Here we are at Christmas and unfortunately it’s not white outside! I enjoy the change of seasons and look forward to some snow but we have enjoyed the nice weather to complete some outside projects we rarely get to do. 2023 was a great year for tile projects on our farm. We installed about 175,000 feet, completing a whole farm project on 140 acres and then able to do half of another 150 acre field with plans to finish this farm next spring. We raised some peas for the canning company in Glencoe last spring that get harvested in late July, so we were able to jump in prior to harvest and get the first farm completed. We GPS all the lines when done and now know where every line is at if we need to go back to fix anything. This is a great asset to know tile line locations for future needs. We attacked the second project after harvest but everyone was getting tired so we only completed half of it. The way the weather turned out, we probably could have finished that one too!

We really enjoy installing the tile, knowing how much we are improving these farms! Our goal is to do at least one whole farm a year.

We turn our attention to shop work. The crew is busy washing up equipment and servicing each piece as we cycle them through the shop. They do a great job completing these tasks. While they focus on our equipment, I have been working on finishing up year end accounting and purchasing seed and chemical for 2024. I have also been busy attending sugar beet meetings for my involvement on the SMBSC board. We had a quick national sugar beet board meeting in St. Louis in mid November and will be spending 6 days in Orlando the first week of February for our annual meeting of this same national board I am a member of. I enjoy my time with these organizations and spending time with friends from around the country. Our national board spends a lot of time focused on the Sugar Policy and the Farm Bill in general. Although a new Farm Bill has not been settled yet, we lobby together with the cane sugar growers to bring one unified voice to Washington, DC. We don’t always agree but have learned to compromise and know that we are stronger together than lobbying separately.

The summer drought affected yields in the SE area of our operation. Corn and soybean yields were down 25-40% in some cases. Thankfully, we are spread out in our geography and our crops near home and north were average or better. Sugar beets like it on the dry side so they were above average and produced a nice crop both in yield and sugar content. Our sugar beet factory is under new management as of about 18 months ago and the new team are setting all-time records for daily slicing of beets and sugar production. It has been a fantastic turnaround and shareholders are feeling very confident of the future for our co-op. Our Board vision is to be the “Preeminent sugar factory in the world” and we are on track to do just that! We are the single largest sugar beet factory in the world and will continue to fine tune operations to be the envy of the industry! Sugar price is also good so it is a nice change to the struggles we faced for the past several years.

Corn and soybean price, however, has dropped significantly over the last year. We were fortunate to have forward priced at some nice levels but still have some bushels that need to be priced and hopeful for some type of rally in the new year.

Farm inputs have stabilized. Fertilizer prices have settled down after paying ridiculous levels a year ago. Chemical costs have somewhat flatlined with a few higher and others declining. It’s also nice to see fuel prices coming down as well. With grain prices at lower levels, it’s a welcome sign to see input pricing down slightly in general in hopes to keep us in the black! Time will tell! Cost of repairs and replacing equipment is crazy. We have focused on preventative maintenance to avoid catastrophic failures that cost a fortune and follow auction sights watching for opportunities to replace equipment at lower costs than dealers have offered. We tend to run some older, lower hour equipment to avoid higher overhead costs.

On the labor side, we still feel the loss of Scoob (Jason) from a year ago. Due to the difficulty of finding a qualified individual to take his place last winter, I approached two brothers that had recently expanded and were in need of some equipment to “partner” together and exchange some labor for equipment. Spring work showed us this was not a long term solution and we parted ways after the planting season. So, we were on the search again for some help and operated with one guy short most of the summer. We hired a young guy in August and approached harvest fully staffed. We were very blessed to add several new “RV” workers for harvest to help get the crop out of the fields. On a daily basis when everything was moving, we had a crew of 15 people. Each day we had 8-9 semis running plus the harvest equipment and Derek as our “gopher” to help with repairs, watch over the binsites, and help move equipment to be efficient. Jake stepped up as the combine crew foreman and ran that show. Chris and I oversee logistics and harvest plans. He is in charge of keeping the strip till rig moving while I ran the sugar beet crew. Despite some breakdowns as usual, we were a well-oiled machine! I figured we hauled 700 semi loads of corn, 200 loads of soybeans, and over 1000 loads of sugar beets! That’s a lot of fuel and truck repairs! We upgraded 3 trucks that now have automatic transmissions that simplified the learning curve for some rookie drivers. Everyone wants to drive those trucks so as we upgrade other trucks, we will continue on that path. It’s been great to have Dad (Howard) still passionate about farming as he was always willing to provide rides or run after parts throughout the year. He turned 89 in early December and still comes to the farm almost daily to check on us this time of the year.

Our family continues to stay busy with some big news for 2024. Our oldest daughter, McKaia and Jack, are expecting in early January. They moved back from Washington, DC and purchased a beautiful new home in Chaska. They still work for the same companies from out East but work remotely from home with some business travel at times. McKaia just finished her law degree and will continue to work with her organization in a legislative and legal capacity. Ethan (only son) and Vanessa are expecting in March and after completing their 5-year stint of work in Bemidji, will be relocating next summer to the Victoria area in a new home they are having built in the spring. It will be great to have our first two grandkids just miles apart from each other. We are very excited to be grandparents for the first time! Malli is still working in the Mankato area. Maleia and her fiancé Jaden will be married in August of 2024. She will complete her Master of Accounting and CPA requirements and Jaden will graduate from Mankato State University with a degree in Environmental Science. We will see where they settle down after acquiring jobs. Mari, first year at UW-River Falls, is enjoying college life and playing basketball. She injured her ankle badly after the first game of the year and will be able to start playing again finally after Christmas. She has met some very nice young ladies at college and has become great friends with them. Miraya, junior in high school, was involved with the musical “The Adamms Family” this fall. Having grown up watching the show, I couldn’t understand how they could make a musical of this show?! The high school group did a fantastic job and was so fun to watch her perform on stage. She is very busy taking post-secondary classes and is already wanting to be in college! We tell her not to rush into life, it goes fast enough the way it is! Sandy continues her work as a K-3 Reading Specialist for Ampact, overseeing fourteen schools in Southwest MN. She works remotely from our office by having multiple Zoom meetings each day and then travels about once a month to each school for evaluations. She really seems to enjoy it and fulfills her teaching “itch” that has always been her passion. She also continues to be RFI’s accounting/office manager in her extra time. I will continue to stay involved on the sugarbeet boards I’m on and participate in a few Soil Health discussions around the state that I have a passion for. Other than some business traveling, our get aways will most likely involve watching some college women’s basketball around much of Wisconsin. Also, we would not want to miss out on some new grand baby time! Life is good!

With the nice fall, I am behind in getting together with many of you but look forward to seeing you soon. I can’t emphasize how much I enjoy this farm “family” we’ve built that I consider you all a vital part of. We are very proud of these relationships that continue to grow each year. Thank you for all you do for our operation! As you settle into the Christmas celebrations, remember the Reason for the Season! Enjoy time with friends and family but remember all those that are struggling and I’d ask that you join me in praying for these folks. Several people close to us are battling different forms of cancer and other health issues. Let’s pray for good days ahead for all of us in 2024.