IN THIS ISSUE: • Masters Choice Quality • Conditioning Plant Expansion • MC : What’s the Difference? • Corn Crossroads • New Marketing Team Member on board
Kevin Koone Announces New Hybrids In his first year as the head of R&D for Masters Choice, Kevin Koone would like to thank dealers and distributors for assisting in data collection. As a result, he is proud to announce two brand new hybrids that will be available in the fall of 2015. Both stand out in their maturity group with great agronomic qualities. Look for MC 4630 in the 96 day maturity range and MC 6730 in the 117 day range. Masters Choice is confident in the performance of these new editions.
Masters Choice Quality by: Aaron Wright
“A company that cares.” This is a common phrase associated with companies that take the time to consider their product and their individual customers. There are how-to books written for companies to create a business that cares. There is even an organization called Center for Companies that Care. Employees, owners, and especially customers desire to be a part of something that makes a positive impression through caring, and many companies rally behind caring as part of their slogan. Why then, would Masters Choice not claim to be “a company that cares”? The simple answer is that one doesn’t have to proclaim caring to actually be of quality, integrity, and consideration. One can simply claim something without actually acting on it and customers will see through this. Masters Choice doesn’t carry this as a slogan because it would be redundant. The quality and integrity of Masters Choice is evident to anyone who has done business with us or planted and fed our corn hybrids. Masters Choice spends a great deal of our budget in research and development, making sure that the corn hybrids we add to our lineup will benefit the farmers who plant them. We do not sell a product just to make money. We sell a product that makes a difference to every person who uses it. We believe in the impacts we have seen it have on farms across the country. This passion can be seen in all aspects of our business and is the reason we are consistently hearing good reports from our customers. Our quality control is so specific that truck drivers and warehouses have complimented us on how well our seed bag pallets are stacked. Masters Choice cares for its employees by giving them the opportunity to advance within the company and celebrates their value on numerous occasions throughout the year. The person writing this article for example has worked for Masters Choice for five years. He spent four years working seasonally in the fields then earned a position at our production facility. Upon learning of his desires and abilities to assist our sales and marketing team, he was given an opportunity to work with them on a trial basis, quickly being promoted to full-time. Masters Choice cares but we don’t have to put it on the side of a truck or in our catalog. You can see it in the demeanor of our employees at a trade show, winter meeting, or dealer training. You can see it in the meticulous details of our catalogs and advertisements. More importantly, you can see it in our lineup that gets stronger each year, as we strive to supply you with the best feeding hybrids in the industry. If you want to be a part of a quality company with integrity, look no further than Masters Choice. You can see the difference we make.
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Masters Choice New Additions by: Sarah Roach
Masters Choice would like to announce another addition to the production plant in Pulaski, IL. This past fall we added 2 new cold storage warehouses. Over the last 5 years we have quickly grown due to more farms trying and continuing to plant Masters Choice hybrids. As a result of our growth, our additions have effectively doubled our cold storage space. The new storage was not only necessary but will be very advantageous to us moving forward. Our Pulaski production facility needed the extra space not only due to our growth in units sold, but also due to the fact that they have gradually become our main conditioning and storage facility. This is in no small way due to the efficiency of the facility and the quality standards to which our production management team holds themselves. Having more space is an advantage as it allows more room for easier movements from warehouse to warehouse as well as an easier organization process in the plant. Each year we make additions to the company. Our production plant has been one of the areas that has grown the most over the last few years with more grain bins, tools, equipment, and now storage being added. We have been blessed with more customers each year, causing us to expand. We can’t wait to see what we do next year.
