culture if the legislation passed. It added

up to numbers with a lot of zeros and huge

job losses, and even more people in the

world would starve as the cost of food

would skyrocket. A bigger share of our

food, feed, and fuel would be imported,

putting us at a greater food safety risk and

greater dependence on others. We didn’t

think our representatives would vote for it,

especially after the results of the Massa-

chusetts election, but with the support of

President Obama, we believe the EPA will

put rules in place to make cap and trade

happen. We really need to realize that

without two inches of top soil and timely

rains we wouldn’t exist. Getting that mes-

sage across will be tough.

On another note closer to home, the Ot-

tawa County farmland preservation board

is continuing to accomplish setting up a

way to preserve farmland for generations

to come. We need to find a way to fund the

program. Several possibilities are being

explored, from working with The Commu-

nity Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland

Area, to private funding and getting in-

volved with government grants. Greg

DeJong, a local realtor and member of the

board, donated $1,000 toward the PDR

program. We want to congratulate Greg

on being the first to donate. We appreci-

ate his support. There’s a press release in

this newsletter (back page) giving infor-

mation on where to send donations. Our

nation’s and our family’s existence de-

pends on a safe, stable food supply, so we

thank all who can support.

At ZFS, we had a very busy fall and winter.

It was a good harvest for quantity, but the

cool summer was tough on quality. We did

manage to get the crop in and completed

a soybean meal storage building in early

winter. It’s smoothing out the supply of

meal and improving our customer service.

We’re also planning a project that will in-

crease the daily output of the plant by 15

percent, with completion planned for fall.

We took a step into the corn processing

industry by investing in a facility in Cam-

bridge, Nebraska. ZFS invested in Ne-

braska Corn Processing, LLC (NCP)

™

, the

company that recently acquired the facil-

ity. The two-year-old plant ran into finan-

cial trouble and shut down after nine

months of operation. NCP now has the

task of starting the plant from a cold idle

status, which is a long process. NCP has

hired over 30 people who have diligently

taken the plant apart, rebuilt it, and are

working to restart it. When operational, it

will process 16 million bushels of corn into

400,000 tons of wet distillers grains and

44 million gallons of ethanol per year.

We look at ZFS as working in an industry

that needs to continuously grow and inno-

vate. We need to find new opportunities to

serve our customers and employ good

people and continue to look for markets

for ag products to benefit our customers.

The people at ZFS thank you for the op-

portunity to serve you and will continue to

work at all times to earn your business.

Zeeland Farm Services, Inc. Spring 2010

Winter is going, going, gone. We had an

interesting winter with many things hap-

pening. For instance, can you imagine the

democrats losing the Kennedy seat in

Massachusetts? Did you ever think a

global warming conference in Washington,

D.C. would be canceled because of a

snowstorm? These are amazing times. It

makes me think that some people give oth-

ers way too much credit for what goes on

in this world.

Recently, I attended an ag conference. The

main discussion topic was the cap and

trade legislation. It was educational, and

after careful examination, it looks like the

legislation could take approximately 75 to

80 million acres of cropland out of produc-

tion and turn it to trees. It seems that trees

use more CO

2

than crops. Unfortunately,

people don’t eat trees. We started adding

up what would happen to American agri-

Grain Division. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Specialty Seeds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Ingredients Division. . . . . . . . . . . .4

Transportation Division . . . . . . . .5

Soybean Processing Plant andRefinery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Specialty Oils Division. . . . . . . . . .7

Market Sensitive Reports. . . . . . . .8

By Cliff Meeuwsen What’s Happening at ZFS?

