December Vision Newsletter

DECEMBER 27, 2021

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Happy New Year!

A A Year Year in in Review Review

VISION NEWSLETTER IN THIS ISSUE MARSHA SIDES RETIRES FROM THE DESK OF JEFF KREJDL

After 32 years, Marsha Sides Retires from Ag Valley Co-op

2022 SAFETY REMINDER 2021 AGRONOMY RECAP 2021 FEED RECAP

On December 20th, Ag Valley Co-op hosted a retirement party for Marsha Sides. Marsha started in Bartley in 1989 and has worked in a variety of roles in the Bartley, Edison, and Cambridge locations. Ag Valley Co-op is thankful for Marsha's years of service and wishes her the best in her retirement!

2021 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT RECAP 2021 GRAIN RECAP 2021 ENERGY RECAP

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@AgValleyCoop @AgValleyCoop @AgValleyCoop AG VALLEY COOP E-NOTIFICATIONS: INFO@AGVALLEY.COM

DECEMBER 27, 2021

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From Jeff Krejdl's Desk I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas. It is hard to believe that it has come and gone already, and we will very quickly be in a new year. 2021 was a very challenging yet gratifying year for Ag Valley Co-op. At the beginning of 2021, we all thought COVID was pretty much in our rear-view mirror. Here we are, 12 months later, and it is as prevalent as ever. As we figure out how to live with this new normal, it reminds me of what can be accomplished when everyone works together. That is the essence of what it means to be part of a Cooperative and why I think it is still a viable and productive business model. I genuinely believe that we are all stronger working together than separately, and I thank you for allowing us to be your partner in production agriculture.

Despite the dry conditions and unfavorable weather that we experienced this past year, Ag Valley Coop handled more soybeans, milo, and corn at harvest time than we did last year. Our elevators were primarily empty at the start of harvest, which allowed us to delay putting grain on the ground. That, coupled with the amount of corn that moved into the marketplace during harvest, limited the amount of grain in ground piles and bunkers. The grain team will be busy over the next few months as they have an active shipment schedule planned.

The fertilizer market continues to be the topic of interest as we approach the spring planting season.

As we work together to manage our way through this unprecedented time, this is an excellent time to remember that you are part of a Cooperative system designed and built to handle these challenges.

Our investments in assets and infrastructure give us an advantage in a market that is hampered by supply and logistic issues. We continue to stay on top of the latest market news and are constantly looking for market opportunities as they present themselves. Please keep in touch with your agronomist as you consider your input needs for next year's crop.

One thing we know is that this is not business as usual. As I look at your Cooperative, I know that we need to continue to evaluate our daily tasks and procedures and look for those efficiencies that will bring profitability to Ag Valley Co-op. We must be diligent in controlling our expenses. We need to continually look for ways to add value to your farming operations, and we must find ways to be relevant to you and the marketplace that we operate in. If the employees of Ag Valley come to work every day with those goals in mind, we can all look forward to a successful future.

As always, I want to thank you for your business and continued support of Ag Valley Co-op. We know that you have options for your agricultural needs, and we will work hard every day to continue to earn your business.

Thanks, and Happy New Year!

Jeff Krejdl

DECEMBER 27, 2021

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2022 Safety Reminder As we prepare to look at 2021 in the rearview mirror, what are your plans for 2022?

Another productive year on the farm?

Family events such as new children or educational graduates?

Trips with family or friends?

More time relaxing or enjoying hobbies?

While each of these things is a great reward for your hard work, a simple mistake of not taking safety seriously can impact many, if not all, of these goals. Make sure all machine and PTO guards are in place and properly secured on your equipment. Clean and properly adjust mirrors before moving equipment or vehicles.

Do not by-pass safety devices installed on equipment and machinery. Use caution when handling livestock.

Communicate with someone what your plans are for the day, working alone poses unique hazards.

Never enter a grain bin without an outside observer, entrapment or engulfment happens quickly.

Ag Valley truly appreciates what you do and your patronage of our facilities. As our paths cross professionally and personally in our communities, we want to wish you a Safe and Blessed Year. We look forward to serving you in 2022 and for many years to come, so please, Stay Safe!