The Difference: Masters Choice by: Aaron Wright
“Yeah, but you have something different.” This is what Dave said in our conversation over dinner at a Texas Roadhouse one night after a long day of meetings in Missouri. Dave was talking about how several companies in the corn industry could have rough times ahead of them. Mark sharply replied, “Not us!” Us, being Masters Choice. Dave then replied, “Yeah, but you have something different.” We all laughed and continued to indulge in our steak and pulled pork. We knew what Dave meant when he said Masters Choice is different than other corn companies, but let’s take a look at what makes us so different. A few decades ago, the United States exported more than half “Yeah, but you have someof its corn. Because of the rigors of farming, storing, and shipping corn thousands of miles across oceans, the industry began growing corn that could thing different.” withstand the physical punishment. As a result, most of the corn was grown to be much harder or more vitreous for export. Fast forward to 2013, and most of the corn in the United States is still hard and well suited for shipping. However, “Here at Masters Choice, we we only export 11% of our corn. So where does all our corn go? It goes largely to ethanol production and 40% of all corn grown in the US goes to feeding grow our corn specifically livestock. Hard, vitreous, well traveling corn is not well suited for feed. What it gains in hardness, it absolutely loses in digestibility. With this being the case, softer, otherwise known as the industry should consider growing corn specifically beneficial to feeding. floury.” Here at Masters Choice, we grow our corn specifically softer, otherwise known as floury. Our floury grain increases the starch availability without sacrificing yield. As starch becomes more available, livestock has a much higher ability to utilize the nutrients within the feed. We focus primarily on feed for dairy cows, with several studies showing increased rumen development in calves, increased milk production at decreased feed intake levels, and a unique ability to feed quickly after harvest with an average of 75% nutrient availability almost immediately. This is why we encourage farmers to feed us first and alleviate the fall slump. We have also seen improvements in feeding beef cows and have begun studies showing valuable energy improvements to poultry and swine. If you would like to know more about Masters Choice, visit seedcorn.com and remember, Masters Choice is floury grain. Masters Choice is different. Masters Choice makes a difference.
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Crossroads for Corn Hybrids? by: Lyn Crabtree As we begin to understand more about the corn hybrids we plant, we realize hybrids need to be selected aggressively for the purpose they are intended to serve. The market is very diverse and deserves consideration. Promoting high-test weight and a “one-size-fits-all” type approach to hybrid selection is archaic and long overdue for an overhaul. Corn grown for livestock feed consumed about 40% of last year’s corn crop according to the National Corn Growers Report. Ethanol: 30% .Distillers grains: 10%. Export 11%. Sweeteners, plastics, food grade etc: the remaining 9%. We know soft endosperm corn doesn’t hold up well for export, and hard/flinty corn hybrids do not feed livestock efficiently. So naturally, we need the corn we grow to best fit the intended destination. Another consideration: Is this corn grown for grain or silage? This decision might be one that is overlooked in our selection process. It dramatically affects the type of hybrid desired. A grain corn on an aggressively managed farm that plants an average of 35K plants/acre is selecting a determinate/fixed type corn hybrid, while the silage grower seeking higher levels of fiber digestibility (NDFd) would prefer a full flex hybrid that performs best at plant pops under 30K. Crossroads? Absolutely! On the left, a continuing trend toward higher pops and lower forage digestibility. On the right, higher fiber digestibility and lower pops. Caught someplace between the two, is a new interest in corn grain that feeds all species of animals efficiently. There are currently precious few corn companies with the genetic base and resources to create new hybrids for this market challenge. One of those companies is Masters Choice and the focus of our company is only livestock grain and silage.
Masters Choice Introduces Aaron Wright as new Marketing Associate by: Paula Crabtree
Anna, IL – Locally owned Masters Choice, Inc announced today that it has added Aaron Wright –a native of Union County Illinois, as the newest member of its Marketing and Branding Team. Aaron is a 2014 graduate of SIU in Carbondale, IL, graduating with a degree in product/industrial design which falls under the college of liberal arts. Masters Choice owners Lyn and Paula Crabtree are excited about the addition to the staff and are looking forward to seeing the creative work that Aaron will bring to the marketing team. Aaron will be joining a great marketing and branding team, including Andrew Crabtree, Jonah Atkins and Mark Kirk.
Masters Choice Nutrition Summary
If you have ever wondered what Masters Choice is talking about with its floury grain comments, look no further. We have released a new Nutrition Summary that helps guide a person through the physical properties, chemical properties, and how livestock react to being fed our corn. Visit: flourygrain.com for more information