grain scoop - South Central FS

FEBRUARY 2015
www.southcentralfs.com
GRAIN SCOOP:
Remember When?
At a recent function I was attending, the subject got
brought up about how things have changed in the countryside. Things were just not the same as they used to be and
they just could not figure out why. Being an optimist, I immediately jumped in and gave them my two cents worth. I
said things are different but maybe in a good way. I went
on to say when I was a kid we did not have deer, coyote, turkeys, beaver, river otters, and probably many other
species of animals I cannot think of. And what have we
lost? I honestly cannot think of hardly anything we have
lost completely. I do think we had more snakes as a kid. I
can remember boating down the river in our Jon boat with
By Kim Holsapple
my grandfather as a young kid and as we checked our slat
traps and hoop nets for the abundant fish in the Embarrass
River, there would be snakes curled up in almost every willow tree hanging over the
banks of the river. It usually only took one shot from his 22 caliber rifle to watch the
snakes fall from the trees into the water. Thinking about it, the river itself has changed
a lot in the last 50 years. The deep holes have mostly filled in. To find a hole over your
head in the summer time is now very challenging but it still makes a great place to take
the grandkids on a hot Sunday afternoon. Maybe when I retire I can teach my grandkids
the lost art of fishing and trapping on the old river as I was taught to do by my forefathers.
What does this have to do with the grain business? Nothing, or does it? Do you remember when every small town had a grain elevator? Not only were they in every town
but several country grain elevators dotted the country side along rail road tracks. For
the most part the rail road’s have left the little country towns. The multinational grain
companies have concentrated their efforts on major rail and river hubs. You can believe
me, I have studied this every since I was a kid as my grandfather once owned a country
elevator. He sold it when I was 4 years old so my memories of it are very vague. But
as I have grown with this company for the last 40 years, my goal was not necessarily
to save the country elevator but look for the opportunities they offered not only to local
producers but to my company. There was a bumper sticker put out a few years ago that
said; COUNTRY ELEVATORS: USE THEM OR LOOSE THEM! I am not so naive to
think producers were just going to use them to keep them open. I thought if I could offer
value to producers by keeping strategically located locations open, they would still add
value to the patrons that used them. Believe me there are days that I have questioned
whether my approach has worked in the market place. When I started with the company
in 1976 I came with the purchase of Toledo Farmers Grain which became the fourth
elevator for our company as location manager. We continued that way until 1986 when
I made the job move to become grain department manager for the company. We were
like most small grain companies and were struggling to survive. The rest is history! We
now have 37 locations and have become one of the largest, if not the largest, non-multi
national grain company in the state. We have yet to build on a green field site. Instead
we have taken locations that were either shut down, bankrupt, or locally owned and just
wanted to down size or get out and keep them in our small communities. We owe you
(the customer) for letting this happen.
As I have talked about for months, keep sales current at slightly profitable levels for
this year and next and this cycle of low prices will turn. We have had good back to back
to back crops in both North and South America and the market will be watching closely
for a problem somewhere and with the demand for grain the market will turn on a dime.
Just make sure you can be here to see it! Hopefully we can say (REMEMBER WHEN)
corn was just $4.00 and beans $10.00.
Braking and Stopping
Once the brake is applied it can take long distances for a vehicle to come to a safe,
complete stop. When vehicles ahead of you do something unexpectedly, you need time to
react. You must keep enough following distance between you and the vehicles ahead to
avoid a collision if the traffic stops suddenly. The distance required to stop your vehicle is
important in helping you decide on a safe driving speed. A two second following distance
is a good rule for most driving situations. Your actual stopping distance will depend upon
many of the items listed below:
• Driver perception time – This is the length of time it takes a driver to see and recognize
a dangerous situation.
• Driver reaction time – This is the time from perception of danger to start of braking, the
average is .75 seconds.
• Type and condition of road surface – such as unpaved, asphalt, concrete, wet, snow or
ice.
• Vehicle design and the condition of the shock absorbers.
