1st Quarter Newsletter 2010

DODGE CITY COOPERATIVE Visit us @ www.dodgecitycoop.com

MANAGER’S DESK

I hope you and your families are having a good year so far. We just finished one of our longest fall harvests in history. The fall harvest went into the middle of December as farmers finished up their fall bushels. I was talking to some of the managers in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota a couple of weeks ago and they still had some corn standing in the fields waiting to be cut. So, I guess it can always be worse. The employees have been busy loading out trains of grain as they have picked up grain off the ground. We had around 2 million bushels of milo on the ground, and at the time of this letter, we only had around 30% left to be picked up at two locations.

Our fall harvest was better than average overall with corn receipts of 8.4 million bushels, 4.8 million milo, and 477,723 bushels of soybeans. This is how this year’s harvest ranks in history of intake of bushels; Corn was the 6th largest, milo was the 3rd; largest and soybeans was the 7th largest. We took in almost 14 million bushels with the employees busy moving prior to harvest 5.5 million bushels.

The new storage of 1.5 million bu. could not have come at a better time. We moved grain during harvest and continue to move grain out each week as we look ahead and see that the 2010 wheat harvest has the potential to be better than average. Thanks for your patron bushels and to the employees for their hard work in making 2009 fall harvest a success.

This has not been the fall weather we anticipated on having for a fall fertilizer application. We did seem to get some fertilizer applied between the storms during the last two months with hopes to get more applied before the spring is over. Thanks to the talented employees that have been educating our customers in anhydrous and chemical safety. If you know anyone that could use the training or reminder of safety procedures, please have them attend the meetings. This free education class is for people of all ages.

Your cooperative attended the Kansas Coop and Kansas Grain &

EXCHANGE NEWSLETTER FIRST QUARTER 2010 Feed Association Legislative Day in Topeka last week. It is important to remind our local legislators on issues that affect our industry and our way of life in western Kansas. I hope you keep aware of those important issues that affect agriculture and share your thoughts with the people who can make an impact.

We have a month left in our fiscal year, and if you compare to last year which was an all time record, it would have to be classified as better than average so far. Our fiscal year will close out at the end of February, and at that time we will take inventory while going through the audit procedures to bring you the final numbers. Go ahead and mark on your calendars our 95th annual meeting will be on May 18th. I hope you have a great spring and thank you for your business. It is always appreciated!

Inside This Issue 2 Safety - Ace Hardware 3 Grain 4 Feed - Agronomy 5 AV Energy - Seed 6 Online Account

Jerald Kemmerer CEO/GM ------------

Safety Division

•

Although earlier this year the D.C. Coop presented three anhydrous ammonia safety meetings for producers, I am writing this article about the same topic, anhydrous ammonia safety, to help educate any of you who didn’t make it to one of the meetings. Anhydrous ammonia safety is important enough to bear repeating.

An anhydrous ammonia molecule is made up of one atom of nitrogen and three atoms of hydrogen.

Anhydrous ammonia is one of the most widely used fertilizers as a source of nitrogen.

The word anhydrous means “without water”. Anhydrous ammonia has a strong affinity for water, meaning it is greatly attracted to water. Anhydrous ammonia attaches itself to the water in the soil when a farmer applies it to his fields, and it also attaches itself to the water in one’s body, whether it is the eyes, lungs or skin. Because of this, anhydrous ammonia can burn the skin, damage the lungs, blind the eyes or even kill.

Although anhydrous ammonia is potentially dangerous, there are safety precautions and first aid measures the farmer can take to reduce the risk to him and those around him. Some of those precautions and measures are:

•

•

•

Always wear personal protective equipment when working around anhydrous ammonia. At the very least wear goggles that are nonvented or indirectly vented and gauntlet type gloves that are neoprene or rubber.

Never wear contact lenses when working with anhydrous ammonia.

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Always stay up wind of an anhydrous ammonia leak or spill.

If anhydrous ammonia is inhaled, move the victim to fresh air.

Have plenty of clean water on hand, as water is the only first aid for eye and skin exposure to anhydrous ammonia.

When working with anhydrous ammonia during cold weather, the water in the emergency water tank on the nurse tank may tend to freeze.

Keep at least five gallons of clean fresh water in a plastic container with you in the tractor cab to keep it from freezing.

If anhydrous ammonia gets in the eyes, flush them with clean water for at least 15 minutes while holding the eyes open.

