I SURVIVED THE FALL OF 2009

                By Scott Docherty

 

Denise and I had the opportunity to travel to the islands of Hawaii in March, and everywhere we went I saw tee shirts that read “I survived the tsunami of 2010”. When I kept seeing these tee shirts,  I thought to myself, as soon as we get home I need to market for the grain industry a “ I survived the harvest  of 2009” t-shirt.  You have to be a seasoned farmer to remember the fall of 1967. Many have told me that was a year in which they could remember harvesting corn in December and January. When you reminisce about past crop years, 2009 will be talked about for many years! Topflight records rainfall at each of its locations through each growing season, and we had a couple of locations at a record 58-59 inches of rainfall for the 2009 crop year! We had one week this past summer with temperatures reaching 90 degrees, and then fall of 2009 more record rainfall.  The crop yields turned out to be very good for most growers but that meant grain dryers were not shut down except in between rain events when we ran out of wet corn. Topflight Grain pushed our dryer temperatures to the maximum trying to get as many bushels through our dryers as possible. The average moisture for our corn receipts was 21% moisture versus 17.5% for the past 5 years. Again, adding to the number of hours running dryers and purchasing of natural gas.  We dumped over 26.5 million bushels of corn for fall of 2009, another new record for Topflight Grain! We are still drying corn coming off the farm at 19% and as of this writing we are still receiving corn coming from the field!! It seems as though fall has run right into spring planting  and we realize if we see average planting dates we are only 5 ½ months from another harvest.

 The Topflight Grain Emery project was late getting started, but we were able to finish and use the new pit, leg and 105 ft diameter GSI tank before harvest ended. This new addition should greatly improve dump times and relieve some pressure off the Maroa facility also. We are currently working towards our new building project at our Milmine location. When this project is complete it should help relieve pressure off of Laplace, Pierson, and Bement.  We are planning producer focus meetings for post planting season to discuss the status of Topflight Grain, some of our thoughts, and long term building plans.  Another item on the producer meeting agenda will be the issuing of 1099’s for payments made by Topflight Grain to its patrons.  Make sure you look for the post cards with dates and times forth coming!

I attended a meeting where one of our local forecasters talked about this spring having normal moisture and temps. He also described how the national weather service is using a new term called EC, which means Equal Chances. So we are supposed to have EC for normal temps and moisture allowing you to get your crop planted in a more normal window than last year. I do know that there are a lot of flex acres available for switching from corn to soybeans if it does turn off wet. There is also a lot of nitrogen to get applied this spring so everyone needs to have a more normal spring planting season.

Denise and I are left with one child at home with our youngest (Annie) a freshman in high school. Annie is playing soccer and dressing varsity. Dillon is a freshman at Monmouth College and is adapting very well as he is studying communications and has joined a fraternity. Serge changed jobs last fall and is currently working at the new Jumers Hotel and Casino in Rock Island, IL.  Serge has moved into the old family farm house that Denise and I had lived in for the first years of our marriage in Reynolds, IL.  Everyone is doing well as Denise and I are looking forward to warmer weather and enjoying our screened in porch and firing up the grill! Have a safe planting season and a great summer.

 

HARVEST 2009

                By Vanessa Stinson

 

The harvest of 2009 is one that many of us would like to close the books on, but it will never quit. There were still a few of you harvesting corn in March. Remarkably the corn was still in pretty good condition with a moisture around 19 %.

I guess Mother Nature thought we needed to have 2 wet years in a row.  The dryers ran 24 -7 for many days until the cold weather hit and then Mother Ameren shut us down. The lines were long and the days were short but all in all we got through it. With that being said, your Laplace facility came up short on corn projections. Some of the grain went to other Topflight facilities and a small amount went to the competitors. We took in 3.365 mil bushels of corn and 599,000 bushels of beans.

I would like to say a big thank you to all of our part time help. In the office we had Nick Bryson, Renee Beebe, Courtney Wildman, Gretchen Stinson, and Mary Richardson. The outside crew consisted of Kevin Cain, Chris Icenogle, John Binder, Edward Smith, Anthony Harrison, and Ryan Cain . You all did a great job and we could not have gotten through it without your dedication.

Our family is getting ready for our daughter Nicolle’s wedding in June. She is marrying her high school sweetheart and we are all very excited about this. We hope that your summer is a great one.

 

TIME IS MARCHING ON!

            By Sandy Davenport

 

Time is marching on!  Seems like it wasn’t but a year or so ago that I was trying to think of what to write in my first newsletter for the High Flyer (actually it is going on 7 years now).  Now, I am trying to decide on what to write for my last newsletter.  As many of you know, as of June 1, I am retiring.  I know . . . . . retirement is for “Old” people, but I am doing it anyway!!

     The 2009 harvest was my 29^th harvest and there sure weren’t many that were alike.  I think 2009 took the prize!  Not much was normal with this harvest.  I kept telling Haley (my replacement) “This is Not Normal” on so many things that happened.  Hopefully, next year she will have a more normal harvest. 

      It won’t be long until the planters are heading towards the field.  I usually dread seeing  this  because I know that harvest will be right around the corner.  Things I won’t miss at harvest will be getting to work between 6:00 and 6:30 (I think an alarm clock in the Davenport household will be a thing of the past), trying to keep the inbound and outbound trucks moving, trying to decide what time to “shut the inbound trucks off” when Charlie tells me how many feet of space we have left, and if and when we can run the driers.  I think harvest time just might become my favorite time of the year, now that I will be able to get out and see it from a different perspective.

     Now that I have done some complaining, I will share the positives of my job.  First of all, I have developed some long-term friendships.  I have known some of my customers from the Waller days and I have made a lot of new friends since coming to Emery.  Customers and I have had some “deep” conversations and then we have had other conversations that made us laugh really hard.  No matter how busy I would be, I always welcomed visits from my customers.  Everyone could tell if I was really busy and they would stay in the front office and have their conversations.  I could usually still listen to their conversations and concentrate on my work.  I LEARNED A LOT!  I will miss the people part of my job.

     I really wish that I could have had a “bug” in the other Topflight offices when I first came to Emery.  I can imagine what everyone was saying about that new lady at Emery. . . .  SHE HAS NO COMPUTER SKILLS!  I didn’t know that computers could be used for work purposes. I thought you could only play solitaire and FreeCell on one.  And Farm Codes?  What the heck is a FARM CODE?  Where I came from, we did all the important record keeping with pencil and paper.  I don’t care who I would call (and I called them all) they would go overboard to help me, but I always thought that I could hear some snickering going on in the background and them saying to someone else, “Guess what she did now or how did she do that?????”  Anyway, everyone has treated me so well and I will forever remember these friendships, even the one co-worker that calls me the older gray haired lady and says that he thought he was going to have to get the Bobcat to get me into the cab of the pickup!  And then there is Chuck.  At least he doesn’t have to put up with all the computer problems with Haley (I think her previous job was with the Geek Squad) that he did with me.  He even had caller ID installed on his phone after I started working at Emery.  All of the “Topflight Girls” get along so well and I have enjoyed getting to know each and every one of them.  And then there is Sharon Brown. I never had to worry about the office when I was gone because I knew that Sharon had things under control.  Topflight is very lucky to have her to call upon.

I think I could go on and on, but I will spare you.  I am certainly looking forward to my retirement.  I plan on doing yard work, going to grandsons’ ballgames and maybe throw in a little traveling.  Cooking is still not in my plans!

 

ATWOOD HAPPENINGS

 by Russel Wright

 

After reviewing what I wrote in the last High Flyer newsletter, I said that harvest was just a few weeks away. Little did we know that those few weeks would turn into several months, a lot more than normal? With all the wet corn coming in, there were a lot of days this location had to close early so we could dry up and be ready for business the next day. This year the corn trucks were lined up from the scales all the way to main street Atwood. There were a few mornings when I came to work and saw all these trucks lined up, and I wondered if we could get them all dumped before we had to shut down for the day. Bill and his crew of Roger Benner, Kim Benner, Dominic Fisher, Steve Rodgers and night dryer man Tim Drake did a wonderful job of dumping all this grain and moving some corn to other bins, mostly after closing and at night. After repairing the dryer last summer, the old dryer held together and did a good job of drying corn.  I had good help at the scales this year, thanks to Christy Taylor-Rahn, and Susan Harshbarger for getting these trucks, tractors and wagons weighed, sampled and graded in a very timely manner. The Atwood location did meet and exceed the predicted grain receipts for 2009. We were 123% on beans and 103% on corn predictions. A great big THANK YOU for all of your business.

Now after harvest comes the second harvest for this crop year. We received more corn and beans that have been stored on the farm during the winter months. There have been no quality issues so far, as a few customers dusted off their bin dryers and dried their own corn.  In January, Bill slipped on the ice and snow and was injured. He is recuperating at home and hopefully will be back to work in the near future. In his place Brad Dehart has filled in for him. Brad worked at Pierson this past fall. So, it didn’t take him long to learn how the Atwood elevators run. 