The ZFS Agrisource Page 2 Spring 2010

ZF

SA

nniv

ersa

r ies

Randy Haney

Transportation

Michael Haveman

Transportation

Evan Koeman

Transportation

Ron VandeWalle

Transportation

Tom Green

Transportation

Peter Pols

Transportation

Bob Forrest

Transportation

AccountingBentley Kollen…24

Corey Eding…13Matt Gorman…10

Cathy Dutkiewicz…8Jessica Wolters…4

Roger Brower…2Michele Hildenbrand…1

AdministrationCathie Meeuwsen…24

Pam Meeuwsen…8Patricia Brower…4Cheryl Heeres…4

Tonia May…1

DispatchJill Barnes-Caudill…9

Denny Irwin…3Dave Stewart (WI)…2

ElevatorTim Storms…21

Deb Larson…6Shirley Lindsley…3

Brad Jager…2

IngredientsJanie Gonzalez…3

MaintenanceRob Rander…26

Roger Hopkins…14Pete Valentine…4

Adam Zwagerman…1

RefineryGreg McPherson…7

Mark Veltman…6

SafetyMary Carper…4

Bridgette Rillema…2

Soybean PlantTom Willcome…14

Dwight Herring…12Dave Koopman…7

Brad Boerigter…6Kevin Kroeze…3

TransportationJack Buikema…19

Rick Gilman…9Vern Hirdes…7Chris Marks…7

Garry Champion…6Ryan TerBeek…5

Al Christensen…4Ricky Little…4

Pat Burchardt…3Ed Koehne…3

Jerry Palmer…3Mike Wrightsman…3

Gaylan Attema…2Nathan Knapp…2

David Kroff…2Arturo Munoz…2

Marty Perez…2Aaron Smith…2

Since 1950, ZFS has grown from a tri-state agricultural and transportation company focused on grain and produce to a multifaceted company that serves the Midwestern and Southeastern U.S. as well as Asia. We’re always looking for new opportunities and strive to expand our products and services to offer you more options.

GrowthEmployee Recognition

Paul Farris

Transportation

Michael Becksvoort

Transportation

The ZFS Agrisource Page 3 Spring 2010

Grain Division

Specialty Seeds

w w w . z f s i n c . c o m

ary? All these questions we would like an-

swered, but we’ll most likely need to react

by what USDA gives us as a “guesstima-

tion” until the next report when they make

further adjustments.

Another key factor over the next few

months we need to watch closely is the

South American harvest. Most analysts

are still forecasting a huge crop, and when

they get rolling into harvest, it could really

put pressure on our prices. Their soy-

beans hitting the market, increased hedg-

ing for farmer sales, and the possible

slowing down of U.S. exports will likely be

determining factors.

Contact GRAIN DIVISION

Kurt BergstedtJeff JohnstonTravis Marshall

It seems like we had a short winter, but in

reality, corn harvest for most of us ran into

December. Now that harvest has wrapped

up for most of us comes the daunting task

of merchandising the crop and making

sure it stays in condition.

We’re encouraging everyone to keep an

eye on their bins and to pull some bushels

out on a regular basis to ensure grain

quality. We would like to offer you the op-

portunity to send us samples of your corn

so we can check the test weight, moisture,

FM, and vomitoxin levels before we ship

it and lower the risk of it getting rejected

at the delivery point. Frost laws are also a

concern in March and April, so if you know

you’re not on class A roads and need

bushels moved or cash flow by selling

some grain, please have a game plan or

call Greg VanderWal at 800.748.0595 to

schedule a truck.

In our last newsletter, we recommended

you have 50 percent of your crops sold for

2010 new crop. Since that publication,

we’ve seen corn drop over $0.50, soy-

beans lose over $1, and wheat fall $0.50

per bushel. Even with those losses, we

still want to encourage you to have targets

in with us. Levels to shoot for are $9 on

soybeans, $3.75 to $4 on corn, and $5 on

wheat for new crop deliveries.

Two big dates to watch as far as USDA

crop reports are the March 10 monthly

crop production and supply and demand

reports and the March 31 planting inten-

tions report. The USDA didn’t have a crop

production change for February, and in

January’s report, Uncle Sam put 500 mil-

lion bushels of corn still standing in the

field in the “on-farm storage” number. Will

they make adjustments? Has the crop

size grown or decreased? Will they adjust

the increased acres they “found “in Janu-

866.888.1839grain@zfsinc.com

The following checklist summarizes man-

agement practices that are proven to con-

tribute to higher-yielding soybeans.

Fall

• Avoid soil compaction during harvest

and tillage operations.

• Take soil samples for nutrient and pH

analysis.