If anhydrous ammonia gets on the skin, flush the affected area for at least 15 minutes with clean water.

Make sure that all anhydrous ammonia equipment is in good repair. Replace outdated or damaged parts.

The hose from the nurse tank to the applicator is marked with a “Remove Hose Before” date.

Replace the hose before the date on the hose.

In the event of a large spill (greater than 100 pounds) call emergency services, and evacuate persons downwind if need be.

If you have any questions about anhydrous ammonia

safety, please feel free to contact us at the D.C. Coop.

Skyler Hayes Safety Director

------------

ACE HARDWARE

Ace Hardware is your Traeger grill headquarters.

The junior is the most affordable grill yet. It is the perfect size for small households or tailgating. The junior has 292 sq. inches of cooking surface, along with auto start and E-Z drain grease systems.

It is the perfect introduction to wood pellet cooking.

The classic Lil Tex is the most popular model. This model has 418 sq. inches of cooking surface and is more than enough for the average family. It features a fully automatic auger fed burner, electronic auto start and a solid state smoke – medium/high control system. This unit also has a large hopper and chrome handle.

The elite model is the same size as the Lil Tex but has a multi-position digital control and easy to read dome thermometer with stainless steel handle.

Ace Hardware carries all of the flavors of wood pellets by Traeger.

The line of Traeger seasonings and rubs are also in stock. Stop by and take a look at all the models and accessories by Treager that are in stock at your Ace Hardware store.

Jack Lane, Ace Manager

-----------2

GRAIN DIVISION Happy New Year to everyone and I hope everybody had a safe and wonderful Holiday season. We made it through another long fall harvest with great yields in all three commodities. As much of the Midwest did, we all fought Mother Nature with excessive moisture, and cool temperatures, resulting in high moisture corn, snow, and light test weights! None the less we are still looking at an enormous crop size even with all the problems we had.

The January USDA report was a very bearish report for the producer. This report was very significant for many reasons.

Normally we will talk crop size on the November USDA report but with such a delayed harvest we had to wait until January for these numbers. This was our first glimpse to see carry out #’s for the year ahead. The 2009 corn crop size was estimated at 13.151 Billion bushels, and the Soybeans came in at 3.361 billion bu. With the lack of demand in the livestock markets and futures prices too high to compete in world markets this leaves us with a very large corn carry-out of 1.764 Billion Bu. That might help explain why we have seen the futures price decline $.55 to $.60 cents!

Other important factors on the USDA report were the noted changes in wheat acres. In 2009 we planted a total of 43.3 Million acres of winter wheat (Soft and Hard Wheat). This year the USDA estimated that we planted 37.1 Million wheat acres which is a loss of 6.2 Million acres. There is a lot of speculation going around the trade of where the acres went too.

Most people are seeing those acres either going to soybeans or corn.

This will dampen the ever so popular “fight for acres” the producer looks forward to in March.

With all this bearish news in the markets it becomes easy to see the rationale for future price declines.

So what kind of bullish news is out there? This leads to a short paragraph. The funds, where are they, what are they doing, and when will they run the prices back up? As of early February the funds were estimated to be about 140,000 to 144,000 contracts long on corn.

So I would say they are present.

Will they increase there long position (i.e. buy more contracts of corn)? That’s the variable in the algebra equation I like to call the corn market!! We will need to see our cattle guys pick up demand.

With a calf crop the smallest on record since the 1950’s, it doesn’t seem to be a quick turnaround in the feed demand from the cattle sector. But, poultry feeding economics have improved of late.

We will need to see more corn exported to Japan and Asia to meet export goals and find a home for some corn. In order to do so we must find a value at the CBOT that makes the USA corn competitive!

There are still a lot of producers not only in our trade territory but nationwide holding onto corn. The million dollar question is “when do I sell my remaining corn/milo”?

Well initially, we must ask ourselves how much will it cost to hold on to the physical commodity.

First thing that pops into our mind is storage from you local elevator.

For easy math we will figure about 3 cents per bushel per month. Then you need to add on interest that you are paying for not having that cash in your pocket! ($3.50 x 3% interest = $ .10 ½ per yr) So to find out on a “per month” we would take our $.10 ½ ÷ 12 = $.00875/mo. On a per month cost, it would total 3.9 cents per bu to hold that grain. To summarize the math listed above, I guess I would look at moving corn now, taking the cash and stopping storage.