On the lighter side, many thanks to everyone that sent cards and came by the office to wish me a Happy 60^th birthday. I sure was surprised at all the nice cards of encouragement and some really fun “gifts” to make this occasion a little brighter. Now I can’t wait till the 70^th.

Spring is almost here, flowers are up, birds are chirping, earthworms are emerging from the frozen ground; this must mean that planting season is just around the corner.  Sure enough some field work has begun as of this writing. With the spring and summer months ahead, Debby and I look forward to watching all the grandkids play ball, either baseball, softball, or T-ball.  We also are planning on a trip to the Washington D.C. area in August.

Everyone have a safe and wonderful spring and summer, and again thank you for your continuing business and support of Topflight Grain.

 

FULL AT MILMINE

                By Terry Kuhn

 

The elevator was ready to handle the late, drawn out harvest.  Rick Chestnut had a crew prepared to handle the pits, load trucks, clean up any messes, run the drier all night, etc.  Becki Brittenham was an incredible asset in the office.  With her experience she could keep up the pace and handle the pressure.  Ben Kitchens from Cerro Gordo High School spent a little time at the scales also.  Our major hold-up was the wet corn…which was a problem about everywhere.  It’s late March and we are full of corn at Milmine.  We still have one million plus bushels of corn in the pile, well covered by the tarp, and practically all of the steel and concrete bins are full.  We will be loading trains and transferring the pile mostly to Bement.  Our bean flat is still full and Shacks still has over a million bushels of corn.  The inventory is still in good condition everywhere and should ship out with no trouble when the time comes.  There is still some corn in the field in surprisingly good condition (from a load that I’ve seen).  Everyone with corn in the bins should keep a close eye on condition.  As you know, this weather can cause major damage in a short time.

Rick is temporarily out due to a mid-March knee surgery and Paul Peeler is doing an impressive job keeping everything flowing outside. He has been handling wet corn, dry corn, beans, transferring, running the drier, keeping everything clean and painting the elevator control rooms when he has time.  Rick is still helping from his house by radio, phone or an occasional walk to the office or the elevator’s North room.  He will be a consultant on a train being loaded this week.

The Kuhn family is getting settled into our new house and enjoying it.  Our boys have been growing too fast.  They have plenty of yard to play in and they will be helping me with a garden when the time comes.  I’m sure they’ll have a great time…for the first fifteen minutes.  Susan is teaching Special Ed kids in Decatur and enjoying their progress. 

I’d like to wish Happy (March) Birthday to three WW II vets that come in regularly:  Henry Woodyard, Warren Taylor and Dick Skagenberg.  Thanks for your dedication guys!

Everyone have a safe and happy summer.

 

WINTER PROJECTS

                By Eric Clements

 

The harvest last year was a long drawn out ordeal.  This did allow us the extra time we needed to complete the Emery dump pit, leg and bin project.  The new leg performed very well for us.  The new road leading to the pit will require more work once the ground dries up.  The late harvest did cause us to lose two months of maintenance and shipping before harvest next year.  But this work always seems to get finished.

            The maintenance crew is working on various drag conveyor projects lately.  They just completed their list of repairs that will require a crane.  There will be spouts to turn and holes in leg bonnets to patch.  Roger is also working on a used trackmobile that we purchased this winter.  Roger and Pat had to completely rework and reweld the coupler system.  This will give us six railcar movers.  We have been loading railcars out of Cisco, Bement, Monticello, Milmine and Seymour this winter.  This extra machine will come in handy.

             The elevator operators have been busy this winter and early spring with shipments, drying corn and dealing with high FM’s on outbound corn shipments.  We have to dump off railcars and trucks that have too high of a FM content and try to rescreen or reblend before reloading.  The wetter than normal corn moistures at harvest and the extra handling have broken the corn kernels the last two years.  The soybeans have looked better this year than the last several.  We have taken very few discounts for soybean FM this year than compared to the last several years.

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

 

ROADY

                By Rodd Runyen

 

Our son Bailey has been asking Tera and me about getting a dog. The thought of getting a dog has not been at the top of my priority list - with all of the activities my kids are involved in, and the remodeling we are trying to accomplish on our house being more important to me. But Bailey can be convincing, and Mom was breaking down. She didn’t want to be the one to come between her son and a dog. So Tera and Bailey started looking for Beagles through different ads. He had his mind set on a Beagle and they were planning on finding him one for his 15^th birthday. But three days before his birthday, everything changed.

Our oldest daughter Sara and her best friend Lindsey McMillen were driving down County Line Road outside Cerro Gordo when they came across a dead cat in the road. A puppy and another cat were lying next to it. The dead cat had been hit by a car, and the other two animals were staying with their friend. Sara and Lindsey got the two into the vehicle and went to Lindsey’s home. Lindsey recognized the puppy as one coming from her dog’s last litter. Her dad called around, and sure enough, one of the owners admitted to dumping the animals. Sara immediately volunteered our family to adopt the dumped 4 month old little guy. Our family has now grown by one!

So we are now the owners of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever. And since he was found on the side of the road, Sara named him Roady. Sara and Autumn were quick to get attached to Roady, but Bailey was a little put off at first. He knew his chances of getting a Beagle were now gone. But of course, Bailey warmed up to Roady. It’s hard to ignore him because he is a retriever. So he is always bringing you something to throw for him to retrieve. He never stops! He is a retrieving machine!! And now he is more attached to Bailey than he is to Sara! But he is now part of the family, and has made himself feel right at home. We have taught him to sit and shake, and are working on lay and walking on a leash. As for now, he tries to bite the leash and flops over on his side. You almost resort to dragging him. Once he gets used to it, he will enjoy going on walks. And although we were “guaranteed” by Sara and Lindsey that he wouldn’t get “very big” (he was skin and bones when we got him), he has grown considerably! I have seen his parents. I knew he wouldn’t stay little, so they weren’t getting one over on me!

So it goes to show, that when you have something in life planned, those plans can change very quickly. In our case, we got a dog that had been dumped on the side of the road instead of buying one from a breeder. And I am glad it turned out that way; for our Roady has turned out to be a very good addition to our family.

Updates on our kids: Sara is working 2 jobs to repay college loans and pay for her car. She is then planning on returning to school to get her degree. Bailey is a freshman at Cerro Gordo High School and is playing and starting on the varsity baseball team this spring. He lettered in football last fall and is excited about being on the CGHS bass fishing team and playing another summer on his Miller All-Stars travel baseball team. Autumn is finishing up her 6^th grade year and is get ready to play softball this summer. She is excited that she will be playing sports through the school when she enters 7^th grade this fall. Our children continue to keep our lives very busy, so we have very little down time. We are planning to take a vacation to the East coast this summer and our yearly canoe trip on the Black River in Missouri. I hope everyone has a safe spring and a great summer!

 

2009 HARVEST

                By Gloria Litwiller

 

     I had an appendicitis attack on November 30^th and had to have an emergency appendectomy. That was right in the middle of harvest for Pierson. I was in the hospital for three days and then off several others. Five days of taking pain meds every 4 hours down to two a day and then one, I believe caused a couple of sleepless nights. I’m writing this article at 3:00am on my second night of sleeplessness. I’m sitting here thinking of my elevator and wondering how they are getting along without me and are the farmers getting along without me. That’s when I realized that harvest is a team effort.

     When I talked to Brock earlier in the day about how things were going he said ‘”We’ve had a few hiccups, but we’ve gotten through them”. It is a team effort that gets us through harvest each year. Once in a while we have a foul (hiccups), but we correct it and go on.  As everyone knows, this was an extra unordinary harvest, so it took an extra unordinary team. The weather, longer lines, slower dumping and shutting down for wet corn was a real challenge this year at the elevators. It took a team that was willing to put in a lot of extra hours and effort. The elevator team starts the play when the farmer’s grain is sitting in line waiting to get to the scales. I could list each team member’s responsibilities, but this would take several pages. Each employee has their responsibilities and that is what makes up a team. I would like to THANK my team members for a job well done while I was laid up….. Brock, Willard, Stacey, Randy and part timers Kelly Curry, Brad Dehart, Tim Conlin, Dustin Parrish, Jessie Wood and Steve “Jake”’ Jacobs. Actually, not just thank you for when I was laid up, but through the whole harvest season. Also, I would like to THANK the farmers for their patience and understanding during this harvest season. For everything that was against this harvest, I believe things went really well.

     Now on the home front…..the winter went well. Grandson, Michael, played 5^th grade basketball and Andrew started pre-school this year. Hilary is in her junior year at SIU. She worked on the college TV station as a reporter and a producer. She received an internship in Pennsylvania for the summer. She really wanted this internship, because it’s in a lot bigger market than anything around here. This is how TV stations are rated: Channel 3 news in Champaign is rated an 18 market, Chicago is rated a 40 market, and this one in Pennsylvania is rated an 80 market.

    HAVE A SAFE PLANTING SEASON!!!!

