3 minute read
Striving Forward
Looking back at 2022, we had a very successful year. We had a little slower start with the spring fertilizer season. Overall application acres were steady, but we saw a decrease in the pounds per acre applied due to the rising cost of fertilizer. Grain receipts in the spring and into summer we lower than average due to a lower 2021 yields. Fall fertilizer and grain receipts made up for any short comings we saw earlier in 2022. Soybean and Corn yields were well above average which made for a great fall but at times stressful to get through. MRGA employees definitely stepped up and were able to keep our grain facilities fluid and fertilizer application equipment running to get the job done. Inflationary times seem like they are here to stay for a while. With an increasing cost structure, we must become more efficient in operations. Most of this revolves around using technology to make different tasks easier and/ or more productive. Grand Farm, and other vendors are automating different processes and will be integral in getting through these current times where labor availability has been an issue. Through our partnership with Grand Farm, our I.T. department will be looking at ways to automate some of our systems to help with that.
In 2022 we finished up our third liquid fertilizer tank. We built a 500,000-gallon ammonium thiosulfate (ATS) tank. ATS is used mostly to blend into 28% UAN to bring a sulfur component to the liquid fertilizer blend. This will compliment our existing (2) 2,000,000 gallon UAN tanks. Going forward to 2023 we are currently working on a new office in Casselton. This project is still in the planning phase but could possibly start in the second or third quarter of 2023. We are also working on different maintenance and repair projects through out the company. In April we will be rebuilding our main distributor and
See the 3 tanks next to the corn storage building!
replacing our screeners at the Casselton Terminal. When we start working on this project we will have to close grain receiving in Casselton for a couple weeks. We will do our best to do this during spring’s work to minimize impact to grain receiving in Casselton. We are also looking at multiple conveyor rebuilding projects throughout the company.
In closing, MRGA had a great 2022 and we are looking forward to the many opportunities and challenges in 2023. As always,
in 2023.
Alex Richard, COO
