Pride Ag Resources 2nd Quarter Newsletter

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MANAGER’S DESK

Jerald Kemmerer-CEO/GM These are interesting times we are currently living in with all the distribution and challenges going on all around the world, but no matter if there is a war going on between Russia and Ukraine, tight fertilizer supplies, and all other issues we all face, people still need to be fed. Farming doesn’t get the opportunity to slow down. I believe our team of employees have done a good job of getting you the inputs you have needed this past fall and spring to make your farms profitable. The employees have had their challenges working through limited supplies, allocations from vendors, transportation issues etc. I do

SECOND QUARTER 2022

not see any change in all the disruptions that we face for the foreseeable future.

I hope you are having a good spring. The auditors have completed their duties of confirming the final numbers on your cooperative’s 107th year. I want to personally invite you to the Pride Ag Resources Annual meeting on Tuesday May 24th starting 6 pm at the Dodge City Civic Center on Central Avenue. We are excited to be able to have it back at the Civic Center. It’s a better venue due to sound acoustics and the amount of open space to work with.

I am pleased to announce our Annual Meeting guest speaker will be Gregg Doud. Gregg served in the Office of the U.S. Trade

Representative as Chief Agricultural Negotiator with the rank of U.S. Ambassador. He was one of the primary architects of the U.S.-China "Phase One" trade agreement.

Gregg has previously served as President of the Commodity Markets Council, was a senior staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and he helped craft the 2012 Senate Farm Bill. Doud served as Chief Economist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association for eight years and is a former market analyst for the U.S. Wheat Associates. I hope you can attend to listen to a very insightful speaker.

The employees have been working hard to get facilities ready for upcoming wheat harvest, one that will definitely

Inside This Issue 2 Safety 3 Grain 4 AV Energy - Turf 5 Turf - Agronomy 6 Agronomy – Board of Directors 7 Pride Ag and Taranis

need more moisture before it gets to full maturity. Not only has the moisture been lacking this spring but we have had an abundance of wind, which had made spraying a challenge for our agronomy team. The team has done a great job of adjusting to weather by coming in early or working later into the evening while waiting for the winds to slow down.

Speed and space continues to be one of the drivers for the Pride Ag Resources Board of directors and management strategic planning for the near future. With a strong balance sheet, we will continue to look at facilities that are under storage capacity in relationship to the volume of grain receipts.

We will release more information on which locations will be improved this coming year as design plans and contracts get approved.

I hope you have a great summer and THANK YOU for your business. It is always appreciated. Looking forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting on Tuesday May 24th.

Safety Division Corey Ratzlaff Safety Director Grain Bin Safety If I asked you to name the leading cause of death of workers in grain storage facilities across the Midwest from year to year, what would you name? If your guess was falls from height, getting run over, exposure to fumigants, electrocution or explosions, your guess would be incorrect.

Most years, the leading cause of death of workers at grain storage facilities occurs inside a grain bin, usually by engulfment or entrapment by the grain itself. This happens in all types of grain storage facilities. It happens to all ages, experienced and inexperienced. It happens in all types of grain. In 2020, there were 60 reported grain engulfment incidents, with 57% of those ending in a fatality.

These numbers are only going to increase due to the increase in efficiency and production of grain.

Because of this great danger of death inside grain bins, Pride Ag Resources elevator employees at all of our fifteen grain elevators receive extensive classroom and hands on training in safe bin entry procedures.

We have spent many thousands of dollars on bin entry equipment such as harnesses,

lanyards, ropes, air monitors and respiratory equipment. We have also put together bin rescue kits to be used in case of an emergency inside of a grain bin. We have procedures that require completing a rigorous checklist of items that could cause injury to an employee, and all of those items must be eliminated before entry into a bin is allowed.

You are probably asking yourself what this has to do with you, the producer. The answer is that over half of the grain engulfment’s in the Midwest each year occur on farms in farm bins. It is the farmer, or his family, friends or workers who are the ones getting injured or killed more than commercial grain elevator workers. The reason for this is primarily that not all farmers follow basic safety procedures when entering grain bins.

In 2020, 18.33 billion bushels of corn and soybeans were stored in the US. As farmers are storing more crops in grain bins on their farms.