 

DIFFICULT HARVEST        

                By Adam Jackson

 

Another harvest is in the books, and by the time this newsletter goes out another planting season will hopefully be underway. This last harvest was definitely the longest and most challenging that I have been a part of. I actually spent a lot of my time last fall out in the parking lot directing traffic. With the combination of corn coming in so wet and a lot of guys having semis, we had a line just about every day.  We had some great part-time help this year, which is one of the keys to having harvest go smoothly. Thanks to everyone who helped!  At Monticello we started taking beans on October 19^th. Our last load of beans came in December 12^th. We took around 398,000 bushels of beans, and shipped out about 193,000 during harvest. We started taking corn on October 18^th and didn’t take our last load until late in December. We took a total of 2,764,599 bushels of corn, which is about a 20 percent increase over last year. In order to take that many bushels we had to ship 1,818,932 bushels, transfer 236,483 bushels out, and put about 250,000 bushels on the ground.

On a more personal note, Lindsay and I’s wedding plans are coming along pretty well. We have the major plans and decisions made, and just a few small things left to figure out. By the time you are reading this we will have about a month left before the big day. We got a practice run by going to a wedding in March in Maryland.  Lindsay’s cousin got married and she is one of our bridesmaids. It was a fun trip. We went to downtown Baltimore and saw some of the attractions while we were there. Lindsay has been doing some substitute teaching this past year. She just recently started working for the Pioneer research facility outside of Monticello.

Everyone have a safe planting season!

 

NEWS FROM MAROA

By Denny Hill

     As I look back at the Fall of 2009, we all knew it was going to be challenging from the start due to the late planting and the cool, wet summer, but no one could imagine it lasting into early Spring. When our crop tour took place in late  August, and most of the corn hadn’t reached the maturity line yet, we prepared ourselves for a long harvest.

     Offering half price drying the last 3 days of September got harvest underway with some of the corn that was planted in April. We took in around 100,000 bushels of 28% moisture corn during this period and were able to get most of it shipped to ADM. As October rolled on, harvest was slow; but whatever was brought in, we were able to move out. This allowed us to not have to fill our bunker at the binsite. We ended up taking about the same bushels as the year before, it just took twice as many days for delivery. Our two dryers held up fairly well under the constant flow of wet corn, with only minor repairs needed during the season. The end of harvest around here finally came about a week before Christmas.

     Dana Shull experienced her first harvest as a fulltime employee here in the Maroa office, and I’m sure she will always remember it as her career moves forward. She is excellent help in the office and along with Roger Lewis (our harvest help inside) we were able to meet the many challenges that we faced this year. Ronnie Miller, Gary Liggett, Andy Hunter, Kenny Ross and Nick Tombaugh headed up the outside crew and did a good job of handling all the wet corn and getting it run through the dryers. When we hire part-timers in the fall we usually tell them we will be using them till around the first part of November, but this year their services were needed right up till Christmas.

     Since the first of January, farmers have been hauling to the elevator their farm stored grain, as most was put in the bins with high moisture. Knowing that the corn wouldn’t keep into the spring and summer months, they elected to haul it in while the ground was frozen and pay the daily storage charge. Free DP was offered in late March, and since then, we have been getting the remaining corn and soybeans from the farm.

     Our daughter Jessica is finishing up her first year in the work force as the school year comes to an end at Argenta-Oreana. She really enjoyed her year there and was happy to hear she would be returning next fall with the school district.  Meghan is finishing up her Junior year in Kentucky and plans to work down there this summer before finishing her degree next year. Terri is looking forward to another summer of golf once school is out in May.

     In closing, I would like thank Sandy Davenport for her dedicated years of service and hard work she has put in at Emery and at Waller. She will definitely be missed by the employees and the many patrons she worked with daily. I hope Sandy and Jerry have many happy years of retirement!

 

QUALITY

                By Derrick Bruhn

 

The corn that was delivered this past harvest was poor in quality and will be a tough crop to handle.  We are a lot more fortunate than some areas that are dealing with vomitoxin and very low test weights.  Our crop was lighter than normal by a couple pounds, and had a fair amount of damage that came in from the field.  The damage did seem to get better as harvest progressed.  The largest quality factor we are dealing with, along with the rest of the industry, is FM (foreign material).  This was created by drying the crop at high temps and handling it multiple times.  Beans for the most part have been very good quality.  The majority of beans that were delivered in the fall had good moisture content which reduced the amount of breakage and damage during handling.

Spring is here and there is plenty to get done.  While the producers are trying to get a crop planted in a reasonable time period, we will be shipping grain and getting ready for the next harvest.  There is a lot of uncertainty in the markets right now, not knowing how many acres of corn and beans will get planted.  The USDA report estimated there would be 88.8 mil acres of corn planted and 78.1 mil acres of beans.  This would be an increase of 2.3 mil acres of corn and 1.6 mil acres of beans over last year.  Most of those acres came from wheat and cotton.  Using this kind of planted acres and trend line yields we should see corn production around 13.1 bil and bean production at 3.3 bil.  Usage for next year is estimated at 13.2bil of corn and 3.15 bil beans.  This should leave us with sufficient ending stocks on both corn and beans.  The rest is up to Mother Nature, as she will determine the ending result.

Well, for the first time since working for Topflight I took a complete week off of work.  Lynne and I took the girls to Walt Disney over spring break.  I term this as a trip, and not a vacation, because we ran from day until night each and everyday we were there.  Mabry had the time of her life getting to meet all of the princesses and Mylin learned how to survive multiple days without a nap.  We had a great time and made some memories that will be with us forever.  I think this is the only place you can go and they take all the money you have and you still come away smiling about it. 

Remember this spring to be careful and cautious with everything you do!  

 

THE LONGEST HARVEST YET!!

            By Mikki Burns

 

According to the farmers, the longest harvest they can remember was the harvest of 1967 and it ended on Valentine’s Day in 1968.  Well, the harvest of 2009 sure beat that.  Cisco started harvest on September 14, 2009 and finished March 24, 2010.  The harvest was certainly a challenge this year for everyone.  We had farmers in Cisco that had never been here before.  So many places had to close early because every kernel of corn had to be dried this year.  We took over 4,000,000 bushels of corn this past harvest…a record breaking amount!! Therefore, wet space would fill up and the dryers couldn’t keep up.  We did the best we could, but it was sure exasperating.  We want to thank all of our part-time help this year.  Thanks to Joyce Bennett, Jon Sago, Justin McCabe, David Mills, Richard Cafin, Anthony Dunn, and Kenneth Nelson.  We had excellent help this year…without them we couldn’t get through harvest like we do.    We ALL hope we don’t experience another one like this last one. 

We have received a lot of corn and beans off the farm already.  With the moistures as high as they were, everyone was afraid to keep the grain in their bins for too long.  It sure didn’t dry down much in the bins, so we have still been drying corn this winter and spring. 

Now it is time to start the process all over again.  We sure hope the weather will cooperate better than last year.  So far, we have plenty of moisture, but this week’s forecast looks pretty nice.  Of course, we need more than one week of dry weather, so let’s hope we get it. 

Cisco has plans to load one train a week from now until harvest.  It will take that for us to be ready.  Jack, Rick and Gary are busy every day.  They are moving grain, blending grain, loading and unloading grain.  It keeps them busy keeping grain in position and in good condition.  They all do a great job!!

The grandchildren are doing great!!  Cooper will soon turn two.  Then JD will be seven, Blaine will be eight, and Audrey seven, also.  The three oldest are doing great in school.  The boys have plans to play ball this summer.  Audrey is a ‘Daisy’ and has been selling Girl Scout Cookies. 

Have a safe planting season!!

 

SPRING HAS ARRIVED

            By Stason Kopps

 

                Spring has arrived once again.  After this cold winter, it is nice to have some warm weather.  This is a very busy time for many people.  The Topflight crew is busy as usual loading trains, moving grain, and doing repairs.

                Chris Frye has been moving grain and cleaning.  He is also drying corn which is unusual for this time of year.  Dan Greer has been working at Seymour.  Seymour is also drying corn.  Steve Schoonover has been working at Lodge.  Martin Guenther is now working on the Safety Committee repair list.  Rob Dick has been doing maintenance wherever needed.

                Spring is also a busy time of year at home.  The yard and garden take up a lot of time.  Also, Marsha and I have been working on adding on to the house.  Hopefully our sunroom with a hot tub will soon be a reality. 

                I hope everyone has a safe and productive planting season.

 

LONG HARVEST, WET SRPING, Déjà vu!

                By Jason Goodner

 

                Did we experience déjà vu?  Let’s see wet spring, wet summer, wet fall, and combining until the week before Christmas.  Oh my, how we thought a year would change, but unfortunately everything was late from the start.  I was wondering if combines were still going to be going on Christmas this year, but fortunately the snow came for a White Christmas.  With everything a month plus behind at harvest, it meant that anhydrous and fall tillage was abandoned at the time.  Now if the weather cooperates, there should be dust clouds flying next week. 