Then go back and buy a Call if you’re still bullish for spring time.

As of writing this letter you can buy a $3.80 call for 26 cents. It would cost you about 19.5 cents to hold the grain! So what the benefit of this? Well you now have a floor in the market at where you sold your cash grain and if the futures markets do rally you will still

participate!!! You get the cash in your pocket now to cover any planting expenses! This is also a strategy I would recommend to anybody looking to contract next year’s crop! By making the contract you set a floor in the market and by buying the call you give yourself an opportunity to participate if the market’s rally.

Now that we covered the fall crops let turn our attention to the wheat crop! As mentioned earlier the Winter Wheat (according to the USDA) is losing 6 million acres!

How can we afford to let this happen? Well the answer to that question was figured out over the past two years. We currently have 195.6 Million metric tonnes (7.2 billion bushels) in world wheat stocks. That number increased 1.169 billion bushels from last year! The high prices we have seen over the last couple of years has encouraged anybody and everybody in the world to grow wheat! With the type of carry out it makes the loss of acreage in the US winter wheat look pretty small, and the US has turned into a residual supplier of wheat to the world Needless to say we won’t be running out of wheat anytime soon.

The United States came off a wonderful wheat crop this last summer. But with the lack of export sales that gives us a very large carry out. Our domestic use can’t use all of this wheat, so we rely on our export program to help us get rid of our excess stocks.

Currently our prices are not competitive world wide. This also relates to our local basis for wheat.

Many producers have asked why our wheat basis is so cheap. I realize this is very frustrating to a wheat farmer but one must understand with a big crop and nowhere to go with it the demand just drops! Mills in the Wichita market almost have all the wheat they need to get them to the next harvest. With northwest Kansas still holding a lot of wheat and needing to move it to make room this puts more pressure on the market. In order to see our local basis improve we must see the demand in Wichita pick up or the 3

export program start moving bushels to the rest of the world.

We had chances for $5 cash in early January. Now we have cash prices below $4. We have not seen that since the middle of 2006. The strategy would be the same to the wheat farmer as it is to the corn farmer. Make a floor in the market, by selling bushels or buying a put!

Then you can buy a Call to take advantage of any rallies in the market. This will stop storage and put cash in your pocket. But more importantly it will give you a floor in the market. Please keep in mind; you need to talk to your broker before buying any options!

On a lighter note I like would to tell you about a few changes in our grain department over the past couple months. Ed Smith retired from the DC Cooperative after 6 years of service! We would like to thank him for all he has done and wish him the best of luck in his future ventures! Bill Maskus is now the Grain Department Manager, Bill has been with the coop 12 years! Troy Presley is the grain merchandiser. He has been with us for 3 years. We have added a new team member to help out!

Clayton Johannsen came on board in early December. Clayton will be buying grain, doing accounting and learning from our veteran staff!

Clayton comes from Meade County. He graduated from Oklahoma Panhandle State and Meade High School. If you get a chance swing by and meet him!

Our work is cut out for the spring time moving grain and making room! As always if you get a chance swing by your local branch and tell them how much you appreciate all the long hard hours they put in. We look forward to seeing you this summer for hopefully another wonderful Harvest!

Troy Presley Grain Originator Risk Management Advisor ------------

FEED DIVISION Body Condition Scoring For The Spring Calving Season As the spring calving season begins, efficiency comes to mind.

Stress at calving, ample lactation and reproductive performance are key factors that can affect cow-herd efficiency and ultimately affect profitable production. Body condition scoring at calving is an evaluation tool that can be utilized by farmers and ranchers to assess the level of fat reserves of cows.

The processes of fetal development, delivering a calf, milk production and repair of the reproductive tract are all stresses that require large quantities of energy to enable cows to be rebred within 60-85 days. Additionally, the environmental stresses on spring-calving cows may require even more energy intake. This source of energy needs to come from excess fat reserves in the cow before calving.

It is much easier to increase condition in cows before rather than after they calve. High nutrition after calving is directed first toward milk production. Cows need to be at a condition where extra energy reserves can be used to help overcome the stress at calving and aid in reproductive tract repair.

Feeding cows to gain condition after calving leads to improved milk production and has little effect on increasing body condition.

