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Valley Coop
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Happenings On March 31, 2010 we closed the books on another fiscal year. Another good year for your Cooperative and it's members. Earnings before taxes of $444,015. Down from our record year last year, but one of the strongest performances of the companies history. Along with local earnings and patronage we also saw some good things with our taxes. This year because of some tax advantages in using the Domestic Production Credit Deduction we were able to use a $198,000 credit to our taxes and as such bring our total earnings after taxes to $642,000. After all non patronage business is sorted out we will be paying patronage refunds of $250,000 back to our members of which 50% will be in the form of cash and the other 50% in stock. We will also be passing back, as we did last year a portion of our Domestic Production Credit Deduction which will amount to $325,000. What that means to you as a patronage receiving member is that you will receive in cash $125,000 and credit against other income of $325,000. That is 1.8 times the amount you will be paying taxes on as patronage income from Valley Coop this year.
As you remember last year we passed on around $360,000 of Domestic Production Credit Deduction towards the end of last year. Please be sure to give all the information to your tax attorney for computations of this years patronage and credits.
We have purchased a USC seed treatment machine for use in the coming seasons. It's main use will be for Soybean inoculation, but can be used to treat wheat or any other grain as needed. I think you will see more and more use of this type of application in the future. It is more cost effective to do the treatments at the local level than to buy it on the seed. There are some significant cost savings and the application is more uniform than can be accomplished at the seed box. Please ask any Valley Coop location manager or contact Kirk Kennedy at 620-229-0312. I think you will be pleased with the results.
Harvest is just around the corner. All Valley Coop facilities will be ready to handle your wheat crop when the time comes. Please be sure you have harvest splits made at the locations early so that we may accommodate your needs efficiently. Hopefully the crop will be of milling quality and some of our more traditional avenues for moving our grain will be accessible for us this year. Do remember that we offer "Direct Ship" bids to area terminals. You just need to pickup bill's of lading to use in the delivery process. Please contact Rebecca at 620-221-4343 to acquire these documents and instructions on filling them out. This makes the process much smoother and lets the terminals know how to handle the grain.
We are in the process of upgrading aeration at several locations. As we continue to see more and more fall crops being harvested we need to continue to bring the elevators up to date in handling the varied products that we handle today. The days of Wheat and a little Milo are long gone at this point. We will continue to keep your assets in tune with the times we are in as we go forward.
Wishing all of you a great Harvest season and year.
Valley Coop to have soybean inoculator for coming season. The Board of Directors of Valley Coop, Inc at their November meeting elected to buy a machine capable of both grain inoculation and seed treatment capabilities. It will be operational for the coming soybean planting season. The machine will be capable of both inoculation and seed treatment application in a single operation. Further information will be forthcoming about this new offering to our member owners, and patrons. E-mail us at vcinc@hit.net COMARK GRAIN MARKETINGNovember News As I write this on Nov. 3, over half the fall crops are still in the field. Approximately 9 million bu. have been harvested so far in the CGM group of elevators. Dryland corn is the only crop that is substantially harvested. A very frustrating fall for producers who want to harvest at high moisture levels, and coop managers who must limit that moisture in order not to have a disaster on their hands with spoiled grain in the bin. The good news is that the best grain dryer there is has finally arrived. Sunshine, a good breeze and low humidity. This unusual fall weather has brought much discussion about the need for grain dryers. Only ten years ago it would have been hard to imagine that today our crop mix in south central ks. would be 40% corn, beans, milo, cotton, sunflowers and canola. That crop mix brings a lot of challenges to the country elevators that were designed to handle one crop---dry wheat. Each cooperative must look ahead, evaluating their needs in the coming years. Dryers are expensive but can be a good investment if the need to use them is there nearly every year. On the other hand, if they will be used only 1 out of every 10 or 20 years, that would probably not be a good use of the money you have invested in your cooperative. When this crop is in the bin and some of the emotion has passed, many coop managers and boards will be evaluating facilities to more effectively handle this increase in crop diversity. Three months ago “available