                We kicked off harvest much like last year, about a month behind schedule.  That gave us plenty of time to get things cleaned out and ready to go.  However, this fall was unlike last year in the fact that we kept getting more rain every time we turned around.  With the crop being planted unusually late it also did not dry down like last year.  Our lowest harvest moistures were in the high 16’s.  For most of harvest we dealt with really wet corn which killed us on wet space.  I stopped counting the number of days we closed early this year.  It was a rough fall on everyone.  I hate to say it, but we welcomed rain some days just to try to catch up with the volume of wet corn coming in.  Overall we took in just shy of 1.1 million bushels of corn this fall.  We took in around 220,000 bushels of soybeans, which was only 10,000 less than last year.  It was a bountiful harvest, even if it was late getting here.  Thank you for all of your patience while sitting in line, or having to deal with the elevator closing early.  Your business is greatly appreciated.  On the brighter side of things, we now have free delayed pricing on corn and beans through Aug. 31^st.  And the bins you have at home, please bring them in before we encounter quality problems.

                As harvest moved along this year, so did the markets.  We saw fall prices that were far better than post harvest due to the slow movement of grain flow.  We had a lot of spot sales this fall and less put on storage.  There have been good pricing opportunities this winter, but if you aren’t sitting in front of the screen everyday you might miss them.  If you still have grain on storage or want to achieve a certain price, please don’t hesitate to call and put in some offers.  Offers have come into play a lot this winter, and we’ve hit quite a few.  Now the spring fundamentals of planting and weather should come into play.  Be sure to keep up on the market, even though you are planting the crop as fast as possible.  I am sorry to say that this coming crop year we will not be taking non-gmo soybeans at Seymour.  Due to the program premium and bushel amount being cut by ADM, we now will no longer be a delivery point.  That doesn’t mean that we won’t take your corn and beans. 

                Harvest wasn’t officially over yet, but we had our Christmas open house anyway.  We had a great turn out again this year.  I’d like to thank Tim Menacher and John Chumley for donating the deer meat again for deer chili.  I'd also like to thank Bruce and Will Cresap for donating the beef for the beef chili.  Kari and I made the rest of the spread along with dessert.  It was a wonderful meal, and it sure was nice to see everyone not in a grain truck.

                I think that we’ve dried more corn this year than ever before.  Not only this fall, but through the winter drying became a challenge with Ameren’s no drying below 25 degrees.  We picked up our bunker every two weeks due to the weather and not being able to dry it.  We were able to dry on weekends only, which is just how the weather pattern turned out.  After the bunker was done, we started getting farm corn in that has also in need of drying.  As of April 1^st we still are drying corn from last fall that’s come out of the bins.  We have had some track work done on our siding this spring too.  We uncovered the entire track and repaired some rail and put in over a 100 new ties.  Rob Dick has been here a lot repairing and replacing parts in two drags upstairs and one in the basement.  We are also scheduled to get a new screw auger to go under our big 3 concrete bins this summer. 

                Well last but definitely not least, is my family.  I thank the Lord for my wonderful family that put up with grouchy me all through the holiday season with harvest dragging on into Christmas.  Kolby has done wonderful in 1^st grade.  He has had the opportunity to be in the enrichment program for reading, math, and science.  He is doing wonderful and is growing everyday into a smart, wonderful boy.  Addi is just cute as a button still, I’m not biased - I swear, and has found that she can whip her brother playing basketball.  She also wants to try dance class, because she likes to groove to the beat.  Kari has been fairly busy too.  She helped us again this fall, and is still working at the travel agency in town.  However, she decided in January that she was ready to start working on her bachelor’s degree.  So, now she’s working 2/3’s time at the travel agency and going to Parkland and taking classes.  It’s definitely a change in her life having to do homework again after some years away from school.  Needless to say I’m really proud of her, and am her biggest fan and critic.

                Well Pam said we need to have this into her this afternoon, so I’d better wrap it up.  I hope that this article finds everyone in the field and planting some corn because we’ve had excellent weather.  I know that might not happen, but one thing is for sure.  If anyone needs anything from me at anytime, please stop by, the door’s open.  Not to mention we have one of the best/only coffee shops in Seymour.  Thank you to everyone for your business, we appreciate you and the grain you deliver.

 

ANOTHER GOOD YEAR

By Chuck Bentley

 

Your company is on course to have another exceptional year.  Whenever service income (drying and storage) is good, it is good for the company.  Drying income compared to last year is almost double.  Storage income is only slightly less at this time.  Grain margins are down compared to last year, but are still good.  This could be our second best year ever.

As most of you are aware, we issued 1099 forms this year that included not only patronage income , but also per unit retains allocations.  This will be the norm from now on and we will issue 1099’s next year at the same time we send out the year end summaries.  The gross dollars paid to you on the year end summary will equal  the per unit retains allocation reported on the 1099.  I apologize for any discrepancies in this year’s 1099 reporting.

Stress.  Stress  fracture.  I am used to stress, but not a stress fracture.   A couple of weeks ago I woke up and had extreme pain in my right foot.  I was told it was a stress fracture.  All I had been doing was walking in the yard.  I guess this is another great part of getting older.

I just returned from the annual customer meeting of CoBank this week.  They had some exceptional speakers.  Their first after dinner speaker was Dick Butkus.  I do believe Mr.  Butkus and I would get along fine, as his attitudes and beliefs are very similar to mine.  The next speaker was an economist.  I always like to hear their economist talk, because they are always positive, just like me.  They had several other speakers that seemed to have the same theme:  How do we repay all the money the government is spending?  There will be a day of reckoning. 

Happy spring and summer.  I look forward to a drier season this year, both spring and fall.

 SWEET SUMMERTIME!

                By Haley Wade

 

As many of you are getting in the midst of planting season, we here at Emery are getting ready for a change.  On May 28^th, Sandy Davenport will retire and I will take her place.  I am excited for such a great opportunity and grateful to be able to work alongside Sandy for eight months.  She has been a great teacher.  I am lucky to get the chance to learn her tricks of the trade.  I believe this past harvest also helped get me prepared for the many harvests ahead!

I grew up on a farm near Warrensburg where I raised chickens and cattle.  I was a member of the Maroa Livestock 4-H club all through school.  I was the only co-op from Warrensburg high school to come to Maroa for two morning Ag classes and to be a member of the FFA.  I graduated from Millikin University in May 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree.  I worked for Caterpillar for a few years when I was laid off last January.  Looking back, I’m thankful for the layoff because it led me here!

This job at Topflight has made it possible to see my family more often.  My dad and uncle both haul grain from Emery to ADM almost daily.  My mom and step-dad are farmers so I also get to see them often.  It seems Topflight is great for other families too, since Dana is able to work with her father Charlie, too. 

Not only am I extremely lucky to have such a great job, I’m also lucky to have such a great teacher.  Sandy Davenport has been the greatest teacher/mentor I could have ever asked for.  I was told many times when I started this job, “you’ve got some big shoes to fill.” They were right.  If I can get to be half as good as she is at this job, I’ll be doing pretty well. 

                At Emery, even though the new bin, pit, and leg are built and currently in use, we still have Atchison Electric here to make sure everything works properly and fine tune all of the new equipment.  Charlie has finally shed a few layers thanks to the beautiful weather we’ve had throughout March and the first part of April.  He continues to help me learn about the many tasks outside of the office.  He and his son-in-law plan to take a vacation in April to the country’s largest gun show in Oklahoma! Charlie seems excited to go.  The show is so big it would take browsing each table for only around 20 seconds in order to see every one of them in one day!

                Emery is close to empty on beans, and the corn coming in from the bin hasn’t been quite as much as a “normal” year.  I guess I still have to see what a “normal” year looks like.  Our farmers have been lucky to not see very much damage in the corn even with the high moistures.  We expect to have around 80 acres of wheat come to us this summer.  Kenneth is here working hard with Charlie outside.  He helps load trucks going to ADM and any small maintenance jobs he can find.  He is doing a good job keeping the place clean and fixing the many potholes around!

                I recently sold my first house and am ready to find a new home!  This summer will be another busy one for my boyfriend, Jeremy, and I.  We enjoy truck and tractor pulls at all of the county fairs and cheering on the St. Louis Cardinals!  We plan to go to a game on my birthday in June, and hit up every fair we can! We went to Nashville in February so another trip down south might be in the works as well.  This all fits somewhere between me at the elevator and him farming. 

                I hope everyone has a safe and prosperous spring/summer.  I look forward to meeting more of you!

 

HOPING FOR A RALLY

                By Amy Brammer

 

Thank goodness spring is finally here. I think we have had about all of the winter we could stand. I have racked my brain trying to figure out what to write about in this issue of the Highflyer. I usually have my article written quite some time (like a month…yes, I’m dorky in that way!) before the due date. However, this time, I was a serious procrastinator. I normally have a rough outline, research it out, and fine tune as the deadline date nears. Much like a grain marketing strategy...you start with a basic plan, research the markets as you go along, and fine tune as needed with market fluctuations.  However, I didn’t follow my own advice and here I am in the ninth hour struggling for inspiration (begging customers and passers-by for ideas) or some sort of “brain rally.” It’s sort of like a marketing plan. You should have had a marketing plan/strategy or you did and you didn’t stick with it, but now the bills are due and you are wishing and hoping and thinking and praying for a rally. Many times the market catches us off guard and we must adjust to what is happening today. Although, you should always leave a little wiggle room, because we all know how volatile these markets can be and opportunities do pop up…but are generally short lived. So, generally speaking, having a marketing plan and following it, with a little fine tuning here and there, will get you the averages you need to have a successful marketing year. You should have a fairly good idea of your breakeven values. Stair-step up from there as the market gives you pricing opportunities. Diversify your marketing. If you swing for the fence every time, you will have a lot of whiffs. It’s all about the averages. There is never any shame in locking in a profit. You will likely not hit the top every time, but with a guaranteed profit on the books, you at least have next year to look forward to!

