Stapleton, PhD, Millikin University
Two and a half years ago Dick Thomas, Pam Jarboe, Paul Mariman ( U of I Extension), Dr. Charles Smith (Millikin University) and I began discussing the benefits and methods to implement a new quality management system called ISO 9000. The purpose of this discussion was part of Dick’s vision to make Topflight Grain the most responsive and innovative cooperative in the Midwest.
ISO 9000 is a quality management system that focuses on Customer Satisfaction through the continuous improvement of processes, products and services. The origins of ISO 9000 stem from the formation of the European Union. The EU needed a standard by which all companies within each member country could measure quality. ISO 9000 does not guarantee quality but provides the framework upon which a company can provide a quality product or service. ISO 9000 is widely used in Europe and with large U.S. manufacturers. Most small U.S companies use ISO 9000 because their larger customers require it to bid on a contract. Many small companies have discovered that ISO 9000 can provide the internal benefit of cost reduction, improved communication and a better understanding of internal processes. These benefits are the result of ISO 9000 requirement for continuous improvement.
Topflight Grain has made significant strides in implementing ISO 9000. The use of ISO 9000 has resulted in improved business metrics, goal setting & planning, documentation of procedures, and a better understanding of the company as a whole. These improvements are the result of a lot of hard work from a dedicated group. This group has representatives from Topflight Grain, University of Illinois Extension and Millikin University. I must say that it has been my privilege to work with this group. The success of this group will soon be determined as the ISO registration audit is scheduled for the 20 – 21 of December. This registration audit will review Topflight Grain’s quality manual, procedures and records. In preparation for the registration audit, Topflight Grain is performing ongoing internal audits and completed a pre-registration audit in August. A successful completion of the registration audit requires a total team effort by all Topflight Grain employees.
It is important to remember that ISO 9000 registration is only one step towards meeting Topflight Grain’s vision. It is said that the one true constant in business is Change. Change is necessary to satisfy our customer’s current and future needs. Change is necessary to remain competitive in the industry. But, Change must be part of a well thought out strategy to be beneficial. Also, Change, to be effective, must be clear as to why it is being implemented and supported by all those who are impacted by this change. I believe that Topflight Grain’s vision for the future provides the path for effective change. Also, the folks at Topflight Grain have the ability to make the changes resulting from ISO 9000 a success.
EVERYONE
HAS A STORY TO TELL
By
Richard Thomas
I only knew him by Red Ryder, but he made a decision that had a great influence on the future of our company. Back in 1995, we needed to close a street in LaPlace to make room for future expansion at that facility. The first thing I did was assess the effect closing the street would have on the townspeople, because the railroad runs through the middle of town. There were three crossings about a block and a half apart and we needed to close the middle crossing to make our plan work. Therefore it would have little effect on the townspeople other than some would have to go about a block farther to cross the tracks. The first thing I did was contact the B&O railroad to see if they had any problem with us asking to have the crossing closed. Their reaction was to close all three of them but I knew that wasn’t realistic. The railroad said they would even help me go to the commerce commission to get the approval. The next step was to see who had authority over authorizing the street to be vacated once the crossing was closed. I found out that LaPlace was an unincorporated town and fell under the jurisdiction of the township road commission. I knew the road commissioner’s name was Red Ryder and that we let him store rock on some of our land at Milmine. I also knew they called him “Red” for the color of his hair and, of course, you never saw a redhead that didn’t have a mind of their own. I also knew his second office was at the American Legion in Cerro Gordo where he finished each day off after work. I also knew he was elected by the people in the township as well as the townspeople in Cerro Gordo and LaPlace. I also knew he had a great rapport with some of the area farmers.
I got the crossing closed through the ICC and was getting along real well on the rest of the project until a notice had to be put in the local paper about going before the zoning board of appeals in regards to vacating the street. By this time word had got out that the crossing was going to be closed. A group of LaPlace citizens formed a committee to oppose the street closing. I met with the chairman of the committee on several occasions and there seemed to be no way we could reach a compromise.
So on January 31, 1995, all interested parties met at the LaPlace Community Center for a public meeting to hear reasons for or against the vacating of the street. Both sides were to plead their case and then Mr. Ryder was to make the final decision. I had asked about 30 farmers to attend the meeting and there were at least another 30 townspeople in the room as well. I gave my reasons for the closing of the street and the spokesperson for the LaPlace people made his plea. All eyes turned to Red Ryder and he said with a firm voice I AM CLOSING THE STREET! Then headed for the door and said, “I’m leaving for Florida with friends”. The township attorney looked shocked and said, “Well, I guess the meeting is over”.
