FarmersCo-op Assoc.

January 2016 • Forest City, Iowa • Leland, Iowa • Kiester, Minnesota 99 Years Saluting Agriculture Every Day!

www.farmersca.comForest City • 406 East K St. • phone: 641-585-2814 or 800-483-6832 • fax: 641-585-2052

Leland • 609 B Street • phone: 641-567-3341 or 888-676-7439 • fax:641-567-3380 Kiester • 100 W. Front • phone: 507-294-3697 or 877-294-3697 • fax: 507-294-3540 • agronomy 507-294-3427

Forest City - Leland - Kiester

Farmers Coop Association Centennial Outlook

One hundred years ago this winter, a group of farmers met at the S.B. Durant home in Madison Township to discuss a new concept called “cooperative.” In a time where horses and steam engines dotted the countryside, local farmers saw the need to come together and form a system that would allow them to buy and sell in the open market in volume. Forest City had two rail lines that gave them access to Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Chicago markets. Farmers met during the winter of 1915 - 1916 to build what is today’s Farmers Coop Association. At the end of June we are going to celebrate 100 years so please mark it on your calendars!

Workshops for Gals

FCA and ISU Extension are offering Women Grain Marketing – Understanding the Basics and Beyond workshops on the basics of grain and livestock marketing. The introductory session and dinner meeting for couples on Tuesday, January 12, 2016, at 6:00 p.m. Workshop will follow in subsequent weeks. Call to register and for cost details. Registrations will be taken by Extension by calling 641-584-2261, 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

The Year in Review

It’s not been a good year for many investments from the stock market to commodities. If you heard or read on the news that agriculture just might be under stress this year, here are some of the reasons. It’s very rare when the agricultural community experiences below breakeven prices for both grains and livestock at the same time as it is doing currently. (All figures below in dollars.)

Market Prices January 1, 2014 January 1, 2015 January 1, 2016Corn 4.22 3.70 3.29Beans 12.50 9.69 8.16Hogs 60.25 75.23 52.23Cattle 138.00 162.00 134.0028% (per ton) 303.00 298.00 265.00Cardtrol Gas 3.15 1.95 1.75Cardtrol Diesel 3.99 2.86 2.06LP Heat 1.85 1.34 .86Farmland (per acre) 9263.00 7924.00 7415.00Winnebago 27.45 21.76 19.97Hormel 45.17 52.17 79.08John Deere 89.91 88.47 76.27

Moisture

Some years, like 2015, we did not hear many complaints at the Coop Coffee Council table about the weather. Everything fell into place for good growing conditions and a bumper crop but we did have a lot rainfall! In fact according to FarmLogs, Forest City had 45 percent more annual rainfall than the average.

Yearly Moisture Totals Forest City Leland Kiester GDDs2015 41.47 40.98 33.69 30372014 32.43 31.67 34.73 27532013 31.90 33.21 35.93 28672012 17.76 20.42 19.71 33492011 20.79 22.89 27.55 3009

Worth Your Time!

In the past 56 years, corn has closed lower at the end of the year 26 times. In 10 years subsequent to those 26, it also closed lower. Believe it or not, in three of those 10 years corn also closed lower. The good news is corn has never closed lower for four years consecutively and 2016 is the fourth year. On January 26, 2016, we are going to be cohosting a Marketing Outlook Seminar with MBT Banks and TSB Banks at the TSB Meeting Room. We will begin with a light lunch at noon with a meeting to follow at 1 pm. Guest speakers will be Joe Jungbauer and Mark Peterson from the Twin Cities. The two of them have over 65 years’ experience in commodities and will update you on the January grain report. Attendees will also view a 60 year chart that compares winter ice cover on the Great Lakes to national corn yield trends the following summer. It’s a little known research tool but you have to see it to believe its accuracy. Many farmers are looking at 2016 wondering how they can make an income and pay their health insurance. It always darkest before the dawn. Don’t miss this one!!

Down at the Cardtrols

Winners of free fuel at our Cardtrols are Tim Peterson, Randy Arrowsmith, Rod DeVries in Forest City and Ben Klunder in Kiester. Pumpin it Back 2 U recipients for January are Forest City Ambulance and Kiester Boy Scout Troop 30. Over the weekend, we want to alert those who with empty farm tanks, some analysts are predicting a 40 to 50 cent rise in fuel prices is probable. If you have empty barrels on location or want to book in your spring needs, you have a chance to at least smile about one of your spring crop inputs!