Brenden turned 2 in February. It’s hard to believe my little baby is a walking (running), talking (opinionated) little man now. He’s so funny. He keeps us on our toes and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are looking forward to the warmer weather as the little guy loves being outside picking up rocks, gathering sticks and leaves, and riding his tricycle and toddler four-wheeler.  Have a safe planting season and a wonderful summer. Feel free to send me any ideas or suggestions you have for my August article!

 

GOT A TWITCH IN YOUR LEFT FOOT?

                By Brock Casteel

 

After a long winter it is always pleasant to get into those first few days of spring when temperatures are in the 55-60 degree temperature range. Today as I type this it is one of those days. In fact, it is roughly 58 and sunny, with a nice breeze. Its days like today that a young man’s thoughts turn to… that’s right, checking those farm storage bins for spoilage in the grain. What, you thought I was going somewhere else with that line? Of course not!  As the temperatures increase, and the sun beats down on the side of those steel bins, the heat increase can cause a nice cool bin of corn to sweat, especially if that corn is 17%-20% moisture. If you have not already cored the center of the bin it would be wise to do so. If coring the bin does not fit into your marketing strategy, it would be prudent to check the bin on at least a weekly basis. If moving the commodity out of the bin is not an option, the only weapon left in the arsenal is to run fans. When running fans, there are many different opinions on when, and under what temperature and humidity conditions to operate them in. In fact, I am sure there is a very specific scientific formula that can tell you when to run your bin fans. In reality, it is a totally subjective choice that an operator must make based on a case by case observation of the perceived condition in the bin. Unfortunately, I have no silver bullet answer I can give that says run fans on this day, under a full moon, when the rooster crows towards the west and you have a twitch in your left foot. (Legal disclaimer: The preceding line was an attempt at humor. Please don’t wait for your foot to start twitching before you run your bin fans.) Each farm storage bin can be different. Such items as aeration duct size and fan horsepower size can make a difference, along with location of the bin in conjunction with other buildings or bins at the location. Even the depth at which you load the bin can make a difference on the effectiveness of your particular air system. The objective of running the fans should be to move a consistent temperature and humidity front through the entire mass of grain. Knowing the current temperature and moisture of the grain mass can be indicators to an operator on when to run the fans.  In closing I can tell you this…I once listened to an expert on the topic make this statement “If the grain is wet? Run the fans. If the grain is warm? Run the fans. If the grain smells bad? Run the fans.” I think you get the point. I hope everyone has a good planting season. And oh yea… don’t forget to check the bins. 

 

MOVING FORWARD

                By Pam Jarboe

 

                Friday night at the last fish fry of Lent, we heard that Cora Marshall had just passed away.  Cotton Wright had just been buried and Selby Clark had died a few weeks earlier.  It’s sad, and gives a person a lot to think about.  I learned so much from Cora.  She was my mentor before mentoring became the “in” thing. She had retired from Bement Grain Company before I was hired, but returned  during my first harvest.  Oh, the things she taught me!  She was a wonderful lady!  Cotton delivered mail to my house while I lived in Bement, and delivered grain to the Piatt elevator.  He was active in many community activities and set an example few of us will be able to follow. And Selby, Selby’s kindness and wealth of knowledge is a great loss to the community.  He liked to visit our office, and would share so much history with us, and most often, would recite poetry his mother taught him. We’ve lost many friends this winter, but we have many good memories.

                We move forward though.  We celebrated my mom & dad’s 60^th wedding anniversary this winter with a family dinner at a restaurant in Forsyth.  Some of our cousins that we don’t see often were able to come.  It was a wonderful day.  We also celebrated my brother and sister-in-law’s 25^th wedding anniversary with a dinner of family and friends at their daughter’s house.  Once again, it was a wonderful day!

                As you are trying to forget, and we mention frequently throughout this newsletter, the harvest of 2009 was the longest one any of us can remember.  When we hire our seasonal help for harvest, we explain that the job normally lasts until late October or mid-November.  This year, some of them were still here at Christmas!  We rushed through Thanksgiving, and really rushed through Christmas, too. The late harvest season completely disoriented our time for the Holidays.  Once again, though we move forward.

Now, the operations staff is moving the corn and beans out, management is making decisions on new construction, and the office staffs are buying grain, helping with market plans, and taking in a lot of the farm stored grain. We’re making plans for Sandy’s retirement party, some post-planting producer meetings, and our normal summer activities of the crop tour and the annual meeting.

                We wish you a joyous spring and delightful summer.

 

Our sympathies to the families of . . . .

Richard Helm, Edwin Withers, Eva Bell, Roscoe Sebens, Marshall England, Gladys Brelsfoard, Larry Nickell, Mary Lou Hill, Maurice Beckhart, Larry Nickell, Wilma Fay, Willie West, Janet Turney Mulvnaey, Michael Brown, Jim Quick (from Atwood), Eva Nadine Bell

Gary Muse, John Corman. Irene Flenniken, Mary Wikoff, Doris Davis, George Vance, Bob Wilber, Selby Clark, Robert Henningsen, Reuben Yoder, Randy Blythe, Leland Glazebrook, Lenora Beery, Tom Fulk, Donna Phillips, Evelyn Coffey, Marcia Shimer Allen, Bob Totten, Dale Williams, Lois Clodfelter, Bill Reeder, Doris Davis, Robert Bradley, Eugene “Cotton” Wright, Robert Fleming, Phyllis Wilber, Michelle Foss, Bert Stoddard, Edna Dallas, Dr Wayne Grissom, Della Lubbers, Shirley Williams, Dale Leach, Cora Marshall, Beverly Rettke, Larry Hardimon, Keith Dial, Wayne Hastings, John Trolia, Jim Sheets, Pauline Shonkwiler, John Stoddard, Margaret Winzenburger Meharry Cline, Helen Dunn, Frances Laetitia Lehn, Mary Hanes,

 

And all others who have lost loved ones

HUMOR FOR LEXOPHILES (LOVERS OF WORDS)

 

1.       I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger.  Then it hit me.

2.       Police were called to a daycare where a three-year-old was  resisting a rest.

3.       Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off?  He's all right now.

4.       To write with a broken pencil is pointless.

5.       The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

6.       A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.

7.       When the smog lifts in Los Angeles , U.C.L.A

8.       The math professor went crazy with the blackboard.   He did a number on it!

9.       The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.

10.     The dead batteries were given out free of charge.

11.     A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.

12.     A bicycle can't stand alone; it is just two-tired.

13.     A will is a dead giveaway.

14.     A backward poet writes inverse.

15.     A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.

16.     With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.

17.     A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France, resulted in linoleum blownapart.

18.     He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.

19.     A calendar's days are numbered.

20.     A boiled egg is hard to beat.

21.     If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine .

22.     When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.

23.     Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.

24.     Acupuncture: a jab well done.

Congratulations to  . . . .

Merle & Florence Hissong, married 70 years last December; Austin Brandenburg & Grant Briggs, named to the Dean’s List for fall 2009 at Southern Illinois University; Sammi Thompson, member of the 1^st team, All County Girls Basketball team; Louise Rigg, 80 years old on March 28; John & Judy Newlin, married 50 years in April; Bill & Lois Cahill, married 50 years in March; Kolby Schable, Atwood-Hammond Student of the Month in February; Wilma Fendley, crowned at the Strawberry Farm, on her 70^th Birthday; Vicki Gowler, honored at the Monticello Area Education Foundation, for excellence in her field; Kendra Wright and Tim Jayne, engaged to be married in June; Colin Auth and Brodie Gallagher, selected for the All-County Boys Basketball team; Makenzie Morton & Steven Bryan, Bement DAR & SAR recipients; Matt & Anna McCormick, parents of Clint Michael, born in December.  Proud grandparents are David & Cathie Adcock; John & Michelle Matthews, parents of Emily Paige, born in November.  Proud grandparents are Bud & Lynda Matthews; Brooke Morris, Miss Piatt County, and Emily Romine, Miss Moultrie-Douglas, both named in the Top 12 of the Miss Illinois County Fair Queen Pageant; Teresa McCool, promoted to stock transfer manager for Hickory Point Bank & Trust; Makenzie Morton, November Student of the Month for Bement High School; Wayne & Claudette Foran, celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary last August; Michael Robinson, joining the accounting team at Westchester Group; Dylan Gallagher, owner of his new business, Gallagher Excavation; Ryan Cain, Steve Bryan & Colin Auth, placing on the All-County Football team; Mr & Mrs Jim Hartman, recently celebrating their 55^th wedding anniversary; Kyle & Kristle Meece, proud parents of Madisyn Kay, born in February; proud grandparents are Duane & Marlena Robson and Ron & Cindy Meece; proud great-grandparents are Richard & Beulah Robson and Raymond & Helen Meece; Jack & Nadine Funk, celebrating their 65^th wedding anniversary; Jessica Lubbers and Jason Harmon, married last September; Steven Bryan, October Student of the Month at Bement High School; Mack Gallagher, recognized for his service learning work; Dave Huisinga, reaching 50 years old in November; Ryan & Mallory Brittenham, parents of Noah Ryan.  Proud grandparents are Becki Brittenham, Tom Brittenham and Jeff  & Rhonda Davis; proud great-grandparents are Ron & Pat Hodge; Rachel Bates & Jacob Bales, married last November; Amanda Jean, Student of the Month in September, for Bement High School;