• Collect and submit soil samples for soy-

bean cyst nematodes.

• Apply lime and broadcast potash if

needed.

• Select high-yielding, well-adapted vari-

eties.

Spring

• Inspect, repair, and calibrate planting

equipment.

• Control weeds prior to planting.

• Broadcast potash on coarse textured or

organic soils if needed.

• Apply phosphate fertilizers if recomm-

ended.

• Plant soybeans early in good soil condi-

tions.

• Inoculate seed whenever soybeans are

planted.

(More on page 6)

The ZFS Agrisource Page 4 Spring 2010

Ingredients DivisionCanola Meal

The supply chain remains tight as proces-

sors deal with salmonella issues. Expect

this to continue for some time. Availability

is limited but improving.

Citrus Pulp Pellets

Expecting a relatively short season this

year due to adverse weather conditions.

Availability should remain constant, but

values are inching up.

Distillers Dry Grains (DDGs)

This market has taken a beating with tox-

ins and the hog industry backing off con-

sumption as well as exports, bringing

values back for beef and dairy markets.

DDGs are a very welcomed feed alterna-

tive as other protein ingredients remain

steady. Supply is good in the wet market

also or may be at an advantage. We get

weekly updates on toxin levels in products

at facilities, so ask your merchandiser as

there are different levels and values.

Gluten Feed

Since December, this market has been

tight as processors run in slow motion and

domestic demand remains strong. Product

will remain steady through April with pres-

sure into spring. Keep an eye on the U.S.

dollar for indication of export demand—it

remains unattractive for increased pro-

cessing and forward sales. Wet and dry

pellets are available. Let us know your

needs.

Hominy

Following the corn trend, down values

have been softening. Supply remains

good and value relative to corn has been

steady.

Soybean Hulls (Pellets)

Availability has been good, but expect this

to decline as export demand for meal de-

creases and processors reduce crush in

response to waning demand during South

American harvest. Could be a short-term

issue.

Wheat Midds

Values have been firm relative to corn as

demand has been strong against other

corn replacements suffering with toxin is-

sues. Expect midds to become more com-

petitive as rations switch to represent

more current values.

Cottonseed Roller Coaster Ride

We all can appreciate outside forces that

make things happen on our farms and in

our lives. Let’s look at what happens when

we buy a ticket for the cottonseed roller

coaster ride:

• Cause: low U.S. dollar value. Effect: in-

creased foreign demand.

• Cause: increased foreign demand. Ef-

fect: fewer products for the domestic

feed market—higher prices.

• Cause: excessive rains during harvest.

Effect: poor conditions for picking and

ginning.

• Cause: poor harvest conditions. Effect:

cottonseed may not store well in warm

Southern climates.

• Cause: poor storeability. Effect: possible

lower prices now through spring and

higher prices during the summer mon-

ths.

• Cause: lower stocks of cotton fiber. Ef-

fect: increased plantings this spring.

• Cause: increased plantings this spring.

Effect: more cottonseed in 2010 and

2011 for your dairy ration!

As you can see, we’ll probably see insta-

bility in cottonseed prices between now

and fall, but with increased plantings this

spring, white fuzzy cottonseed should

make its way back to more dairies.

Valero Hi Pro Meal

Protein levels continue to run in the low 40

percent. The fat average has been 5 per-

cent. This product has been very consis-

tent and priced off a basis to the soybean

meal market. Not only does this product

supply a greater amount of protein at a re-

duced cost, thus reducing the need for

other supplemental protein sources, but it

also maintains high bypass protein feed-

stuffs in dairy rations.

