the development of the cooperative. They Inform the general public, particularly young people and opinion leaders, about the nature and benefits of the cooperation.

6) COOPERATION AMONG COOPERATIVES: Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures.

7) CONCERN FOR COMMUNITY: Cooperatives support the needs and interests of the community they serve. They encourage feedback from members on how to best provide support to the people and causes that promote sustainable communities.

Here at Graymont cooperative, we work hard every day to do our best in holding up these core principles. This is your company and we want you to be proud to be an Owner. We look forward to serv-ing your needs this fall and wish you a safe and bountiful harvest.

Matt Jacobs

General Manager

As we prepare for another harvest, we look forward to the ability to provide value to our cooperative patrons. By doing so, I would like to take this opportunity to share the 7 core principles of any Co-operative. (From the IL

Cooperaitve Council)

1) VOLUNTARY & OPEN MEMBERSHIP: Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all people able to use the provided services and willing to accept the responsibilities of membership, without, gender, social, racial, political or religious discrimination.

2) DEMOCRATIC MEMBER CONTROL: Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting policies and making decisions. A board of directors is comprised of co-op members elected by their peers who are acoountable to the membership. Members have equal voting rights – one member, one vote.

3) MEMBERS’ ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION: Membership can be issued in the form “Common or Preferred” stock or a membership certificate. Members

contribute equitably to, and democratically control, the capital of their cooperative. When profitable, members allocate surpluses for any of the following purposes: patronage earnings, developing the cooperative, setting up capital reserves,; benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative; and sup-porting other activities or community initiatives approved by the membership.

4) AUTONOMY & INDEPENDENCE: Cooperatives govern themselves, with decisions and direction made by the membership. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, the do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.

5) EDUCATION, TRAINING, & INFORMATION: Cooperatives prioritize educational and training opportunities for their members, elected representatives, managers and employees so they can contribute effectively to

Words from the General Manager

The Graymont Granger

“Be sure to put

your feet in the

right place, then

stand firm.”

—Abraham

Lincoln

Graymont Coop Association August 2017 Issue 15

Inside this issue:

The Insurance Corner 2

Making a Standard

of Quality Feed

2

The Agronomy Route 3

New Dana

Construction Pics

4

Thresherman’s

Reunion Schedule

5

The Grain Line 6

Picking the Right

Seed for You

7

With harvest rapidly approaching, we want you to have the following information: 1. SCHEDULE OF INSURANCE – You should soon receive your 2017 Federal Crop Schedule of Insurance which will list your crop, locations, interest in the crop, acres, plant dates and guarantees. No matter what crop insurance company you use, it is very important to check to make sure these items are correct. No one knows your farming operation better than yourself. An error can affect a claim payment, so it is important to check the Schedule of Insurance for accuracy. 2. POTENTIAL CLAIMS – Since we always have the potential to have claims, we want to remind you of a few important points: a. CARRY-OVER GRAIN – If you have any carry-over grain, you MUST have an adjuster measure the grain prior to harvest. Other-

wise, the carry-over grain will be added to this year’s production. Make arrangements ASAP for measurement. b. COMMINGLING OF GRAIN – If you are commingling grain, be sure to mark the bin between units. Note date and unit. DO NOT commingle grain on the same elevator delivery sheet. c. DELIVERY & SALE OF GRAIN – Be sure that grain is delivered and sold according to the way the policy is written. A claim may be denied if the grain is delivered and sold in the name of a person who is not the insured, or spouse. VERY IMPORTANT. d. PRODUCTION LOSSES - Must be submitted within 15 days after harvest of the UNIT. If you have an ENTERPRISE UNIT, you can wait to report a production loss until harvest is complete. However, if you have BASIC or OPTIONAL UNITS, you need to report a production loss

The Insurance Corner

Maintaining a Standard of Quality Feed

standards high and have made progress since our last one.

We take great pride in our feed program. We strive to make the highest quality feed for your livestock and put an emphasis on safety in our production practices. If you ever have any questions about anything, please do not hesitate to call us. We greatly appreciate your business and are here to serve you in all of your livestock feed needs. Thanks you and have a safe fall.

Since our last newsletter in April, the GCA Feed Mill has been very busy and made a lot of changes. We added another employee, Aaron Hallmark, in the spring and had a summer intern, Blake Edwards, who was a great addition for the busy schedule and operations that the Mill experienced this summer. We also added another semi and long trailer to increase our shipping capacity.