Studies have shown that cows in good to moderate (5-7 BCS) condition will tend to have a calving to first estrus interval that could be up to 30 days shorter than those that are in thin condition (14) at calving. Animals with a low BCS will tend to become far too thin. This results in a low conception rate and an uneconomically long calving to breeding interval. At the same time,

cows that become excessively fat also have production problems.

These cows will likely have more incidences of dystocia and milk production problems because of the additional fat deposits.

The idea of Body Condition Scoring (BCS) is to obtain a simple and reliable measure of the level of fat reserves that will be helpful as the cow progresses through gestation, parturition and rebreeding. When used correctly, this information can help you make management decisions, such as which cows should be culled or deciding among different feed regimens or how best to utilize available forage resources. These decisions all play a big role in making your cow herd efficient and profitable.

Galen Frick, Livestock Advisor -----------

AGRONOMY DIVISION Topdressing Wheat for 2010 Recent moisture gives us the best chance for maximizing yields. This will help pull the moisture level together and aid in the growth stages of the wheat crop. The time is now for topdressing the winter wheat crop. The nitrogen (N) in top dress applications should be moved into the root zone with precipitation well before jointing begins in order to be most efficiently utilized by wheat. Ideally, the N should be available to the wheat when head differentiation occurs and head size is being determined. This process occurs about two weeks before jointing. One-third of total N is utilized by wheat by jointing, it is best to apply top dress N early – preferably before the end of February. This will be enough time to maximize the probability of receiving enough moisture to move the N into the root zone.

4

The four main factors involved in good N management when topdressing wheat is timing, source, application method, and rate. * Timing. The most important factor in getting a good return on top dress N is usually timing. It is critical to get the N on early enough to have the maximum potential impact on yield. While some producers often wait until spring just prior to jointing, this can be too late in some years. For well drained medium-fine textured soils that dominate our wheat acres, the odds of losing much of the N that is top dress-applied in the fall or winter is low since we typically don’t get enough precipitation over the winter. For these soils, topdressing should begin anytime now and usually the earlier the better. Waiting until closer to spring green- up to make top dress N applications on sandier soils will be the best. Nitrogen should not be applied to the soil surface when the ground is deeply frozen. This will help prevent runoff losses. * Source. The typical sources of N used for topdressing wheat are UAN solution and dry urea.

Numerous trials by K-State over the years have shown that both are equally effective. In no-till situations, there may be some slight advantage to applying dry urea since it falls to the soil surface and may be less affected by immobilization than broadcast liquid UAN, which tends to get hung up on surface residues. * Application method. Most topdressing is broadcast applied. In high-residue situations, this can result in some immobilization of N, especially where liquid UAN is used. If no herbicides are applied with the N, producers are able to use dry urea. The ideal application method would be to subsurface place the N into the soil. * Rate. Rate--this topic needs to be addressed in much more detail by use of a soil analysis. Producers should have started the season with

a certain N recommendation in hand, based on a profile N soil test done before the crop is planted and before any N has been applied. If the wheat was grazed this fall and winter, producers should add an additional 30-40 lbs N/acre for every 100 lbs of beef weight gain removed from the field.

David Seymore Sales/Agronomist

----------

AV Energy Changing of the guard.

After many years of much appreciated service we saw the retirement of our general manager Terry Cramer.

Throughout my adult life I have worked for different people in different capacities and in that time I have run across two individuals that I have respected more then I can say, Terry being one of those people.

As a boss Terry was the type of guy that would tell you honestly how he felt and what he was thinking.

There was never a time I couldn't go into his office that he didn't make time for what I needed. He was always fair and direct in teaching me about this business and I thank him for it.

I could go on and on about all the good things he's done for this business and how it's grown under his direction however I will end by saying thanks to him and I hope he and his wife are enjoying retirement and the grandkids.

Our new general manager is Chris Klein. Most of you know Chris as our operations manager of the past 4 years. Chris is well versed in this business and the transition has been very smooth as he too had a good teacher in Terry.

Some may think that we are in a "transition" faze? However, over the past year Chris has been handling a great deal of the responsibilities and that has lead to a very easy change over. So things here are going just as strong as they always have with really no

interruptions at all.

I think we will only see bigger and better things for the future of Av Energy under Chris and congratulations are in order to him!

Getting to business now, we have seen the time of year come where fuel contracts are hot and heavy.

Markets being what they are it's been somewhat of a roller coaster as usual. Normally the best time for us on contracts is the later part of December through mid to late January. However, the past couple years has seen that go a little later in the year hitting early February.

