NEWSLETTERJUNE 2018

FROM THE MANAGER’S DESK

June is a special time of year at your cooperative and in Wisconsin. Throughout the state, Wisconsin’s farmers are putting the final touches on this year’s row crops and harvesting forages at a feverish pace. The record rainfall and heat in much of our area has pushed even the late planted corn and beans ahead of schedule. Many of our local communities and counties will soon be holding their annual fair(s) and June Dairy Month celebrations will be taking place all over the state. By the time many of us sprinkle in a dozen or so graduation parties, even a brat and ice cream lover like myself may have a few regrets when I try to squeeze into last year’s swimsuit or shorts for a family day at the lake. If you can’t make it to these events, pick up some curds, brats, burgers, chicken, ice cream, and more and create your own celebration.

Thanks to the hardworking, dedicated farmers who provide all of us with the safest, best tasting, and most affordable food in the world.

Again, this year, I had the pleasure of stopping at several of our member’s farms to drop off stock retirement and patronage refund checks. The opportunity to stop and visit some members I’ve never had the chance to meet, or to catch up with some I haven’t seen in quite some time, is a real pleasure. Even more rewarding is handing them an unexpected check for the eligible retirement equity they have in the cooperative. Each of the members I had the pleasure of visiting this year were very surprised to be receiving their old eligible retirement equity. Several

commented that they never expected to live to see the equity retired. When we changed our equity management program in 2002, it was our goal to drive down the age at which our members received the old equity they had to pay the tax on. At the time, we had many millions of dollars of this old equity belonging to members as old as ninety plus. Today, we’ve driven the age down to 66 years old or younger, depending upon when the member joined Premier. We hit a milestone this year, having retired the eligible equity to our members who were part of Premier when the new program started in 2002, regardless of age. With your support, over the next few years we’ll continue to drive the age down until the equity issued under the old programs is fully retired. Thanks for making this possible.

By the time you receive this the new feed and seed warehouse will be complete at our Bloomington Ag Center and we will begin the move from our current feed warehouse to the new site. John, Jim, Terry, and the entire team look forward to working together and serving their customers at the Bloomington location. The new pumps and concrete are in at the east side convenience store in Mt Horeb, and soon the same will be completed at the Westby location. We continue to explore our options to expand the Mini Mart location in Mt Horeb, while our dry fertilizer planning in Lancaster continues to run into speedbumps and roadblocks. Hopefully we’ll make some meaningful strides on each of these projects over the next month or two.

We’ll be mailing out most of our propane contracts and safety mailings early in June for next year’s heating season. If you drive a car or watch the news I’m sure you are aware that oil and gas prices are up this year. Unfortunately, this has also meant higher propane prices. While prices are up some from a year ago, propane is still a good value and well below the prices we experienced just a few years ago. If you receive a packet in the mail, please be sure to open the safety information and share it with your entire family. Thank you for supporting our energy team and the entire cooperative. I know they will take great care of you and your family.

Those of you that have been Premier members for a long time know that I’m not a social media participant. No Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, or other forms of social media. In fact, this monthly newsletter update has been as close as I’ve gotten. Some might consider it “Andy’s monthly blog.” In that spirit, I’m writing to everyone this month to remind you of the importance of taking charge of your health. It’s been 18 years this month since I lost my father to a heart attack. In the past month, three out of four of my brothers have been diagnosed with some degree of heart disease. The fourth will likely get checked out soon. All are in their 50s. It started because one of them, after months of symptoms, finally pushed aside the machismo that keeps many of us from seeking care and insisted on a full cardio evaluation. Two days later a quadruple bypass awakened the family secret we tried to evade over the past 18 years. I’m thankful for the tremendous medical care available today and for my brother to be the one to give the rest of his siblings a

Andy Fiene | CEO

EVEN A BRAT AND ICE CREAM LOVER LIKE MYSELF MAY HAVE A FEW REGRETS

FEED UPDATE

OUR GOAL IS TO BE YOUR SUPPLIER OF CHOICE

As always you as the producer make the final decision. Whether it’s the tractor you buy, the seed you plant, or the nutrition program for your farm, the ultimate decision is yours. Each day, our feed team comes to work knowing we must continue to earn your business and remain your supplier of choice. Over the past two years, you’ve read about the big investment we’ve made in our new Westby feed manufacturing plant. This is a commitment to today’s

members as well as generations to come. We focused on all of our member’s feed needs—conventional, organic, and non-GMO.

We will now be able to deliver more varieties and higher quality conventional feed than the old facility allowed. Additional storage space for ingredients, the highest quality pellets, and computer automation will allow us to manufacture the best, most consistent product in the industry. Our pellet mill has two conditioners, reducing fines and increasing quality. The hammer mill can provide the finest, most consistent grind for better animal digestion.

We have seen steady growth in our organic business over the years. We had reached a point where the old mill was maxed out. Now, we carry a larger selection of ingredients as well as the ability to pellet and crumble on site. These have been an area of opportunity for us. Today, we crumble a turkey formula that is delivered near the Canadian border. In fact, our organic feed (Natures Grown) is sold in nearly 20 states. We have already measured performance advantages in our poultry and dairy members operations.

Non-GMO feed is a new area of production for your cooperative and is still in its infancy. We have visited with dairy processors as well as egg procurement companies who are very interested in our capabilities. Please ask your field people their thoughts if you are interested in looking into this. If this market change could help your bottom line, our nutritionists could help you. We are very interested in your feedback.