• Vehicle weight when loaded or towing. The heavier the vehicle, the more braking power
required to stop it.
• Type and condition of the brakes – Such as disc brakes, drum brakes, anti lock braking
system, etc.
• Speed of the vehicle – The greater the speed of any vehicle, the longer the stopping
distance required.
Scenarios of where a longer following distance is required:
• When driving on slippery roads, you should double your following distance to at least
four seconds to allow for the extra distances needed to adjust your speed or stop. When
stopping on slippery roads, if your vehicle is not equipped with anti lock brakes, do not
apply your brakes too forcefully or you may cause them to lock up. If your brakes lock
up, it will increase your stopping distance, and may cause you to lose control of your
vehicle. Pump the brakes until you are able to come to a full stop.
• When the driver behind you wishes to pass, reducing your speed will allow the driver to
pass quicker. The added distance will make it easier for the passing motorist to pull back
into the lane, and increase the distance between the vehicles, reducing the possibility
that you may need to suddenly stop to avoid an accident.
• When you are following a large vehicle, such as a tractor trailer that blocks your vision
of the road ahead, you will need extra distance to see around the vehicle. And view any
dangers ahead on the road.
• When you are towing or carrying a load, the distance required to stop your vehicle will
increase in proportion to the weight of the load, If the load you are towing is equipped
with an independent brake system, make sure that your vehicle is equipped with the
proper connecting hardware to operate the trailer brakes, and that the trailer brakes are
functional and adjusted properly.
• Never follow within 500 feet of fire or other emergency vehicles.
When driving, allowing yourself enough time to stop your vehicle in any situation or
condition is the key to avoiding an accident. Remember to always buckle up.
South Central FS, and Total Grain Marketing and its employees are very concerned
with the safety and health of all of our
employees and our patron customers and
the citizens in our communities that we
serve. By staying alert and observing the
guidelines and suggestions in this article,
we should all be able to make the roadways
safer for our families and our communities.
South Central FS, Inc and Total Grain
Marketing LLC
Safety Makes a Difference – Safety
Committee.
Page 10 • February 2015
Country Connection
Spotlight: Greenup Location
Greenup elevator was first established as a grain elevator and feed
mill in 1931. Owner Ross Greeson
had to rebuild the facility after a fire
consumed the building in 1937. In
those days, grain was delivered by
horse and wagon. Corn was shelled
in what was the feed mill and was
shipped out by rail. Greeson passed
the business on to his son Dorsie
and grandson Harold, who operated
the business until it was leased to
the Federal North Iowa Grain Company in 1951. Grain storage at that
time was 20,000 bushels. In 1951
Marshall “Fireball” Taggert became the owner and operator of the
business. Other individuals shared
in its ownership, but Taggert was
the operator.
Through the years of operation
under Taggert’s direction, the grain
company significantly increased
its grain storage capacity and offered services and products such as
trucking, feed, fertilizer, seed and
agricultural chemicals. Bin storage
at the bottom of the hill-which is
visible from Route 40 – was added
in the mid 1960’s to load out rail.
A few years later the East dump located east of the office was added.
Flat storage buildings were added
in the late 1970s.
In 1990, Taggert sold the company to Effingham-Clay Service
Co. Since that time, the business
has become strictly a grain elevator.
The TGM Greenup facility features
a little more than one million bushels of storage capacity in 13 grain
bins and three flat storage buildings. The bins and buildings are
located in three separate areas, all
of which are relatively close to the
main office housed on West Lincoln
Drive. A new office building was
constructed in 2005; a picture of the
old office building is shown.
Grain delivered to TGM Greenup is then hauled out by truck to
rail terminals or river terminals, or
to one of TGM’s other rail facilities
to go out on trains.
Tami Fritts is the manager of
the facility and has been with the
company for 24 years. She oversees both our Greenup and Jewett
facilities, originates grain and also
does all of the accounting for both
locations. Tami is a very dedicated
and valuable employee for TGM.
She is married to Kerry and has two
grown children.