Jack & Sharon Corum, married 50 years in October; Juanita Fleener, who celebrated her 80^th birthday last October; Margaret Riley & Blake Martin, married last December; Joe & Alyssa Senseney, parents of Harrison Lee.  Proud grandparents are Brian & Debbie Henningsen; Julie & Timothy Breuning, parents of Kamilla Ann; proud grandmother is GloAnn Walsh; proud great-grandparents are Gaylord Hendrix and Patty Walsh; Josh & Becky Ponder; proud parents of Annelise Ray; proud grandmother is Katona Ponder;

Raymond & Helen Meece, married 60 years last September; Avery Stoddard, attaining Eagle Scout Rank; Ashley & Jake Cain, parents of Benntten Matthew. Proud grandparents are Rob & Jeanie Bennett, proud great-grandparents are Dale & Joyce Bennett, and the very proud great-great-grandmother is Avis Bennett; Jake & Megan Shackleford, parents of Knox.  Proud grandparents are Julie Born and Larry Shackleford.  Proud great-grandparents are Duane & Linda Born and Dr Shackelford; Ryan & Sarah Reeder, parents of Haley Elizabeth.  Proud grandparents are Allen & Lynnette Reeder; Jessica Wear & William Gaitros, married last September; Steven Bryan & Elise Krause, 2010 Illinois State Scholars; Tiffany Strawbridge & Brent Huisinga, engaged to be married in June; Rory Wright, 2009 graduate from Illinois State University (Rory interned with us, several years ago); Gene Rowe, 90 years old in February; Bob Dalton, 80 years old in February; Tedd & Amanda Romine, parents of Isabella Grace, born in January; proud grandparents are Aaron & Luann Romine and Linda Jumper; proud great-grandmother is Rhea Romine; Brooke Morris and Rory Wright, engaged to be married in June; Angela Thompson and Denny Ellis, engaged to be married in May; Bob & Phyllis Taylor, married 65 years in March; Justin & Krystal, married in September; Aaron & Ielyn Henningsen, parents of Wesley Daniel. Proud grandparents are Brian & Debbie Henningsen; Russ & Debby Wright, married 40 years!!!  Steve & Mary Postlewait, proud grandparents of Makenna Grace, born late November; Carroll & June Elliott, married 65 years; John & Joyce Chenoweth, married 60 years; Steve & Christina Drake, parents of Coby Jace; Randy & Sharon Drake, proud new grandparents of Logan Douglas; Michael Yoder, son of Bryan & Amy Yoder, joining the Air Force in March; Jennifer James & Robert Brice, engaged to be married.  Robert proposed to Jennifer during the SuperBowl, broadcast on WCIA-TV; Don & Joyce Dyson, proud grandparents of Jackson Dyson; Kyle & Kristin Hendrix, new parents of Kaleb.  Proud grandparents are Roger & Diane Hendrix and Bruce & Leslie Strike.  Proud great-grandparents are Betty Hendrix and Larry and Sue Lecrone.

 

ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPET

 

Old Hollywood was the theme of the 2010 Topflight Grain Women’s program.  The red carpet was out and the Walk of Fame stars were cast on the floor.  The aroma of fresh popcorn greeted the ladies, as they settled into a day of fun and memories.  “Gone With the Wind” was playing on the big screen as they arrived for breakfast cakes and coffee. 

The leading ladies of the day were introduced. Shirley Sievers and Sandy Davenport were celebrating their birthdays on that day.

Melody Arnold was the first speaker, talking about the development of agriculture in Illinois.  Early settlers into this prairie thought the soil was useless.  It wouldn’t even grow wheat!  They built homes near the rivers and woods, using the nearby wood for their homes, and distancing themselves from the prairie grasses that easily caught fire.  Through the years, with new implements to till the soil and new hybrids to grow, Illinois prairie has become very productive.  As the railroads came along, transportation for moving the rewards of the harvest were easier, and towns sprung up along the railroad, about every 7 miles.  It was a very interesting presentation about an industry so important to all of us.

The Decatur Barbershop Harmony Quartet was the 2^nd act of the day.  The four men sang and entertained the ladies with numerous songs.  Many of the songs dated back to the “Old Hollywood” era.

Hollywood Bingo was the third act of the day.  The ladies were given a Bingo card, and asked to fill in the blanks from a choice of 50 “Old Hollywood” stars. Director Amy Brammer called the names, displaying pictures and giving a little background about each of the stars. 

Act Five was lunch! As Aunt Mame said, “Life is a smorgasbord. . . . .”. 

Steve Ingram was the next act, with “A Point of Humor”.  He entertained, and left a message that sometimes we just need to clean our glasses to see our world in a different light.  As he told one story, the ladies were asked to add sound effects to the reading.  The sound of horse hooves, a villain, a cowboy and a rattlesnake were just some of the sounds heard throughout the story.

The final act of the day was Gretchen Potter and Pat Milchuck, the hat ladies. Gretchen displayed hats of many eras, including the “Old Hollywood” era, and told a little about each one.  Pat, who owns a hat shop in Paxton, walked through the audience and asked the ladies who had worn a hat for the day, to tell about their hats. The hats were beautiful and many had some great history.

It was a great day, full of fun, information and lots of hugs and memories.

TOUGH WINTER

 

It’s been a tough winter at Topflight Grain.  Bill Dirks, Jim Murphy and Rick Chestnut are recovering from surgery.  We certainly have missed them.

Bill’s friends and neighbors installed a ramp at his house in late January.

                Jim broke his foot, which required surgery to fix it. He is slowly moving around on crutches.

Rick had knee surgery, and is moving well on level ground, but has to be very careful for awhile yet.

All three of them have been accessible by phone when needed for guidance.  We’re wishing all of them a fast and successful recovery.

WELCOME!!!

 

We welcome Dana Shull

I have actually been with Topflight Grain Co-op for five years.  During harvest, I worked part-time at the Emery location with Sandy Davenport, Sharon Brown, and of course my father, Charles Bliss (aka Charlie). I am now settled in at the Maroa location, full time, as a Grain Originator, working happily along with Denny Hill, Ronnie Miller, Gary Liggett, and Aaron Hill.

I am blissfully married to a Decatur police officer / Navy veteran, Chad Shull. We have five wonderful children Zane (19), Ceara (18), Holden (13), Tristan (10), and Paige (6). I am originally from Maroa.  I went to  Maroa-Forsyth High school, where  I took agriculture and was involved in FFA. Agriculture has always been a part of my life. It’s funny, some of my fondest memories are during harvest when I was a little girl, being with my grandfather (Ed Bliss) in his grain truck. Waiting in line at the elevator that is now the elevator I work at every day. I think he would be proud.

To work with such an exceptional group of people, in a career to be proud of, is something I have always dreamed of. Now to have this opportunity has truly made my life fulfilled and complete.  

 

We welcome John Elmore

                John has been working in the Bement facility, learning how to run the elevator and prepare for train loading, as an assistant to Jim.  His learning came to the real test when Jim was gone for several weeks on medical leave. John lives in Deland, and came to us with previous grain elevator experience.

               

INTERESTING

By Sherryl Young

 

Here in Monticello, we had some excitement September 17.  The Railroad Museum held their annual Railroad Days Sept. 19 & 20th.  The featured guest this year was the Leviathan 63.  It is a reproduction of an 1868 steam locomotive.  They hauled it here from Elgin, Ill. on special flat bed trailers, the engine on one and the tender car on another.  They unloaded them here on our rail spur.  The unloading process took a few hours.  It was quite interesting.  The trailers have built-in rails on them and a pulley system.  Rail extensions are placed at the end of the trailer and placed on the rails on the ground.  A cable is attached to the front from a truck to pull it off of the trailer.  The cable on the trailer keeps it from rolling off too fast.  It is a synchronized process.  They have people on both sides to make sure the whole process goes smoothly.  They used a boom truck to lift the stack up to put in place.  Once both pieces were on the tracks, they were connected and the railroad museum’s engine pushed them to the museum.  The engine will be fired up at the museum.  Right now, there are no qualified engineers to run this engine, so they have one here from Colorado while one is being trained.