That decision made it possible for us to expand at LaPlace to the point where we take in more grain there than we do at Bement. Red passed away a couple of years ago and I found out his real name was Richard Ryder. With a first name like that no wonder he was a special person.
It’s back to school again, for the Topflight staff, as they meet with the 2nd grade classes from Bement. This year began with a tour of Topflight, for our adopted class. Mrs. Hammond’s and Mrs. Water’s classes walked to Topflight Grain on September 17. They were introduced to the employees in the office and the elevator. Scott and Pam told them a little about agriculture and about the cooperative form of ownership. The students asked many good questions, too, as we visited with them.
Outside, in the elevator, Jim showed them the tools he uses to monitor grain condition, and the pit and leg that moved the grain to the proper bins.
On the scales, the probe was used to vacuum in a sample of grain, and the class was weighed, and a ticket was sent through the ticket return.
Of course, no tour would be complete without a bowl of popcorn. The students finished the tour with the popular treat.
On November 5, we were Champaign-bound, to visit the Land of Oz at Curtis Orchard. Dorothy, the scarecrow, tin man, lion and Toto welcome everyone to Curtis Orchard, and Randy was our tour guide for the day.
Randy talked about all of the apple trees and pumpkins grown at the orchard, and how honeybees are necessary to pollinate the blossoms. He explained that a bee colony has three types of bees, the queen bee, the worker bee and the drone. To collect honey from the beehive, Randy showed the protective clothing worn by the beekeeper, and how the capped honeycomb appears when the bees have completed their work.
Back in the “sorting room”, the class assisted Randy in grading the apples. The “A” apples were sold in the store. The “C” apples were used for cider, and the “F” apples were used for fertilizer.
Randy then served their delicious apple donuts and apple cider, and sent a sack of apples home for the students. There was still some time left to run in the play yard, jumping in the hay mow, running through the maze, petting the kittens, and watching the pony, goats and chickens.
The afternoon of fun had to end, but we learned a lot at the Orchard, and had a lot of fun.
Scott and Pam, and Bement area business community members, were guests of the Bement High School Tech Prep program on November 12. During the continental breakfast, Kathy Flood introduced and described the new Work Ethics program that has been added to the Tech Prep curriculum. She introduced other leaders in the program, and the students who are participating in the class. Part of the lessons was developed by asking business managers what characteristics they prefer when they hire new employees. That question was also asked of all the guests at the meeting. Kathy provided the answers of Attendance, Character, Teamwork, Appearance, Attitude, Productivity, Organization, Communication, Cooperation, and Respect.
The Bement Tech Program is a state honored program that encourages students to pursue training and skills in their field of interest. Through this program, several high school students have interned at Topflight Grain, and other local businesses.
ACROSS THE FAMILY LINES
Eric’s mother, Sally Brown, walked across the Cardinal fan line, when she brought a Cub-attired goose to Rodd. The Cub-Card rivalry was strong in the Bement office all summer, especially between Eric and Rodd. Sally tried to make peace with both sides when she presented Rodd with his yard decoration proudly dressed for the Cubs.
ACROSS THE OCEAN
From across the ocean this fall, Rasmus and Thomas visited Bement during the harvest season. Rasmus and Thomas are from Denmark, friends of Gita, the exchange student who stayed with the Thomas family in 1978. The two young men had contacted Dick and Bonnie, hoping to learn more about US agriculture and rural life.
Of course, we gave them a tour of the elevator. Then, Dick took them to see the harvest process on the Roger Hendrix farm. Roger, Diane and Kyle were harvesting, as Betty and Warren delivered lunch to the field. It was a wonderful scene in American agriculture.
The young men also enjoyed lunch at the local restaurants, and attended church in Bement.
When you pull onto the scales at harvest, it is so helpful if the farm name, or the farm code is displayed for the scale attendant to see. The sign can be in the truck window, on the door, or on the truck bed – anywhere that it is visible from the office. It’s also helpful to show the sign as you weigh back empty, as another confirmation. This helps so much. Then, when you receive your ticket, please verify all of the information. If anything is wrong, please ask the office to correct it immediately.
Many of you do an excellent job of displaying this information. If you need some ideas, please ask us.
Please join Topflight Grain, and your friends and neighbors at our Holiday Open Houses:
December 15 Atwood
December 15 Pierson
December 16 Bement
December 16 Milmine
December
17 LaPlace
December 17 Emery
December 17 Maroa
December 17 Cisco
December 22 Monticello
December 22 Seymour
All open houses will be from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm. A variety of holiday foods will be served. Stop in and enjoy the season!