Happy May Day! Well, we would much rather be out in the field getting a great start to Crop 2022 but Mother Nature has different plans so far. Night time air temperatures below freezing and daytime highs in the 40’s don’t equate to ideal planting conditions! The 10 day forecast looks better however. It gets tough to be patient but we are forced to wait in hopes of doing it right!

All of us have dealt with the uncertainty of our current events. We struggle to get parts when needed, supply chains are slow and not dependable, even the mail has had issues! It has forced us to think way ahead to schedule our input needs to allow time for shipment. Currently, we have all our seed and chemical in our warehouse to prevent any disruption in field activities. There were days while we waited for delivery of some products that I questioned if we would ever see it! As noted in the past, prices for fuel, chemical and fertilizer has gone crazy.

Fortunately, we locked in most of our fertilizer needs last summer and the balance in November to avoid the extremely high current prices. However, borrowing money to pay for fertilizer 6 months in advance puts a strain on cashflow too. Some fertilizer outlets are out selling product for Fall 2022 already! I’m not anxious about locking in anything at this point and at these levels. At this price point, it seems the risk to go higher should be slim and the potential to go lower should be possible. Time will tell! We feel sorry for the poor Ukrainian farmers that are amidst the terrible war and yet trying to get a crop planted and somehow function in a normal way. I can’t imagine all the uncertainty with gunfire in the air, landmines who knows where, and fertilizer and fuel very limited, as to how you carry out planting a crop. We closely watch their progress and how it is affecting our commodity markets and supply of our needed inputs for the future. It’s a crazy world we live in right now!

Grain prices are extremely high which helps to offset our high input costs, for now. With everything locked in on our expense side, we can maintain a decent margin as long as Mother Nature gives us a good crop. I’m more nervous looking ahead to 2023. If (and hopefully) the War in Ukraine ends, grain markets could drop dramatically and we are left with high priced inputs. This could make for a bleak 2023. Fertilizer companies are recording record quarterly profits (go figure!) along with chemical companies as well. Anytime in my farming career, when the grain market gives us high prices, every supply company raises their prices and wants a piece of the revenue. Farmers are rarely allowed to hit a “home run” by themselves and then input prices slowly come down over several years again, forcing us slim to no margins for a while. There is some talk on the political side that these companies are being watched and might get the government to step in and force some controls on pricing. I’m all in favor of this as their practices seem unethical recently.

We have delivered a large portion of our 2021 crop during the winter months. I had forward contracted quite a bit throughout 2021 and so we delivered on those contracts and have continued to sell as the market moves higher. We have some corn and soybeans to sell yet but only a small percentage of production. If only I knew how high these markets would go! But, if I had that knowledge, I’d be on a beach in Mexico trading commodities not producing them! We don’t focus on the past, but are happy with sales being above cost of production to keep us in the game another year! On the sugarbeet side, sugar prices are at higher levels but never are as volatile as grain prices. The sugar for our co-op is marketed through a company called National Sugar Marketing (NSM) based in Atlanta. Our co-op is partners in this organization with Amalgamated Sugar out of Idaho area and our sister co-op in Brawley, CA. This has been a very successful partnership and we are able to supply the entire western coast of the US with sugar while still having a strong presence in the Midwest with our local co-op. NSM sells to all the large companies such as Pepsi, Hersheys, Blue Bunny Ice Cream, and many others. None of these companies have much storage so we hold the sugar and deliver “just in time” so logistics is very important. Most of the sugar out of our Renville, MN factory is shipped in bulk by rail cars and small amounts by truck load. Very little is bagged in Renville which is more expensive to produce and handle.