Valero Germ

Primarily used in poultry diets, this corn

germ has been consistently running with

(More on page 5)

14.92 percent protein and 19.41 percent

Contact INGREDIENTS DIVISIONmi_ingredient@zfsinc.comwi_ingredient@zfsinc.comga_ingredient@zfsinc.com

Michigan Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866.888.7082Shannon Caudill • Dan MeeuwsenMichelle Robinson • John Trumble

Billing InquiriesAnnette Brown • Janie Gonzalez

Michele Hall • Sandy Tryon

Wisconsin Office. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .800.523.6760James Coomer • Kevin LarsonWayne Larson • Jeff O’Leary

Georgia Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .888.281.1003Ray Williams

Contact TRANSPORTATION DIVISIONmi_freight@zfsinc.com

Greg VanderWal Grain Hauling 800.748.0595Jill Barnes-Caudill and Mike Keeler Bulk and Commercial Commodities 800.968.4507Jamie Andrews Tanks and Containers 800.968.4507Chris Laarman and Travis Overway Maintenance Garage and Wash Bay 800.748.0595Dave Stewart Wisconsin Transportation 800.523.6760Jeff Griffith Florida Transportation 888.826.6809

Transportation DivisionAs of February, it has been a relatively mild

winter compared to the last few years.

Hopefully that doesn’t change in the next

couple of weeks. Other than the holiday

weeks, freight has been steady for the last

few months. A late harvest kept the multi-

axle trucks busier than normal during De-

cember and January. The regional dumps,

tankers, and containers have also been

busy so far this year.

We would like to thank all of our customers

for their business as well as the opportu-

nity to keep everyone working. Our goal is

to provide a high level of service while

keeping the cost of transportation as low

as possible. Please let us know how we’re

doing and what you would like us to do dif-

ferently.

Fuel prices have been steady for about a

year, which is something we can easily get

used to. We continue to look for ways to

burn less fuel and prepare for when prices

become more volatile. In the fall of 2009,

ZFS’ fleet had the best fuel mileage ever

recorded. That average is definitely

knocked down during the winter months.

Trucks simply consume more fuel to go

down the road when the air is cold. In-

creased idling, messy roads, and windy

conditions further decrease the chance of

getting good fuel mileage during the win-

ter. As a result, trucks consume 10 to 15

percent more fuel to drive the same

amount of miles during the colder months.

Thanks to all of the drivers for their extra

effort in doing what they can to save fuel.

Driving a truck during the winter is espe-

cially tough. Conditions often require driv-

ers to spend extra time and effort to get to

their destinations. Once they arrive, they

have to deal with frozen loads, tarps, tail-

gates, doors, dolly legs, and fingers. A few

weeks of this makes everyone appreciate

the warmer weather when it arrives. With

that said, ZFS continues to accept driver

applications. Full-time positions are lim-

ited, but we continue to hire part-time driv-

ers. Applications are available at www.

zfsinc.com/careers and at our Zeeland

offices.

Equipment for Sale

We continue to upgrade our fleet and have

several used trucks for sale. All of our

equipment is well maintained from start to

finish. Please call Kurt Meeuwsen at 800.

748.0595 if you’re interested or have que-

stions about used equipment.

Maintenance Garage and Wash Bay

Our maintenance shop is open 24 hours

Sunday night through Friday night. On top

of maintaining our own fleet, we offer com-

petitive rates and quality service on

medium to heavy duty equipment. Oil

changes, computer diagnostics, brakes,

air conditioning, hydraulics, and all types

of welding are a few of the available serv-

ices. Please call Chris Laarman for an es-

timate. The wash bay is open 7 a.m. to 10

p.m. Monday to Friday and until noon on

Saturday. Stop in and check it out or call

Travis Overway to schedule a wash.

The ZFS Agrisource Page 5 Spring 2010

w w w . z f s i n c . c o m

fat. Availability has been limited due to a

slower grind rate at the plant. This product

can replace a high-cost liquid fat in rations

and be used as a partial replacement for

corn or other grain in the diet. Additionally,

it provides multiple carbohydrate sources,

which allow more efficient rumen function.

Valero Bran and Syrup Mix

This product is comparable to wet gluten

feed with 50 percent DM (dry matter) and

a 16 percent protein average. The main

difference is that the fat average is 5.5 per-

cent. A few features and benefits of this

product are its longevity and resilience to

freezing. It also mixes well in a TMR (total

mix ration) and is very palatable. Availabil-

ity remains solid.

Continued from page 4

We made it through another winter here in the soybean plant.