The largest investment at your cooperative is the people. Roger Brock joined our team from Land O Lakes and brings over 22 years of experience in manufacturing and pelleting to the Westby Mill. Computer automation can help make

a formula, but experience puts that final touch to them. Now that the mill is up and running, we will be investing in HAACP certification, like we have at our Mineral Point mill. HAACP is an industry recognized system to minimize the physical, biological and chemical hazards in food production. It will be the standard that processors will be insisting upon in the near future. We’ve also added several excellent nutritionists in the past year to help our members maximize production and profits.

We recognize you have a lot of difficult decisions to make each day. We want to make your decision on your feed supply partner an easy one. Thanks for your support.

CHARLEY FISHER | NUTRITIONIST, LAND O’LAKES, INC

THE LARGEST INVESTMENT AT YOUR COOPERATIVE

IS THE PEOPLEWE MUST CONTINUE TO EARN YOUR BUSINESS

AGRONOMY UPDATE

KEN JAHNKE | DIVISION MANAGER

The late planting season in many of our areas added stress not only to our members and staff, but to the crops we are grow-ing. We went from cold and heavy snow in mid-April to record rain and heat in May. These conditions create unique challeng-es for our crops. The right plant nutrient and crop protection products will help your crop get off to a better start and flour-ish throughout the season. Contact your Premier agronomist for the best recommendations for your specific fields.

JUNE PRODUCTION TIPS:

• Scouting for Insects, Weeds, Disease • Early Post Herbicide Applications• Side-Dress Nitrogen Application• V5 Corn Fungicide Treatments• R3 Soybean Fungicide Treatments• Alfalfa Fertilization• Fungicide and Insecticide Treatments on Alfalfa • NutriSolutions Tissue Testing Program

98G 250lbs/ANo 98G

“MY PH NEVER LOOKED LOW BUT I COULD NEVER GET NEW SEEDING TO TAKE UNTIL I USED 98G”-DAN TOAY | RIDGEWAY, WI

ENERGY UPDATE

TIM LEASE | DIVISION MANAGER

I hope you all had a good Memorial Day weekend and were able to reflect on the men and women who lost their lives while serving this great country. I was very fortunate to have served with a few of those heroes. Hand salute to them all.

Here it is June already and another contracting season is upon us. The nation’s gasoline prices are at an average today of $2.968.

Average gasoline prices were $2.516 last year on the same date. It’s up a whopping 45 cents per gallon. Expect your contract prices to be higher than last year but it hasn’t gone up nearly as much as gasoline and diesel. Propane is still a much better bargain to heat your home than fuel oil or electricity.

Every year I get calls from people wondering if they should contract their propane. The answer I give every year is contract, contract, contract. If the price drops (which is rare), it can’t go below zero, right? But the upside potential is substantial. If you are unable to prepay your propane, book it. It only costs you 5 cents more per gallon and requires a 10 cents per gallon deposit. If you wait too long to pull together the money to prepay, you

run the likely risk that the price will go up. Your contracts arrive in June so lock your price in June. If you want to prepay some and book some, that is totally fine. Last year customers saved up to 55 cents per gallon ($220 on a 400 gallon delivery) when prices were at their peak. It’s a great risk management tool.

I’ll be away at military training from June 9th to the end of the month so I won’t be available to answer contracting questions. We’ve got many capable propane professionals at all 7 of our locations who would enjoy helping you. And they’ll probably give you better advice than me.

We have hired a new salesperson. His name is Jeff Wymer and he comes to us with many years of experience in the energy business. Jeff will be helping our members with propane, gasoline, diesel fuel and fuel oil needs. He’ll also be making calls to spread the word about propane autogas. Jeff used to sell Bluebird buses several years ago so he has already established relationships with various school districts and bus companies. If you think your school bus service, local law enforcement, local fleet or even your private vehicle can benefit from propane autogas, give Jeff a call. Thank you for your business and have a great month.

MANAGER’S CONTINUEDpush that will hopefully help us all avoid the same lousy fate as my father. If you are a father reading this, give your family a gift this Father’s Day and get yourself a thorough physical exam. Your presence is the greatest present you can give.

I hope everyone spent some time with family and friends over the long, hot holiday weekend. Enjoy the beautiful weather we should be blessed with for the next several months, happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, and have a wonderful Independence Day. Congratulations to this year’s graduates, including our 25 scholarship winners. Thank you all for your continued support.

WE’VE GOT MANY CAPABLE PROPANE PROFESSIONALS

JUNE DAIRY DAYJoin us June 15 from 11am-2pm at the Mt Horeb Do it Best/Mini Mart and Black Earth Super Mart for $.25 sundaes and hot dogs and brats for only $1 while supply lasts.

Today’s diesel engines use high-pressure, common-rail (HPCR) direct-injection technology for significantly greater efficiency than conventional diesel engines. The high tem-perature and pressure these engines operate at can literally cook typical #2 diesel, resulting in fouled fuel that can dam-age engine parts.

Cenex® Ruby Fieldmaster® premium diesel fuel provides optimal off-road performance for high-tech engines, in-cluding those that meet the Tier IV Final EPA emission standards. Its industry leading, multifunctional additive package contains a unique combination of seven additives that prevents injector fouling and filter plugging to minimize costly downtime.

No other premium diesel fuel contains a more complete, balanced additive package that helps avoid the hassle associ-ated with using aftermarket products to top treat fuel. Cenex® Premium Diesel Fuels are “smart-injected” at the terminal to ensure stringent quality specifications are met.

PROVEN IN THE LAB AND IN THE FIELD