On June 13th of this year, we had our routine feed audit by our parent company Purina Feeds. This is done every 3 years by a company representative to double check our production practices and plant to ensure that we are doing everything according to their requirements in order to maintain a clean, healthy product for our feed patrons. They also give us advice and guidance on any changes that are coming in the regulatory world to keep ahead of the game and be prepared when it happens. We scored very high on our audit and the representative was very happy that we have kept our production

Page 2 The Graymont Granger

“No matter

what crop

insurance you

use, it is very

important to

check to make

sure … items

are correct.”

Insurance Agent

Donna Van

Weelden

Insurance Agent

Dee Winterrowd

Graymont Coop Feed Mill

Insurance Agent

Abby Mays

Cont. on page 6

Is the 2017 spraying season over? It seemed like an eternity after the slow start to the spraying and planting season. We all sat not so patiently as the wet weather kept everyone out of the field for the first part of the spring. 2016 was an early jump to the season, but 2017 felt like we were never going to get the crops in the ground. However, we got a good run towards the middle to the end of April before Mother Nature shut us down for a couple weeks and got back rolling again. Even with the late planting though, everything around the Graymont area seems to look pretty good at this time.

The 2017 spraying season will

be one that most of us will never forget. The corn application seemed to never end and the beans were a challenge with all of the different trait platforms in the

marketplace. All of the corn for the most part looks pretty good for weed control in most areas of our company. There are some areas that we will see come next year in the beans and that may be a challenge depending on what trait platform seems to

be the most efficient come next spring. The difference in the different traits on the bean side definitely causes a struggle for retailers that handled all three. It will be an interesting conversation as we see how Liberty and Dicamba discussions continue throughout the winter and what we may see for regulations next spring.

We as a retailer did see a lot of success with fall spraying last year and the help with weed pressure this spring in those fields. The early onset of the warm weather in February really made that fall spraying look good especially since it was so long before we could get any sort of pre-burndown put on. We will see a lot more of that this coming fall I am sure, but time will tell.

We will look to get an early jump on any soil testing that may need done this fall. It seems like the fall time we can never get that in early enough, especially with the flood of testing going on during that time. If you would like to check past soil tests and get a game plan for recommenda-tions, please stop by our office to discuss some strategies.

Thank you for your business and we look forward to helping you this fall.

Phil Rich, Agronomy Manager

Keeping it Rolling—The Agronomy Route

Issue 15

“We will look

to get an early

jump on any

soil testing

that may need

done this fall.”

Page 3

Philip Rich

Agronomy Manager

Page 4 The Graymont Granger

New Construction in Dana

Issue 15 Page 5

The Central States Thresherman’s Reunion is going on Thursday August 31st-Monday September 4th

when you complete harvest of the individual basic or optional unit (basic or optional units are usually set up by farm or section). e. BASE PRICE for 2017 - Corn - $3.96, Beans - $10.19 3. SILAGE APPRAISAL – Silage appraisals are needed for all fields being chopped. The field will need to be opened before the appraisal can be completed. 4. 2018 WHEAT – The sales closing date for wheat is Sept. 30. Any new business, cancellations, or changes for 2018 wheat need to be completed by that date. 5. FIELD FIRE REMINDER – Federal crop policies only cover field fire caused by lightning. All other field fire damage must be covered by a hail policy, a farm policy, or a field fire policy. We are able to write a field fire only policy for $.20/$100 of coverage. Ask us for more information.

Have a safe harvest.

Donna, Dee and Abby

Insurance Corner Continued

The Grain Line

Is this how you have felt with your marketing this year? Do not worry, you are not alone. The stagnant environment for beans and especially corn has been excruciating since last fall. But as a wise man once said, “prices will go back up. Might take 5 or 6 years, but it will happen again.” That might not be very comforting, but there may still be some hope.

Since harvest wrapped up last fall, corn prices have relatively stayed in a 40 cent trading range. This does very little to entice selling. As mentioned in the last newsletter, we came off of a huge crop, one of about 4 consecutive, and it has just been difficult using a lot of it up. South America had a very good crop too, making it tough for us to compete on the world export stage. As we approach a new grain season though, there may be some support yet.