2021 Agronomy Department in Review: From Kirk Nielsen Like most things in the world right now, 2021 brought along its own set of challenges for the agronomy department. We started the year off with near 20 year record lows for nitrogen and ended with near all time highs.

Chemicals started with a surplus and ended with a shortage.

Never did I think that we would be scrambling to make sure we had enough glyphosate and atrazine to finish spraying the crop. The supply chain disruption has been felt in basically everything we do today. Even with all the challenges we had much success the low input cost the beginning of the year allowed many of our producers to lock in good profits. The irrigated acres in the territory saw close to record setting yields. The corn price at harvest was much better than when we started the year. All in all, Ag Valley Coop agronomy had a successful year by helping our producers get the best results possible. As a team we look forward to the challenges of the new year.

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Agronomists learn about seed offerings at NK Field Days in Kearney during the summer.

Safety held many safety trainings for employees throughout the year.

Pictured above is a pre-grain harvest safety training.

DECEMBER 27, 2021

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2021 Feed Department in Review: From Kurt Nielsen Starting the year off with concerns of moisture for the upcoming pastures and crop year, winter showed up with saw and record cold temps. With calving season hitting and trying to keep animals fed to meet their daily requirements became a huge challenge to producers. Tubs, DDG cubes, mineral, feed, and heated calf huts were in high demand. As we made it through the record cold start to the year and moving into spring with rain in the forecast, pastures started to green up and cows and calves were headed to grass with Hi Mag minerals and salt hitting the mineral feeder.

Rains continued to be prevalent for most of the spring and part of the summer months. As we rolled into the end of June and into July, the reality of rains coming to a quick end in most of our territory pastures started to fall out of bed in realization that that we had just went through a rainy spring that was well needed but left us with a lot of grass with not much in it and root systems that were not ready for the rain to stop. Producers started to think about creep feeding to supplement the calves to put on pounds of gain to complement their pastures.

July was a dry and hot month, and as we rolled into August, this didn’t change for most of our producers. With concerns of cattle prices and uncertainty of the weather in the forecast, there was talk, of weaning calves early to help the pastures out as well as taking some pressure off the momma cows. Supplementing the cow herd with tubs, cubes and maintaining a good mineral program as well as running creep feed to calves at this time gave some relief to the herd, pastures as well as helping maintain body score for momma cow.

Moving into the fall and winter months with harvest in full swing and fields opening up for new feed opportunities.

Calves started to be weaned and cows were going to stalks. The weather seemed to be cooperating with harvest for the most part and things looked good except for moisture for the upcoming grazing year. Throughout the Ag Valley Co-op trade territory moisture has been slim to none through December 2021. While this was great for harvest and running cows on stalks it has left in most of the territory inadequate sub moister for crops and pastures for the coming year.

With that said supplementing cows at this time with tubs and or cake can help in dry matter utilization and supply some easy gains to put cows in a really good position for the upcoming calving and breeding season. As we look to 2022, commodity prices look to be strong. We predict that it still will be difficult to get posts, steal products, and wire. Contact your local Ag Valley Co-op Feed Salesman for any mineral needs.

Many producers creep calves this summer with Ag Valley Co-op Creep Feed.

Many 4-H and FFA members found success in the show ring feeding Ag Valley Co-op show feed.

DECEMBER 27, 2021

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2021 Business/Sales in Review: From Charles McGreer It’s fun to have a chance to share my thoughts about Ag Valley Coop; our past year and our future after my first year with the company. I feel great about Ag Valley. I see tremendous potential for growth across all of our departments. I also have a deeper appreciation for the people I work with; we have a fantastic group of employees who work here!

Looking back at 2021: Excitement, intentional communication, and continuous incremental improvement have been themes I’ve latched on to throughout our 2021 calendar year. I feel like your Ag Valley team has a renewed sense of energy and a positive outlook for 2022; we should expect to build on our successes of this year well into the future.

Throughout the business world it seems like you can’t turn around without hearing two buzzwords, it’s nothing new but there is a renewed emphasis on communication and collaboration. We have worked to develop both of these at Ag Valley, we focused specifically on intentional communication by the salespeople in all departments by relaunching a customer relations management software.