So don't be too concerned if you haven't gotten your fuel locked in yet as you should still be able to gain the benefit of locking in good prices.

If you have any questions please give us a call here at the office at 620-225-4994 or you can always reach me at 620-225-9250.

Thanks and be safe on the roads.

Cal Lamberth AV Energy ---------------

SEED DIVISION As we all know, this has been a fall to remember, or maybe forget. The weather patterns of more than average moisture along with cool temps made harvest seem like it lasted an eternity. Although the length was less than desirable, the yields were very impressive in many areas. Several patrons have already booked their corn seed for this spring. If you are in this group, thank you. We strive to get the right product on the right acre to maximize profitability for your operation. If you have acres that are not planned for yet, please contact one of our experienced agronomists to help you with your needs. We are at a point in the year that supply is starting to tighten up from our suppliers, Croplan, Garst, Dyna-Gro and Sorghum Partners.

With a lot of the trade area starting out with a full moisture profile this 5

year, it may be another year to be looking at more dry land corn in your rotations. Wheat acres are off some this fall and it is taking some diverse planning to organize this next crop year. Dry land corn along with our Milo and forage sorghum products can provide the diversity to utilize the moisture we have and still have some rotational options for next fall.

As we prepare for another planting season, please keep us in mind for your seed treating needs. Dodge City Coop has the tools to inoculate your soybeans along with including insecticide and fungicide treatments as well. Our treatment facility in Howell can handle bulk treating as well as running bagged product through the treater and into a bulk tender as well. We strive to provide the right services as well as convenience to our patrons.

Another important topic this year is fertility. With a bumper crop behind us, we need to make sure we take care of the soil that provides for us. Our Agronomists can help with soil samples and recommendations in order to maximize the bottom line and help replenish the nutrients it took to grow the bushels this past year. It’s going to be another year for late fertilizer application. For those of you in a Strip-Till or Zone-Till system, please make sure your nitrogen placement is of adequate depth in order to minimize root burn later. Generally it’s good to place NH3 10-12 in deep to help avoid this issue later. As always, The Dodge City Coop is here to help and serve our patrons. Please let us know what the DC Seed Division can do for your operation.

Online Account Access Now Available Dodge City Cooperative has the capability to offer our patrons access to accounts receivable activity, grain balances and prepaid contract activity via the internet. A proof of yield can be generated and printed at your home office.

Copies of invoices can be printed or an entire year’s activity can be printed at once. We’ve gotten good reviews on the capabilities offered and we will share your input with our developer for incorporation into future updates. Sign up can be completed by going to http://patrona.dodgecitycoop.co m or clicking on ‘Patron Access’ in the left hand column from our homepage www.dodgecitycoop.com. After we receive your request, we will verify your information. You will be contacted by e-mail or phone when your account is ready for you to access. Tammy Rich, our Web Access Administrator or Monte Broeckelman, our Chief Financial Officer, can help answer any questions you have. You can still find 10 minute delay quotes, weather, and other Ag related news at our homepage.

------------

Date

Wheat Corn Milo Soybean

11/5/09

4.43

3.47

2.97 8.62

12/3/09

4.72

3.55

3.07 9.37

12/22/09

4.27

3.53

3.05 8.81

1/27/10

4.01

3.12

2.64 8.19

3.49

2.69 8.44

Last Year –Feb 2009 AVG.

4.94

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Scott Mac Nair ........................ Chairman Tony Bleumer... .............. Vice-Chairman Larry D Scott .......... Secretary-Treasurer

Jim Halling Sales Aronomist

Steve Riegel .............................. Director Jeff Bogner ................................ Director Jeremy Derstein ........................ Director Clint Hamilton ............................ Director Butch Irsik……..….....Associate Director Kyle Feikert………….Associate Director Jerald Kemmerer………………CEO/GM Debby Kennedy….......Newsletter Editor

6

Dodge City Cooperative Exchange Dodge City Cooperative Exchange 4th Quarter 2009 4th Quarter 2009 Published quarterly by the Published quarterly by the Dodge City Cooperative Exchange Dodge City Cooperative Exchange 710 West Trail, Dodge City, KS 67801 710 West Trail, Dodge City, KS 67801 (620) 225-4193 (620) 225-4193

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE

PAID DODGE CITY, KS PERMIT #399

7