The season brought us some heavy snow and cold mornings,

but nothing that led to any major operational issues with the

plant. The relatively mild winter has kept a steady flow of soy-

beans coming in to keep our inventory strong.

Our new flat storage barn for regular soybean meal is working

well with the first meal being put in it on Thanksgiving week-

end. The flexibility that this building provides should lead to

greater efficiency when it comes to our specialty meal runs and

help us provide better service to our regular meal customers.

For our regular meal customers, this storage barn should en-

sure we have a supply of soybean meal through our spring and

fall shutdowns.

The soybean plant continues to run at record production levels

as far as bushels crushed and meal produced. One challenge

we’ve experienced is that last year’s cooler growing season

has led to a crop that’s yielding far less oil per bushel than in

previous years.

Our spring shutdown is scheduled for sometime in April. We’ll

do our normal cleaning, maintenance, and inspections as well

as prep work for some equipment updating that will occur in

the fall that will increase our oil extracting and distillation ca-

pacity as we anticipate a return to more normal oil yields for

the upcoming crop.

Soybean Oil Refinery

Since the beginning of harvest, we’ve been successfully run-

ning one to two types of specialty IP soybean oils nearly every

week in the refinery. This is the first time we’ve run this much

specialty oil on a continual basis this far into the year. We also

hardly ever ran multiple specialties in one week due to storage

constraints. The five new storage tanks have played a key role

in making this possible by allowing extra storage of the crude

oils so they’re readily available when needed in addition to hav-

ing the storage space for the multiple finished products.

Even though there are many extra things to take into account

when switching back and forth from different types of oils, qual-

ity hasn’t suffered at all. As advances are made in health sci-

ence, we plan to move our IP process forward in order to

continue to provide our customers with healthy varieties of soy-

bean oils.

Soybean Processing Plant and Refinery

The ZFS Agrisource Page 6 Spring 2010

For more information, visit http://web1.ms

ue.msu.edu/soybean2010/.

Source: http://ipmnews.msu.edu/fieldcrop/fieldcrop/tabid/56/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1855/categoryId/2/Checklist-for-improving-soybean-yields.aspx

• Consider a soil-applied residual herbici-

de application followed by a post-emerg-

ence application for weed management.

• Plant in narrow rows at optimum depth:

¾” and 1¼”.

• Plant a range of maturity groups.

• Use seed treatments where warranted

and provide uniform seed coverage.

• Monitor fields closely beginning at emer-

gence.

• Apply post-emergence herbicides timely

and properly.

Summer

• Identify and correct manganese defici-

ency symptoms.

• Monitor and control soybean aphids.

Fall

• Harvest at the optimum stage and ad-

just combine settings to maximize yield

and quality.

Contact THE BEAN TEAM

Dan Bailey, CCA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616.437.3961Ed Ralston. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616.879.1712

Continued from page 3

Contact SPECIALTY OILS

Robb Meeuwsen800.748.0595

specialty_oil@zfsinc.com

The ZFS Agrisource Page 7 Spring 2010

Specialty Oils Division

w w w . z f s i n c . c o m

We’re excited to announce that we’re

adding two new varieties to the Zoye fam-

ily of oils: Zoye Liquid Margarine and

Zoye Creamy Frying & Cooking. Our

Zoye Low Sat soybean oil will be featured

on Lifetime television’s The BalancingAct, which will air April 2 and 30. Tune in

on these dates at 7:30 a.m. to see your

favorite local oil presented on national tel-

evision.

Other exciting news for Zoye is that we’ve

launched a new Web site. Check it out at

www.zoyeoil.com for recipes, health facts,

retailers, and more. Also, don’t forget to

become a fan of Zoye on Facebook and

to follow us on Twitter for up-to-date in-

formation on new and exciting things we

have coming up.

Market Update

Soybean oil has been locked in a trading

range between $0.36 and $0.39. The soy-

bean oil CBOT futures dropped the last

few weeks. The drop was caused by a

stronger dollar and less demand due to fi-

nancial issues around the world. South

America’s huge soybean crop is being

harvested, causing a pull back in soy-

beans, soybean meal, and soybean oil.