Josh Rodebough has worked for
TGM for 3 1/2 years. He started
out at our Charleston elevator and
has been at Greenup for two years.
Josh is in charge of operations of
our Greenup facility and the quality
of grain. He is also in the Air Force
Reserves. Josh and his wife Brittany were just married in November.
Zack Yocum has worked for us
for five years. He oversees the operations at our Jewett facility and fills
in at Greenup when needed. Zack
has five children.
Gene Waters also helps load and
unload grain. He has been in the
grain business since 1979. Gene
worked for Huisinga Grain and
then continued with TGM when
that transition took place. He and
his wife Peggy have three grown
children and twelve grandchildren.
Old Greenup office.
Greenup present day office.
Greenup's west elevator.
Greenup's east elevator.
Greenup's 500,000 bu flat storage and two dump pits.
Country Connection
Page 11 • February 2015
Spotlight: Jewett Location
The elevator at Jewett has been serving the Jewett area since
1872. It was owned by Siemers and then by Bedford Schumacher
at some point in time. In the late 1970s, Denny and Carl Probst
purchased the business and functioned until 1987 when Tim Flach
bought the location. Effingham-Clay took over the operation in
2000.
Jewett is in a strategic location for TGM as it is 15 miles from
our Casey train loader, 15 miles to our train loader in Neoga and
15 miles to Siemer Milling Co in Teutopolis. Jewett keeps a large
portion of our company’s wheat because of the proximity to our
local end users. The Jewett elevator has a total capacity of approximately 800 thousand bushels and deals almost exclusively
with grain storage and shipping.
We have a very loyal customer group at Jewett and can be accessed from almost any direction without getting on a state highway
Tami Fritts is our manager at Jewett, where she also oversees
the Greenup facility. She has worked for our company since 1990.
She started out at our Toledo location and then transferred to Greenup. Tami is also in charge of originating grain and also does all of
the accounting for both locations.
Zack Yocum is in charge of weighing, testing, loading and unloading grain at Jewett and also oversees the quality of the grain
there. He has been with us for five years. Zack also helps at our
Greenup location when needed.
Jewett's Office
Tami, Zack, Josh and Gene.
Jewet's east elevator and flat storage.
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Country Connection
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Don’t
Forget About
Biosecurity
By Jason Propst
With the limited cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus
(PEDV) reported through early
winter, hog farmers have been
feeling pretty good about their
chances of missing it this year.
We’ve been trying to remind
these farmers that this could all
change in an instant and not to
relax on their biosecurity protocols.
If you look back at last year’s
incidences of PEDV in the FS
Total Livestock Services’ territory as well as the upper Midwest,
the majority of breaks occurred
between the first of January and
the end of March. The most interesting fact about these PEDV
breaks was that they occurred in
three waves. There was a rash of
breaks the first part of January,
the first part of February, and the
first part of March. The coinciding factor to the breaks was
a major snowstorm with high
winds. We don’t know what our
weather pattern will be this year,
but one thing is certain. Don’t
relax on your biosecurity protocols.
Last year, hog farmers
stepped up their biosecurity
protocols in hopes of preventing PEDV. Some farmers were
successful and some were not.
However, the swine industry experienced the lowest incidence
of Porcine Reproductive and
Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS)
it has seen in a very long time.
PRRS wasn’t the only disease
that was reduced this past year.
A review of diagnostic data from
the major swine laboratories
shows that most swine diseases
were reduced this past year as
well. This happened because of
everyone’s hard work to keep
their operations’ healthy. Just
think of the productivity your
farm would have if you focused
on biosecurity every year.
Unfortunately, the number
of pigs affected by PEDV and
PRRS this fall and early winter
has been increasing faster than
we would like to see. Early
signs are pointing to lapses in biosecurity as the reason for these
disease challenges. The best biosecurity protocols are only as
good as the people who implement them. Please take the time
to properly implement the plans
that you have worked hard on
creating. Stuart Heller from Preserve International sums up the
value of biosecurity best. “Biosecurity Doesn’t Cost, It Pays!”