There are the fall crops, and in some cases grain from years past, that are stored either on the farm or in elevators. This all means that there will be many thousands of grain bins that will be entered in the next months, with each bin entry presenting potential dangers to the entrant.

Those dangers are identifiable and should always be eliminated before entry into a bin is attempted. Before a Pride Ag Resources employee is allowed to enter a bin a Bin Entry Permit is filled out. The Bin Entry Permit is a checklist of potential dangers of a bin entry, and the employee is not allowed to enter the bins until all dangers have been eliminated. I will not discuss all of the items on the Bin Entry Permit, but following 2

I will discuss a few of the dangers of bin entry.

Never allow a person to go into a bin without a standby person at the entrance of the bin.

This standby person’s only job is to get help if the entrant gets into trouble inside the bin. The standby is never to enter the bin to help the entrant, as often the standby person that enters into the bin to help becomes engulfed also. Before anybody enters a bin, make certain to establish a method of communication if emergency help is needed. The standby person should have a cell phone and should have a list of the numbers of emergency responders, the numbers of additional workers on the farm and numbers for any neighbors who may be able to help in case of an emergency.

Before entering a grain bin, one can use a simple but effective way to ensure their safety by locking and tagging any means of removing or filling the bin. This insures that the person entering the bin cannot be sucked into any equipment in the bin.

Do not enter a bin when grain is being removed.

Especially if the grain is more than waist deep. It may surprise you to learn that you cannot get out of a grain mass on your own if the grain is more than waist deep.

That depth decreases even more if the grain is flowing. Flowing grain can quickly pull you down and engulf you.

Engulfment in flowing grain is one of the leading causes of engulfment deaths.

Out of condition, grain is one of the leading causes of grain engulfment. Never go into a bin if the grain mass is bridged over or if there is caked grain. The reason for this is that the grain that is bridged or caked can

break free and cover you up before you have a chance to get out of the way.

Out of condition, grain is a factor in about half of all grain engulfment’s.

Never allow children to play around or inside a grain bin.

Children younger than ten years old have been killed in grain bin accidents, not just from engulfment, but also by the machinery used to convey the grain.

Make certain that all augers are properly guarded.

This includes not just the flighting of the auger, but also the drive belts and chains.

If a worker must go into a bin where the grain is more than waist deep, the worker should wear a harness and be tied off from the top of the bin with a strong rope. The rope must be manned from above by a worker who will keep the rope tight enough to keep the bin entrant from sinking more than waist deep in the grain.

These are just a few of the dangers of bin entry. The Bin Entry Permit we use has eighteen items that must be checked off before a bin entry is allowed. If you have questions about bin entry safety I will be glad to answer them.

Mike Schmidt Grain Division/ Operations Manager

GRAIN DIVISION

As we begin the first part of May and close out April, your cooperative has closed out another year and is jumping into the current year with both feet.

We started the year loading out milo trains about as fast as we could refill the train loader, along with loading out corn and beans, and getting ready for this coming wheat crop. As far as the wheat crop, mother nature has not quite determined what type of harvest we will see, the growing crop is still looking good, but will need some good moisture in the near future to stay looking good.

Date 10/6/21 11/10/21 12/13/21 01/11/22

Wheat 7.15 7.93 7.83 7.62

Corn 5.52 5.99 6.15 6.31

Last Year –May. 2021 AVG. 6.41 7.36

Milo 5.42 5.84 6.00 6.16

Soybean 11.57 11.32 11.69 13.12

7.28 15.26

This year has been a very interesting one for grain markets, as of the last newsletter, I reported that we had prices of wheat at $7.76, corn $5.70, milo $5.30 and beans $12.10. These prices were around the middle of January, today the middle of April, we have prices of wheat at $11.40, corn $8.60, milo $8.00, and soybeans $16.20. That is over a $3.50 increase on wheat, almost $3.00 on corn and milo and over a $4.00 increase on soybeans.

All these increases are a direct result of the war in Ukraine and Russia. With such large market swings in a day’s time, don’t get hung up on what the basis is because with these volatile markets, the basis is not keeping up with history’s, so when the flat price hits the mark that makes sense to you, it is 3

time to get it contracted. We haven’t seen prices like this in years, so don’t let it get away from you before you get it priced for next year, or even the year after next. Because we all know, what goes up, must come down.