space” was a huge concern. Space is still an issue, but the weather delays have allowed time for more grain to be moved to market and storage. On Sept. 18, Danville Coop opened their 3.3 million bu. elevator at Wellington and it was added to the CGM grain license. Today there is 1.4 million bu. of grain in the facility and more will be added as harvest progresses. Long term, this will allow us to carry more grain in locally owned elevators and attract additional members that may be storage deficit. Another calendar year is nearly behind us. We have one coop member that ends their fiscal year in Oct. and one in Nov., both are expecting solid results. CGM has paid out to the members $12.5 million in cash for storage, handling and profit so far this calendar year, and we are expecting a favorable audit at year-end. We have a very good staff of people in place at all levels that make this cooperative marketing model successful. It is truly a cooperative effort from the field to the market. CGM and Comark Inc. have outgrown the facility we are currently in. In September we broke ground on a facility that will provide us with room for growth and also provide the Farmers Coop Elevator with administrative offices. The building sits on main street at the south end of Cheney. Completion is scheduled for late January. Every year has it’s challenges and 2009 was no exception. But, rain makes grain and we have been blessed with plenty of it. Thanks to everyone for your business this year, please remember your local coop employees with a kind word this fall, they are the backbone of your businesses. David Smith
Yes it is time again to be looking at your seed inputs for the coming year. We are carrying quality Dyna-Gro seed as well as Cropland Genetics for all of your planning needs. Best time of the year for pricing your seed input needs is now. On the reverse of this sheet are our ‘Early Pay’ and Volume Discounts. Best pricing is before November 15, 2009. Also this year I would like to let you all know that we have a retail Seed and Agronomy Fieldperson. Kirk Kennedy has accepted the position as of November 1, 2009. Kirk has been a valued employee of Valley Coop for many years as the Atlanta branch manager. He brings years of seed and agronomy experience to the table for your benefit. He will be in the field promoting primarily seed, but also will be able to help with your fertilizer and chemical needs as well. Please welcome Kirk to this new position within Valley Coop when you see him. He can be reached at 620-394-2290 ( Atlanta office ) or 620-229-0312 cell number.
Cooperatively, Richard Kimbrel General Manager Valley Coop, Inc. 620-221-4343
COMARK GRAIN MARKETING LLC JULY NEWS 2009 is half gone and another wheat harvest is all but in the bin. This seems like another odd weather year but even after 32 years in the business I am not sure what normal is any more. Late freeze, too wet, and very cool temps through May had me thinking of a very poor crop. I tend to be somewhat of a pessimist and my prediction this harvest followed that trend. 24 million bushels of wheat have been hauled in so far. 72% of last year’s receipts and 80% of the five-year average. Average test weight is 59#, again much better than I expected. Average protein estimated in the upper 10’s. Nothing the flourmills will get very excited about. The west side of the territory had much better yields than the east side. Many acres were uncut and zeroed out by insurance in the southeast quadrant. We are hoping for a big crop from the east side this fall. On July 2nd we had bought approx. 17% of the 2009 crop or 4 million bushels. Over 3 million bushels of wheat is still being stored by producers from previous crop years, the oldest dating back to 1997 and some from each crop year since then. Therefore, producers are storing over 23 million bushels of wheat in the CGM elevators. The financial performance of CGM is encouraging and we are expecting solid results at the end of the year. $7.6 million has been distributed to the member coops so far this year. Now the hardest part starts for many producers “marketing”. No one can predict the markets but your local coop grain personnel may be able to help you set some marketing goals. The first and most important step is to know your cost of production. One of our long-term goals is to provide producers with the tools to make good marketing decisions. Thanks to everyone for using your local coop to handle your grain. Your coop employees do an excellent job to handle a very large quantity of grain in a short period of time. From all of us at CGM we hope you have a good summer. David Smith Sunflowers accepted at our Atlanta and Winfield locations In an effort to better serve our patrons, Valley Coop, Inc will accept Black Oil NuSun Sunflowers at both our Winfield and Atlanta locations. This will better serve both our northern and southern territories with more centralized delivery points. We will only accept "NuSun" variety Sunflowers at this time. Moisture content below 12% and preferably around 10% or less will be handled. We hope this change will be of benefit to our producers and allow for shorter delivery distances. |
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