Here are some interesting facts.  Originally, steam locomotives burned coal or wood to produce the steam.  This engine uses waste oil.  Good recycling idea.  They started construction of the Leviathan in 1999.  It was completed on June 20, 2009.  The builder was Kloke Construction.  All of the lettering and striping is gold leaf.  The driving wheels are 60” and the engine and tender length is 45’.  The total weight is 88,000 lbs.  The tender tank capacity is 2,000 gallons.

I am not a railroad buff, but I thought that this was very interesting to watch and thought that I would share it with all of you.  If you are interested, they have a website where you can see pictures of the process of construction.  The website is www.leviathan63.com.                                                                                                                                

ONE EARTH ENERGY

                By Scott Docherty

 

Here is an update of activities at One Earth, since we began grinding corn June 24, 2009 to

December 31, 2009.

Facts:

• Consumed 18.1 million bushels of corn.
• Produced and sold  50.1 million gallons of ethanol
• Produced and sold 143,000 tons of Dried Distillers Grains with Soluables.
• Employ 48 full time people. The plant operates 24/7. Currently operate with 4 shifts, all shifts are 12 hours, with two shifts working 3 – 12 hour days, while the other two shifts work 4 –12 hour days. Each month the day shift changes to night, during which they have 3 days off of work to help make the adjustment.
• Corn deliveries are between the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., we take corn during the week from Monday to Friday.  We have the ability to receive by either truck or rail. Depending on the time of the year, either form of transportation will work for the plant.

 

Operations: We continue to improve on the day to day operations as our personnel learn through experience how to shutdown and restart the plant for ordinary repairs. We are currently scheduling work for our first annual shutdown. The first week of May, we will be down for 3 consecutive days to clean, hydro blast, and replace worn parts on our equipment.

 Most of our Distillers products are loaded and shipped by container to the Asian markets.

Being located within 80 miles of the Burlington Northern container yard at Joliet, IL, allows One Earth the freight advantage to load containers onsite, and deliver those containers to the rail yard in Joliet. Here, they are loaded onto rail cars bound for the West coast and then transloaded to ships bound for foreign countries. One Earth has hosted many visitors from China, Japan, and North Africa. The Feed Grains Council, Illinois Department of Agriculture, U.S. Grains Council, and the Illinois Corn

Marketing Board have invited many guests to our country to understand the value of Dried Distillers

Grains.  Many local producers purchase either dry or wet from us on a daily basis.

      Ethanol is sold either by truck or rail similar to the corn. We typically load more rail than truck due to the markets we are able to access by rail. Our Class 1 connection is the Norfolk Southern railroad and the present markets they serve are on the east coast. The New York harbor is the second largest population east of the Mississippi. Since our plant is sited here, it makes sense that our tank cars can economically move 30,000 gallons of fuel per rail car to the following locations - New York, Virginia, Georgia and Florida and return back in as few as 10 days. If, we load trucks, they deliver to tank farms in Heyworth, Ashkum, Argo, and Kankakee. Our fuel is then blended at these sites and delivered to retail stations in those areas. 

 

 

AROUND TOPFLIGHT

FFA PRESIDENTS

            By Vanessa Stinson

 

On Friday November 6^th, we were honored to have the state FFA president Amy Burke of Oakwood and section president Elise Krause of Cerro Gordo tour our elevator. Elise is the daughter of Curt and Louanne Krause of Milmine. Elise helped us the fall of 2008.

It was quite an honor to have these fine young women visit us.

 Good luck to both of you in your future.

 

 

WOMEN’S PROGRAM MAILING LIST

If you did not receive an invitation to the Topflight Grain women’s program, please call us, so that we can add you to the list. Since many women do not receive grain checks from Topflight, often they are not included on the mailing list.  Just give us a call, and you’ll be invited to the next program.

 

CORRECTION –

In the last issue of the High Flyer, the article about the history of Pierson had a wrong date. Atwood & Pierson elevators merged in 1990, (not 1994, as mentioned) to become Unity Grain.

 

NEW PHONE SERVICE IN BEMENT

The Bement office made a switch to a new telephone service this winter.  It took several visits with the associates from the new service to understand some of the new “features” and what benefits came with the new package.  We had to adjust to a “voice mail” service, rather than an answering machine tape, to record the bids each evening. We do still post the bids every night, on the phone, but you’ll have to let it ring about 10 times in order to hear the bids. Just let it keep ringing and eventually, you’ll hear the evening bids. 

 

Only a Farm Boy... 

When you're from the country ~ you look at things a little differently...

 

A Montana rancher got in his pickup and drove to a neighboring ranch and knocked at the door. A young boy, about 9, opened the door "Is your Dad home?" the rancher asked.

"No sir, he isn't," the boy replied. "He went into town."

"Well," said the rancher, "Is  your Mother here?"

"No sir, she's not here either. She went into town with Dad."

"How about your brother, Howard? Is he here?"

"No sir, He went with Mom and Dad."

The rancher stood there for a few minutes, shifting from one foot to the other and mumbling to himself.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" the boy asked politely. "I know where all the tools are, if you want to borrow one. Or maybe I could take a message for Dad."

"Well," said the rancher uncomfortably, "I really wanted to talk to your Dad. It's about your brother Howard getting my daughter, Suzie, pregnant."'

The boy considered for a moment. "You would have to talk to Pa about that,"

He finally conceded. "If it helps you any, I know that Pa charges $500 for the bull and $50 for the hog, but I really don't know how much he gets for Howard."

 

LARRY BARTRAM, MEET LARRY BARTRAM

 

Friday afternoon, in Bement, this tall gentleman came into the office, asking if we knew Larry Bartram.  We said “yes”, and asked if we could give him a message.  This gentleman told us that he was Larry Bartram and would like to meet the Larry Bartram from Bement.  We called Larry, and he came to the office.  Our new friend is from Canada. He used to farm, and now is a salesman.  He and his wife, Mary, were on their way home from Texas and changed their route home to come through Bement.  All three of them visited quite awhile, and Larry (from Bement) extended our new friends an invitation to join him, Loretta, and friends at the Legion for the Friday night fish fry, and to enjoy the Bement Country Opry with them later that evening!

 

BENCHMARKING INFORMATION

Each month, Amy calculates information for a “Benchmarking” report, which provides interesting information on farmer grain sales.  It can serve as a “Benchmark” for you to compare your sales to the average.  These are the numbers from March 31:

2009 Crop

Corn:

Total Volume to date: 27,941,964 DRY bu. 

Percent Sold: 67%

Average Price Paid to Customer: $3.68

To-Arrive Purchased: <1%

 

Soybeans:

Total Volume to date: 4,813,081 DRY bu. 

Percent Sold: 82%

Average Price Paid to Customer: $9.79

To-Arrive Purchased: <1%

 

This time last year we had ~65% corn and ~64% soybeans purchased.

 

2010 Crop

Corn:

To Arrive: 3.9 mil bu (approx. 13%??)

Average Price to Customer: $3.92 (3.3 mil bu priced)

 

Soybeans:

To Arrive: 608,341 bu (approx. 12%??)

Average Price to Customer: $9.40 (516,841 bu priced)

 

This time last year we had ~4% corn and ~2% soybeans purchased.

EMPLOYEE NEWS

 

SAFETY AWARDS

Manager Scott Docherty presented Chris Frye with a safety award for the past year. The safety program rewards locations for each year without an accident and rewards individuals of the operations staff for an accident-free year.

 

FISHING IN SEPTEMBER

With a late start to harvest, Sherryl had some time to catch a few fish!

 

NEW HOMES!

Congratulations to the families of Paul Peeler, Dana Shull, Terry Kuhn and Randy Drake.  They all have moved into newer homes!  Paul & family are in Hammond, Dana & her family have a nice home west of Forsyth, Terry and his family live north of Bement, and Randy’s family lives about two houses from the Pierson elevator!

 

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Our congratulations to Ryan Cain!  Ryan worked for us during harvest at LaPlace.  He was awarded the Defensive Player of the year, at Cerro Gordo High School. We’re certain that all the hard work of harvest kept him in shape for football!

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

Congratulations to Adam Jackson & Lindsay Zscheck on their engagement.  They plan to be married on May 29.

 

CONGRATULATIONS!

Amy Brammer passed her insurance licensing class, which is a prerequisite to selling crop insurance.  Once the new crop insurance program has been established, she will begin to study it, and be able to assist farmers with their crop insurance needs.

 

OPEN HOUSE

As Sandy mentioned in her article, she plans to retire on June 1.  Topflight Grain will host an open house for Sandy on Wednesday, May 26.  It will be from 11 – 2, at the Emery office.  Please stop by and wish Sandy a Happy Retirement, and enjoy some fond memories of the past 29 years.

 

ALWAYS WORKING AT TOPFLIGHT!

 

MJ Trackworks installed over 100 new ties at Seymour to improve the rail siding.

 

JANUARY 1^st GRAIN CHECKS

The office staffs worked diligently to prepare the grain checks for the first of 2010.  This January 1, the grain payout totaled $51,432,900.

 

CHRISTMAS PARADE

The Topflight airplane and passengers were set for takeoff in the Monticello Christmas parade. However, the plane lost power, and taxied to a parking spot, while the “passengers” walked the rest of the parade route.