All the Pride Ag Resources employees would like to take this time to thank all of you for your patronage; it is you, the customers that make us so successful and strong. Thanks again and see you in June at the elevators to get your trucks dumped and back to the fields.

AV Energy Chris Klein

AV Energy Manager Since summer is right around the corner I thought it would be good to give our customers a little perspective as to what the summer fuel prices might do.

The below information was taken from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and is available online at www.eia.gov.

EIA expects summer U.S. real gasoline and diesel prices to be the highest since 2014.

In our Summer Fuels Outlook, a supplement to our April 2022 Short-Term Energy Outlook, we expect retail gasoline prices to average $3.84 per gallon (gal) this summer driving season,

April through September, compared with last summer’s average price of $3.06/gal. After adjusting for inflation, this summer’s forecast national average price would mark the highest retail gasoline and diesel prices since 2014.

We expect the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will have a smaller effect on gasoline and diesel consumption in the United States during the 2022 summer season compared with the past two summers. U.S. gasoline and diesel consumption continue to remain below their 2019 averages.

We expect higher fuel prices this summer as a result of higher crude oil prices. Crude oil prices have generally risen since the start of the year partly as a result of geopolitical developments, particularly Russia’s war against Ukraine.

We expect U.S. economic activity to increase through the summer, resulting in more demand for petroleum fuels.

Greater demand will contribute to higher crude oil prices. We expect Brent crude oil will average $106 per barrel (b) this summer, which would be $35/b higher than last summer.

Recently, increased volatility of crude oil prices, which account for around 60% of total retail gasoline prices, indicates our crude oil price forecast could change, depending on several factors that remain highly uncertain. Notably, our outlook takes into account all sanctions on Russia announced as of April 7, but the range of possible outcomes for resulting oil production in Russia is wide.

If you would like more information regarding AV Energy’s Fuel, Propane or Oil programs please give Jordan Steele (620-338-6652) or myself (620-682-5088) a call.

Thanks, and summer!

have

a

great

What we pay for in a gallon of Diesel

Pride Ag Resources“Pride Turf” Tim Schiffelbein As spring time fast approaches with warmer temperatures, hopefully you have put down a pre-emergent for crabgrass; if not, it’s not too late to apply.

Crabgrass germinates when the soil temperature reaches 60 degrees Fahrenheit or before the last frost freeze of the year. The crabgrass is germinated and then if we get a frost freeze, generally that will kill the immature plants that have already broken through the surface.

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Our Preventer P can still be used if applied by early May. Will a particular preventer keep the dandelions away? The answer is no, unless you treat for them all year. Generally, weeds, such as dandelions, require a fall application before they pop up in the fall through to the spring. If you are fighting spring weeds, then I would recommend an application of our “Weed & Feed” If weeds have already been treated and are easily manageable, use our Maintainer.

The “Maintainer” is considered our All-season fertilizer as it can be used in replacement of many other varieties that we offer. It has a good supply of iron and sulfur as well. It contains 20% controlled slow release nitrogen providing a steady growth for up to 6 weeks.

Next up is the use of our “Grub Guard”; this application should be applied before July 4th. This product controls the activity of white grubs and other pesky or damaging bugs. Using this product from May through the activity season will also help prevent airborne June bugs from laying new eggs and stop the growth of new grubs through the fall (which is when grub growth is the most damaging).

The key to controlling grubs is to kill them before they hatch.

Grub control measures need to be taken on an annual basis to work consistently.

Typically, we say to wait 24 hours before watering your lawn after it’s been fertilized. It is important to make sure that it does receive sufficient watering soon after the 24 hour period.

Watering helps the fertilizer to activate and break down and

begin feeding nutrients to your lawn.

current levels through June depending upon the Urea sector.

Remember, for all your lawn care needs please visit one of our Pride Ag resource locations. Our stores are located in Lyons, Maize, Meade, and Dodge City. As always, if at any time you have questions then please do not hesitate to get in touch with me, Tim Schiffelbein, Regional Sales Director. I would be happy to answer any lawn or product related questions you might have. I can easily be reached at tschiffelbein@prideag.com or at (620)-338-5678.

Urea: China plus Russia represents 40-50% of the world urea production. Thus, dramatic increases across the globe. The US remains a discount to the globe. This is the number one nitrogen source internationally.

