Many of you are gearing up for what is hopefully a fruitful 2019 harvest. Crops look good in northwest Iowa, southwest Minnesota, and southeast South Dakota, considering the spring they endured. With harvest right around the corner, we know that it brings a lot of questions too. Where will I take my crop? How will I market it? Farmers Coop Society has plenty to offer our customers during the harvest season. Make sure you take the time to plan what is right for you and make sure you talk to your Grain Marketing Specialist so you’re aware of all of your options. 

Farmers Coop Society offers end-user pricing with grain handling unloading efficiencies. We have multiple feed mill outlets for your corn located throughout northwest Iowa and Minnesota. These feed mills have constant and steady demand where corn is king and the primary ingredient. We also have strong relationships with the cattle industry, sourcing corn for their needs. This gives us a leg up on the competition for demand for your corn, and you can see this in our higher basis bids. FCS has invested in speeding up unloading capacities for both corn and soybeans at our facilities. These investments have led to quicker turnarounds, allowing you to harvest your crops rather than waiting in line. 

In addition to faster unloading, we will keep our locations open longer this fall. We promise to openly communicate our harvest hours with our new Harvest Hours Text Message Service; again, putting technology to work to give FCS another leg up on the competition. 

In addition to our grain capabilities and our improved facilities, we are investing in our employees. We know you want sound opinions and advice about the oftentimes volatile corn and soybean futures markets. Call FCS—we now have two full-time Grain Marketing Specialists to assist you with those tough questions. Doug Baade is our Western Grain Originator, located at the Sioux Center office. He is working with producers in Ireton, Sioux Center, Alcester, and Worthing. Braden Kooiker is our Eastern Grain Originator, working out of Sanborn and serving producers in Boyden, Little Rock, Ritter, Melvin, Sanborn, and Lime Creek. We also have well-trained staff at your home locations (at the counter or scale, brewing a fresh pot of coffee) that are well versed in grain markets and can help you through the markets or point you to the right person. You are not alone in making these decisions... We have great resources that are here for you. 

New Marketing Options: 

New this year are several grain marketing contracts that will add value to your operation by managing futures risk and also agronomy risk through joint opportunities with both departments. The FCS IMPACT program kicked off in August and is a rewards-based program promoting sustainable agronomy and marketing decisions. The program is a custom program for each producer and each of their fields that will IMPACT your bottom line through agronomic and grain marketing decisions. We’ve also introduced the FCS Input/Output Hedging Program. This program manages fertilizer and grain marketing risk by sourcing fertilizer when it is seasonally cheaper and marketing forward grain at the same time. To learn more, call your agronomist or grain marketing specialist to schedule a face-to-face meeting. 

By doing business with Farmers Coop Society, you are eligible for patronage and can receive deductions for tax savings. This is because FCS is a true agriculture cooperative. Members doing business with Farmers Coop Society can deduct up to 20% of their farming income, through the Section 199A deduction. This deduction is not eligible for private companies who don’t share their profits. 

Find our updated grain policy here. We have made a significant change in our averaging policy for corn and soybeans. We will now offer a 20-day policy for averaging, increased from 10 days. This will keep your averaging window open longer to offset delays during harvest. Our averaging policy is a key difference in doing business with FCS. This policy is a huge advantage to our customers and we are proud to offer this again for the 2019 harvest. You will find that other competitive policies, combined with the reasons above, make it the perfect scenario for you to do business with your coop, Farmers Coop Society. Have a safe harvest! 

Written by: Matt McCord