Much of my time this year was devoted to the Agronomy sales team. Sales training was conducted monthly for the agronomy sales team just as it has been in the past as we invest in their professional development. But this year we dedicated extra time to focus on learning our seed products by spending more time at local test plots, honing our knowledge on the products we offer to you. Our seed corn test plots were a tremendous success; we have seen energetic adoption of a new seed brand that is dedicated to servicing the retail market. We are also excited to continue training opportunities for our agronomy operations team to improve their professional knowledge as we are applying products in your fields. This year we are happy that Dr. Brad Ramsdale for NCTA, as well as many other industry experts will conduct two training sessions for floater operators, agronomy truck drivers and salespeople focusing on educating us to work better for you, our customer.

Looking forward into 2022 I am thrilled to announce that we will be conducting our inaugural Ag Valley Producer Summit at the Red Willow County Fairgrounds in McCook, NE. February 16th will be a day dedicated to educating you, our patrons. We will have industry experts from the Energy, Agronomy and Grain sectors there to talk to you about ideas to make you more profitable. Our keynote speaker is Steve Cubbage from Farmobile who will give us his insights into the Carbon Credit marketplace. I heard Steve speak at the Nebraska Cooperative Council this year, and what he has to say will help you to navigate through the carbon credit marketplace that is on the horizon and traveling toward us quickly. Thank you for a great 2021 and looking forward to a successful 2022.

Lto R: Charles McGreer presents to NCTA students during Cooperative Month.

Producers enjoying a meal at a test plot.

DECEMBER 27, 2021

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2021 Grain Department Review : From Brian Groskreutz

I want to take this opportunity to thank our patrons for your business this past harvest. Your continued support of Ag Valley Co-op is an underlying fundamental of our success. Our bushel receipts this harvest were up 15% vs. last year’s harvest even though parts of our trade area had drought conditions. The market for grain late last summer and into fall harvest allowed us to have more available space during harvest.

An additional benefit is we kept grain piles to a minimum. We have completed picking up uncovered piles at three locations and continue with that effort. For those producers who have farm stored bushels, coring bins is a good practice to improve aeration and reduce the risk of spoilage. Also, regular monitoring of those stored bushels is essential to maintain quality.

One of the drivers in the recent market rally is the dry weather in South America and the potential impact on production. Exports for Corn and Milo remain good however we are ending the window for Soybean exports as Brazil is a less expensive source for February and March. Cash bids for old and new crop are at good levels and are worth consideration. The next USDA reports will be released on January 12 with final 2021 Production, Stocks, Supply and Demand, and Winter Wheat Seedings.

Here’s to a Safe and Prosperous New Year.

2021 Energy Department Review : From David Dodson

This year we upsized our DEF delivery by purchasing a trailer that is self sufficient with a generator to power the pump and meter system and 900 gallons of capacity. We are able to deliver to our customers in a shorter amount of time by making less trips back to reload before heading out again. We had our spring planting DEF sale along with a fall harvest sale, both with tremendous customer participation. We will plan on offering these programs again next year.

Through our relationship with Cenex, we offered the “Gift Cards for Gallons” program for oil that runs from November through February, which is currently on now this year, and the “Grease for Gift Cards” promotion that will come around next summer again, June 15th through August 14th, 2022 The end of June, we sent out annual propane contracts with a near record number of gallons being booked by our customers. As we have seen with the price volatility this fall in the propane markets, this was a very good idea.

Some people are saving nearly 50 cents per gallon on their propane costs by contracting this year.

The C-store in Indianola and the Ampride in Oxford finally started to see things return to “normal” this year and that was a very welcome site. Currently, staffing seems to be the biggest challenge we face, as do many businesses and organizations across the country. Oxford Ampride received new flooring this year and both store’s upgraded their F’real ice cream shake mixers. Stop in and try one if you haven’t.

This year, our three service stations stayed extremely busy especially through the planting and harvest seasons, as did our fuel and propane delivery drivers. It’s because of you, our customers, that we do what we do and we appreciate your business.

In closing, thanks again for your patronage and choosing Ag Valley Co-op as your supplier and business partner. From all of us here, have a Merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Lto R: Cody Helms makes a DEF delivery.

The milo pile in Edison was full prior to being sold and trucked to its final destination.