We have seen countries purchase Urea equal to $1000 plus Nola values. Domestic suppliers are exporting tons at higher netbacks and therefore we have a very tight supply situation. Koch is not accepting truck traffic until late MayJune. Look for Urea to remain firm through June. Summer resets will remain high until the international events and sanctions are resolved.

Tim Spector

Agronomy Division Manager

Fertilizer– Average pricing 2021 vs. 2022 May 2021 Current 2022 NH3 $715 $1.425 Urea $560 $1,000 Map $780 $1,080 Potash$480 $855 UAN $425 $730

Variance + $710 +$440 +$300 +$375 +$305

NH3: International events in Ukraine have affected supply and values. Tampa, FL values have escalated, however production points in Oklahoma have remained somewhat stable.

Anticipate NH3 to remain at

UAN: The U.S. is the main consumer of UAN along with Ukraine. Historically, we import several million tons to meet the farmer demands in the U.S. However, this past August tariffs were imposed on the three major importers: Russia, Trinidad, and Tobago. So in essence import tons were eliminated. Look for prices to remain firm through July 2022.

Like urea, I don’t anticipate a big price drop for summer resets.

Phosphates: MAP – Firm to higher, Mosaic controls 85% of the U.S. market and as long as China is not exporting, I do not anticipate any price decline in the nearfuture. Supplies are very tight and 80% of our market is supplied via the terminals in Inola, Oklahoma.

Supply availability will be the issue for 5

the 2022-2023 crops. I am bullish on Map unless China can start exporting .

Liquid Phosphates – No surprise that the acid market is following the Map/Dap market.

Higher values for the 2022 crop year vs. 2021 crop year. Look for this trend to continue into 2023 In summary, if the forward grain prices are attractive and you are able to contract those bushels then take a look at contracting the inputs today to lock in your production margins. Keep an eye on the events taking place in Russia, if the conflict escalates this will disrupt supply of NPK and that is not a good thing. The CF and Koch’s of the world are only looking at their respective bottom lines. In response, we have created the Advantage GFI program for our members to contract grain as payment for 2023 fertilizer inputs. Your Pride Ag Agronomist can share the details about using less bushels to purchase inputs.

Crop Protection – Volatile Market Supply and limited technical products continue to drive a shortage for the market. Basic suppliers are limiting production this year and will be short of demand. When choosing your herbicide, insecticides, fungicides and adjuvant needs you will need to be flexible on your choices.

We have inventory to cover your needs for the 2022 crop and we are reserving our gallons for our historic customers of Pride Ag Resources. Get your needs covered sooner rather than later.

There are over 75 products on allocation and supply is limited.

Insecticides and Fungicides are extremely tight and with $ 10 plus wheat order your fungicides as soon as possible, same for $7 plus corn.

to benefit from this tool in the management of your operation.

Seed – Thank you for your continued support as we continue to grow our seed business. Croplan Genetics announced yesterday that they now have Milo seed in the portfolio for 2022 crop year.

We are analyzing the varieties that will fit our area and they will have Imiflex hybrids in the lineup. Our front-line supply partners are NK Seeds, Brevant Seeds, Croplan Seeds, LG Seeds and Sorghum partners. We have a robust offering of proven genetics to fit your farming needs.

Advantage RX – Taranis

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Tony Bleumer ......................... Chairman

THE TARANIS DIFFERENCE:

Toby Whipple………..... .. Vice-Chairman

1. Our submillimeter image resolution is so clear you can distinguish between different insect damages, lesions, different nutrient deficiencies, weed species and more.

Butch Irsik.................................. Director

Clint Hamilton ......... Secretary-Treasurer

Brian Pinkney ............................ Director Jacob Tarman............................ Director Weston Vogel ............................ Director Levi Salmans.…........Associate Director Jerald Kemmerer………………CEO/GM Kirstie Collins …….......Newsletter Editor

2. Full-service delivery means no flying, uploading, data stitching or hardware failures.

3. Delivery and data at scale means no matter how many acres, no matter where you are, we execute seamlessly to provide effortless and valuable insights.

4. Your Pride Ag Resources Agronomy Business Manager can assist you how 6

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Pride Ag Resources

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2nd Quarter 2022

908 W. Frontview, Dodge City, KS 67801 (620) 225-4193

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