I continue to be very involved on the sugarbeet board. Our co-op has had a difficult time processing the record crop we produced in 2021. Ideally, we would want to finish slicing beets by May 10^th of each year, but with factory problems and a large crop, we are estimating a record long campaign to finish around June 10^th. This is only if we can store the beets this long. All the large piles left have been deep frozen by sucking in cold air through fans and air tubes that are placed in the bottom of the piles as we pile the beets at harvest. Then, we have tarps installed to cover the piles to keep them frozen for as long as possible. No doubt, there will be some beets on the edges that begin to spoil and will be scraped off and discarded back to the fields when necessary. We have to pay farmers to reserve acres in case we need this land for disposal. Our management staff has identified key areas in the factory that need improvements and will be “overhauled” this summer to be ready for this crop we are waiting to plant. We also changed our factory manager which has helped greatly. Along with all these issues, our CEO has announced his plans to retire by Dec. 31, 2022 so we are looking for his replacement. We have hired a search firm to help with this process but we are being patient and cautious to choose the right person. It’s an interesting process but adds more meetings! I was able to spend a week inScottsdale, AZ this winter for national sugarbeet meetings. The weather was beautiful and we had a weekend off from meetings so several of us checked out the famous Barrett Jackson car auction which was impressive and we climbed Camelback Mountain as well. I also had a great time enjoying a meal with one of our land owner’s family in the Mesa area. Unfortunately, Sandy couldn’t join me with kids activities so I was on my own. We are scheduled to have a national meeting in Vail, CO the first week of August and then New Orleans in mid November. I participated in a few Zoom meetings on line with some Russian farmers about the strip tillage practices we use as they are very interested. I prepared a PowerPoint presentation about our farm practices and talked about what we do and the success we have had. At the end of the meeting, the guy that organized this stayed on the meeting so we could discuss how the meeting went. He said if they have further interest and want to learn more, they would have me come to Russia and share more! I said that I think we will have to wait on anything like that until things calm down over there! It would be very interesting but I’d be nervous even when things were calm in that part of the world!

Our crew has stayed busy in the shop all winter and like all of us, are anxious to get outside and start with field work. Scoob and Chris focus mostly on shop work, while Derek and Jake handled most of the grain hauling. We have serviced and repaired all our equipment to be ready for 2022. Our goal is to get through all the harvest equipment also so when the weather is nice in late summer, we can enjoy other activities or be on a lake somewhere instead of sweating in a shop! The guys do a phenomenal job of repairing our equipment while keeping a tight budget in mind. Scoob got away on a cruise for a week while Chris spent a week with his wife’s family in southern Texas. Jake and Derek have summer plans for some time off. It’s always amazing to see how we get through fall and then find all kinds of things to repair once we get equipment in the shop!

Our family continues to stay busy in every direction. Ethan and Vanessa are busy in Bemidji yet but had a great trip to Hawaii earlier this winter. McKaia and Jack are getting ready to move to Washington, DC in May. They both have accepted different jobs in that area and are excited to move soon. They sold their house in Eden Prairie and are busy packing. McKaia will be working as a lobbyist for the National League of Cities in DC while continuing to work on her law degree and Jack will be working with recruitment and HR (Human Resources) for a firm on the east coast. Looks like I’ll have tour guides when I’m in DC for beet meetings in the future! Malli and Maleia are both seniors at Minnesota State – Mankato. They will finish up next fall and are looking at getting their Master’s degrees as well. Maleia will be doing a summer internship with our sugar beet co-op. Mari is a busy young lady. She is doing PSEO classes for college while involved in track, JO Volleyball, and playing AAU Basketball with a team from St. Cloud. We have enjoyed some weekend basketball tournaments and watching her team compete. Miraya is also on the track team, and it’s been fun watching her improve in high jump even though there has been many weather challenges with track meets. Sandy continues to be the “glue” for all of us. She has done a great job getting our farm books through tax season, being a logistical manager for all of our activities and being available for whatever comes her way. We are all anxious to get the cabin ready for another year when we finally see a warm up in the weather!

As we near the start of another crop season and view what’s happening in our world, we are reminded of how fortunate we are to live and work here. As spring settles in and we see green grass and flowers blooming again, it feels like a fresh start and warm days ahead after a long winter. We are prepared and anxious to get out in the field and work the land, planting new seeds to produce a bountiful harvest! Thanks to all of you for the chance to witness another planting season and work with you throughout the year! As always, feel free to contact us at anytime or jump in with the guys if you desire as we work on your farms! We pray for good health to all, the end to the war, safety for all farmers as we get busy and for favorable weather for our crops! God bless and take care!