Since the market hit longtime highs in the first half of July, corn has been hammered left and right on the July and August USDA reports. While many think these numbers are over-projected, it is unfortunately the leading information traders use. One piece of advice given after the August report was to keep an eye on the Pro Farmer Tour that wrapped up last Thursday August 24th. Unfortunately the projected numbers did not drop as much as we would have liked. But in talking with many brokers and scouts throughout the Midwest and looking at local yield checks, there may be a silver lining. Of all the yield checks we have gotten information on, It has been consistently 7-15% less yield projected than last year. The way the growing season has been, we might not

get a good post-harvest look until closer to winter. But if when we get this crop in the bins and these observations hold up on the dramatic loss of projected bushels, there should be some fuel for a boost. It just might take a while to be realized.

On the bean side, it has been a little more of a wild ride. The volatility of prices has been much more extravagant than corn. And this has to do with many of the same aspects; the major South American crop, crushing at maximum capacity, etc. One thing that is putting more pressure on beans though is the astronomical acreage number for this year’s crop. With places like the Dakotas and other parts of the country that are better able to raise soybeans and corn prices being as weak as they are, we have seen a large push of bean acres this year. While reports indicate that bean conditions are struggling in certain growing areas, there is still a huge number coming into an already saturated bean market. Chinese demand has and will be a major crutch for this. The question will be do they turn to U.S. beans or South American beans. But just as with the corn, we will have to wait and see after the combines quit for the season if we have the crop the experts are projecting.

As always, there are certain tools to help weather the storm and minimize costs. Buying calls is one strategy that eliminates storage costs by selling your physical grain and taking ownership of it through paper contracts. This helps you stay in the game for however many months you decide to go out while limiting your downside risk. Basis contracts are another way to absolve storage costs. With these, you lock in a basis level for a certain contract month and price the futures side of it sometime before that month arrives. This still holds downside risk, but helps lower holding expenses. If wanted, we can also set you up with an average pricing plan to help automatically initiate sales of your stored grain over a certain period of time to take the stress and uncertainty out of the

picture. If you have any questions about any of these strategies, the markets in general, fall policies, or anything else grain related, please give us a call in Graymont or Long Point. We will be happy to talk to you and determine a marketing strategy you are comfortable with. We look forward to serving your harvesting needs this fall and appreciate your business.

Brad Follmer

herbicide technologies is going to be a must for some as well. We have several options to switch to with the availability of Liberty beans, Xtend beans and possibly Enlist beans.

Our corn crop faced a wide variety of stress this year. Planting season was quite a challenge again and cool wet weather made it difficult to get our corn crop in. When we did get it in, the weather turned cold and wet immediately after affecting our stands and early season vigor. We have faced hot and dry in July during pollination and have continued dry through August, but a saving grace has been that it is much cooler this month. History tells us our yield should be hampered some; just how much has yet to be determined.

Soybeans also faced many challenges, starting with the task of

Wow! What a year it has been again. I am starting to wonder what a normal year is and I am sure many of you are as well. This year we were able to make timely herbicide applications, but we experienced extremely hot and dry conditions that made it difficult to kill weeds. We are all going to experience some sort of weed problems by the end of this growing season due to the hot temperatures in our post herbicide applications that took place last month. We are already seeing the results on some fields. Keep this in mind for this winter when we start talking about chemical programs for next spring. A strong pre-residual herbicide is going to be a must on every acre next year whether it is corn or beans followed by two ramped up post emergence herbicide applications. Switching

getting them in the ground on time. We also faced moisture shortage causing rows not to close and again the challenge of waterhemp has been as prevalent as ever. Sudden death I would imagine will start showing up soon, but white mold should not be an issue with our lack of rainfall.

As we get to the end of this current crop, it is time to start thinking about seed orders for the coming year. We have our corn plot on Rt. 116 with all the corn genetics in it, including the newest ones coming out for the 2018 growing season. It is open to the public and anyone is welcome anytime. We have a Liberty Link soybean plot as well as a Roundup Xtend, both on Rt. 116.

If anyone has concerns or just curious about the crop in the field, give me a call and I am more than happy to come out and walk fields. Thank you for your business.

Dan Herr 815-867-0042

Grain Department

PO Box 98

403 N. Main St.

Graymont, IL 61743

Phone: 815-743-5321

Fax: 815-743-5759

E-mail: grain@gcacoop.com

www.graymontcoop.com

Feed Department (815)743-5747

Agronomy Department (815)743-5701

Insurance Department (815)743-5982

Long Point and Dana (815)854-2444 Long Point

Internet Department (815)867-0016

Have a Safe and Happy Spring from

Everyone at the Graymont Coop!!

Have a Safe and Enjoyable

Harvest from everyone at

THE Graymont Coop!!

Picking the Right Seed for You