A New Year is Upon UsBy Kingsley Johnson

The holidays are past. I hope all of you had a happy holiday season with family and friends celebrating Christmas and bringing in the New Year.

This past year we were blessed with an excellent harvest. Nationally we have had two of the largest crop yields two years in a row. This has had the downside of lower prices as we work through the surplus supplies we have on hand.

As we plan for the next year, it is only natural that we wonder what our fields will yield. One of the factors affecting yield is our weather for the next growing season.

El Niño’s transition to La Niña has been in the news quite a bit. Some are predicting a rapid shift to La Niña. The speed of the transition can intensify or minimize the effects. The strongest El Niño events were in 1983, 1998, 2010, and 1973. All four years produced warmer conditions in the Midwest during the June to August period. 2010 was 14th warmest, 1998 the 37th warmest, and 1973 was the 40th warmest year. Rainfall patterns are less predictable. The summer of 1983 was the sixth driest and the summer of 2010 was the 14th wettest, with the other two years in the middle. This is because the dry areas sometimes shift to other areas such as the Deep South.

This shows that predicting our next growing season is a guess at best. However, the tendency for this weather pattern would be warmer weather with a possibility of some drought stress if we have a slow transition to La Niña. Time will tell.

Chipotle

A once popular, trendy restaurant chain is having some difficulties including E. coli now sickening over 500 customers nationwide. We can also say most farmers, especially livestock producers, are not really feeling sorry for Chipotle’s dive in popularity and stock collapse. Chipotle advertised themselves to be a trend setter in “healthy” foods by virtue of their animal strict production guidelines. They claimed their meat was antibiotic free where all American meat is antibiotic free thanks to FDA withdrawals and USDA inspectors in all meat plants. Advertising they were GMO free, the truth was found to be different in their beverages. Chipotle advertised “Food with Integrity” but have a 1300 calorie burrito on menu – more than four McDonald’s cheeseburgers. One analyst said they wanted farmers to raise livestock 1950s style while implementing 1930s food safety and that’s when the wheels came off the truck!

From the Feed DepartmentBy Mitch Thorson

As we enter a new year, we look back at 2015 and forward to 2016. Last year we saw a new challenge in the livestock industry with the bird flu epidemic. This has made poultry producers assess biosecurity protocols just as PEDV forced hog producers to implement stricter biosecurity rules to prevent disease outbreaks.

Beginning January 1, 2017, FDA rules on antibiotic use in livestock feed will be implemented. This year we will be preparing for this change by helping producers work with their veterinarians on having plans in place for diligent antibiotic use. These new rules and the events in the past have steered us into the “safe food era.”

We look forward in helping livestock producers continue to produce this wholesome safe food we have been accustomed to and produce it as efficiently as possible.

This past holiday season was a challenge with both Christmas and New Year’s day on Friday creating two weeks in a row of long weekends. Thank you to all for helping with early ordering and planning of feed needs. This helped us schedule deliveries and feed production sequencing as well as allowed the employees in the feed department to enjoy much deserved time off to spend with family and friends.

Thanks for your business and we look forward to working with you in 2016.

Liberty Guidelines 101

More studies are coming out about the timing of spraying different post emergence herbicides and weather conditions. Some farmers are switching to Liberty which kills nonresistant weeds. But there are some guidelines you need to know. Liberty works best when applied on days of sunshine between 10 am and 4 pm. If dry and warm, you can start spraying at dawn, but stop two hours before sunset. If application is done on a cloudy day, and clouds persist for three more days, performance could suffer. Beef up your AMS to the upper recommendations, but if temperatures go over 85 degrees while spraying, cut the AMS by 40 percent.

Photo Credit: United Soybean Board

Been a While?

If it has been a while since you have visited www.farmersca.com, it might be worth your time to check our website out and maybe put us in your favorites. There is almost every kind of information you need locally and around the globe to help you keep abreast of market conditions. The best part – it’s free including local radar!