 

CISCO DOORS

New quick-closing doors were installed at Cisco, to control the dust of unloading grain.

 

HARVEST NUMBERS

It was a very long harvest, as every knows, and after harvest, there is always plenty to do at a grain elevator.  Some of the jobs of the operations and maintenance staff include fixing broken grain probes, pushing snow and melting ice, continuing to work on dryers (even on a February Sunday), hauling corn in from the farm, using the vac at farm jobs, always loading outbound trucks and trains, unloading inbound grain (still drying most of the corn!), working on trackmobiles, fastening socks to the loadout spouts at Emery, transferring grain for better loadout position, and always cleaning and painting.  We have a very talented and very versatile staff.  Most of them also are versatile enough to help out at other locations in the absence of others or when extra help is required.

 

DELICIOUS LUNCHES!!

 

Jim Fendley stopped for a delicious Dixie-Q sandwich served by Jerry Horton, in Bement

 

The girls from Farm Credit packed some great lunches for the employees and farmers at the Bement facility. 

 

Lunch was also served at the Maroa elevator, compliments of Farm Credit.  State Bank of Bement brought harvest breakfast to the farmers, including muffins, fruits and drinks.

 

CARAMELS & PEANUTS

Did you enjoy your harvest caramels and peanuts?  They aren’t easy to find anymore, but Amy was successful!  Kraft doesn’t make caramels anymore.  They sold that division to another company who has determined that they are too seasonal of a product to manufacture. Amy researched several other companies, for quality and price when she ordered the harvest supplies.

                “Amy, I’m standing in Rural King, surrounded by peanuts.  How many sacks do you want?”, was the phone call we received from Jim Flaugher.  Amy placed the order with Jim, and he delivered 10 sacks of peanuts!  We certainly appreciated his thoughtfulness and his special delivery!

 

A STUDY OF CONTRAST

Imagine seeing this antique car driving past all the big modern grain trucks sitting in line at LaPlace!

Richard Larimore sent us this picture.

 

NO DRYING UNDER 25 DEGREES

Most of our elevators were shut down from drying this year, when the daily outside temperature was forecast to average below 25 degrees.  The rule has been in effect for several years at our Ameren IP elevators, but has not been a consideration until this year when harvest lasted into the cold of winter.  That was really a problem since those cold days were often the best days to combine, with the firmer solid ground underfoot. It was just one more issue in the harvest of 2009. Technically, we could have run the dryers, but the rate for gas usage is very high for those days, and that high charge becomes retroactive.  The cost becomes so prohibitive that we must keep the dryers turned off on those cold days.

                With the merging of all the Ameren companies, we’re not sure of the effect of this ruling on the Ameren CILCO facilities.

 

2^nd GRADE FUN

 

Our year with the Bement 2^nd grade class is almost finished.  We first met the class in September after the new school year began. They came to the elevator in Bement, introduced themselves and we told them what we do at a grain elevator.  They toured the office and the elevator, concluding the visit with bowls of popcorn.

In November, we visited Curtis Orchard. The field trip to Curtis Orchard is always a special treat because we learn so much, enjoy the playyard, and really enjoy seeing Mr and Mrs Curtis, since Mrs Curtis grew up in Bement!  At the orchard, Judy told the class about honey bees.  She described the three kinds of bees in the hive, how honey is made, how honey is collected and the many uses of honey.  Mr Curtis showed everyone how apple cider is made, and we also learned how the apples are sorted and washed. Then everyone enjoyed their apple donut and apple cider, served in an apple cup; then it was off to the playground! It was a wonderful day!

In December, the class returned to the Bement office for a Christmas party of cookies and refreshments, and a few Christmas songs.  Just as the songs were concluding, we heard a familiar sound of sleigh bells and a jolly “ho-ho-ho”!!  Santa had found time to visit us!!!  He talked to each 2^nd grade student (and their teachers!), reminding them that Christmas was near, and gave each one a gift.

                The annual field trip was in March, to the Children’s Museum in Decatur, and to the Decatur airport. At the Museum, small groups went through the “Body Walk”, learning the functions and healthy habits of many of our body’s organs.  The class then explored the museum, climbing, shopping at the grocery store, making huge bubbles, working as an auto mechanic, driving an ambulance, broadcasting the news on TV station WKID, and many more activities.  After lunch, the crew at the Decatur Airport showed us the huge fire engine and many of the tools on the trucks that are used to fight airplane fires, some small planes and the computers that assist the pilots. It was a great day!!

                Just a few more visits with the 2^nd grade class, and it will be time for summer vacation!  It’s been an exciting year!

DPADs & PURPIMS

 

Until this winter, you may never have heard of DPADs or PURPIMs.  We hadn’t heard of them either!  Our accountants made us aware of both, the Domestic Production Activities Deduction, and the Per Unit Retains Paid in Money.  The deduction has been questionable the last few years, but enough IRS letters and opinions have been written that our accountants felt comfortable using the deductions for Topflight Grain. It is a deduction available only to cooperatives, and it is a very valuable deduction.  In order to facilitate this deduction for Topflight Grain, each member’s gross receipts from Topflight Grain are reported on the individual’s 1099 form. This was probably a new item to you when you received your 2009 1099-PATR form from us this January.  It should have corresponded with your 2009 yearend summary, noting the gross income.

                This may require a change in your accounting records. You may need to record the gross dollars from your grain sale, then record the expenses associated with the sale, such as drying, storage, dp charges, checkoff and any quality discounts.

                As we will continue to report these grain sales, you should be careful that grain checks are written to the person who will be paying the tax. If we write the check to “Smith Farm”, the income will be reported as being paid to the Smith Farm, when in fact, you may have divided it between the three heirs to the Smith farm.  The checks should have been written separately to the three heirs. If you’re donating grain to the church, or another organization, the grain should be moved to that group, and a check written. Each payee should have a delivery sheet, and a grain check, to assure accurate reporting of the year’s grain sales.  This is very similar to the FSA office in their request that each owner of the farm has a delivery sheet and grain checks to correspond to the delivery sheets.

                After the planting season, Topflight Grain will host meetings to discuss this new tax ruling.  We will explain how beneficial it is to your cooperative and suggestions so that your records correctly reflect your income from Topflight. Other issues such as the pass-through benefit will be discussed. This ruling came very near the end of the 2009 tax year, and we had little time to prepare ourselves, or our producers, for its effects.  The early summer meetings will allow all of us to study it and discuss the effects.

IVIEW AND PRODUCER REPORTS

 

About a year ago, the company that furnished the “Producer Reports” page of our website sold their product. The Producer Report package allowed a farmer to confirm grain in storage, open contracts, and scale tickets, through a link on our website. When that product left us, we were moved to the iView program, a product of our grain accounting package, Agris. It was different, and we tried to learn it, and value it for what it had to offer.  As we came into the harvest season, though, it just wasn’t working correctly and we did not feel secure that the information it presented was correct.  We felt that it was better to have no information rather than the wrong information, so we discontinued the program. 

                We’re still looking.  The iView package has improved and the programmers continue to make more improvements.  We have also visited with a private programmer, who would love to develop a program that would work for us!  We will continue to move forward to a program that you can use via the Internet to research your personal grain records.

 

LOTS OF EDUCATION!

 

                Your directors and employees attended the annual Grain & Feed Convention in February.  They attend meetings and visit with vendors at the trade show. Some of the meeting topics included the 1099 tax deduction for cooperatives, making a good community presence, weather issues and workplace stress.  In the trade show, displays included insurance companies, elevator suppliers, computer software and safety equipment.  One company specialized in permanent covers for temporary corn piles, like the ring at Milmine.  The directors stopped to visit with them, to see if that would be a solution for the problems we’ve had with the tarp at Milmine.

                This winter, Derrick and Adam presented the annual Topflight Grain market outlook and crop insurance meetings.  At the meetings held in Maroa, Monticello and Hammond, market influences such as the South American crop, spring weather, and the outside markets were discussed.  After a short break, changes in the crop insurance program were discussed.

                At the Piatt County Farm Bureau Ladies meeting in March, Pam presented a market outlook to the Farm Bureau ladies. They looked at the latest government report, demand in China, growth in South American supply and biofuels demand. They also talked a little bit about the 2009 local harvest, and a few other factors that affect the grain markets.

                Several Topflight employees attended the MIDCO winter outlook meeting in Bloomington.  That meeting, hosted by one our grain brokerage firms always has a lot of information.  The speakers look into many market factors, basis levels, spread values, transportation values, and much more.  It’s a great opportunity for all who attend, to learn a lot!

 

Advice from a couple of farmers:

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.
 Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.
 Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
 A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
 Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.
 Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.
Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.
It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.
You cannot unsay a cruel word.
Every path has a few puddles.
When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
The best sermons are lived, not preached.
Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen  anyway. 
Don't judge folks by their relatives.
Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
Live a good, honorable  life.. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.
Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't bothering you none.
Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance.
If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.
Always drink upstream from the herd.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.
If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. 
Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.  
Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.