Soybean oil March futures traded under

$0.36 on January 29 but didn’t hold at

$0.35 for long. The up-front futures month

hasn’t closed under $0.36 since October

2009. The pull back was expected due to

South America’s harvest, with everyone

expecting an even bigger pull back to per-

haps $0.33.

The first week of February, the EPA re-

leased RFS2 (Renewable Fuels Stan-

dards) second edition. RFS2 lumps

2009’s mandated biodiesel gallons of 500

million and 2010’s mandated 650 million

gallons of biodiesel together and makes

the 2010 total gallons 1.15 billion gallons

to be used by the end of this year.

The RFS2 announcement caused a floor

of $0.36 on soybean oil futures. The fu-

tures market traded in a tight range

(around $0.36 to $0.37) for a few days fol-

lowing petroleum. On February 17, soy-

bean oil climbed to a high level of $0.39.

The futures market is already pricing in

this new demand for soybean oil.

Biodiesel has two major hurdles to over-

come before it will pull soybean oil mar-

ket share. The EPA needs to write the

mandate enforcement rules. Our Senate

and Congress need to pass the $1 per

gallon blender’s tax credit, which expired

on December 31 and was removed from

the recent jobs appropriations bill. With no

federal blender’s credit, the biodiesel in-

dustry is on hot idle waiting for our gov-

ernment to put differences aside and save

an industry. I believe the biodiesel indus-

try can’t hold hot idle for much longer and

will need to turn to cold idle if the mandate

rules and the blender’s credit aren’t re-

stored in the next few months.

Zeeland Farm Services, Inc.®P.O. Box 290 • 2525 - 84th Avenue

Zeeland, MI 49464

800.748.0595 • F: 616.772.7075

The data in this newsletter is provided for informational purposes only. Information is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but is in no way guaranteed. No guarantee of any kind is implied or possiblewhere projections of future conditions are attempted. In no event should the content of this newsletter be construed as an expressed or implied promise, guarantee, or implication by or from Zeeland Farm Services,

Inc. that you will profit or that losses can or will be limited in any manner whatsoever. No such promises, guarantees, or implications are given.

PRSRT STD

US POSTAGE

PAID

ZEELAND MI

PERMIT NO 57

A Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) pro-

gram is a voluntary program that compensates

owners of agricultural property in exchange for a

permanent deed restriction on their land. Per-

manently preserving agricultural land can help

discourage urban sprawl while encouraging de-

velopment in areas where public water and

sewer already exist. In addition, preserving pro-

ductive farmland can retain local agricultural pro-

ducers and other agricultural-related industries

in the region.

Based on various requests from local govern-

ments and agricultural producers, Ottawa

County has created a PDR program. The pro-

gram will increase access to state and federal

grants to preserve farmland. In 2009, Ottawa

County established the agricultural preservation

board to develop and oversee the program.

One of the challenges with PDR programs is ob-

taining funding not only for preserving land, but

also for marketing and administering the pro-

gram. At this time, Michigan is unable to grant

any funding for this purpose, and federal grants

require a large match. Due to these circum-

stances, the agricultural preservation board is

working to identify alternative means of raising

funding. In order to jump-start this effort, agricul-

tural preservation board member and local real-

tor Greg DeJong contributed the first private

donation on February 25.

If you would like to donate to the Ottawa County

PDR program, please make checks out to Ot-

tawa County Farmland Preservation Fund and

send them to the county treasurer at P.O. Box

310, West Olive, MI 49460. Donations of all sizes

are accepted. For further information, please

contact the Ottawa County Planning & Perform-

ance Improvement Department at 616.738.4658.

Ottawa County PDR Program

To signup for e-mails with the latest ZFS news and the markets, visit www.zfsinc.com/emailsignup.

If you use these sites, don’t forget to be-

come a fan of Zeeland Farm Services,

Inc. and Zoye 100% Pure Soybean Oils

and to follow us on Twitter.

Market Sensitive Reports

March 10USDA Crop Production

March 31USDA Projected Plantings

Report

April 2CBOT closed

April 9USDA Crop Production

May 11USDA Crop Production

May 31CBOT closed

®