“ Working with you”

Summer 2020 Issue 471www.allamericancoop.com

Stewartville • Eyota • Elgin • Kellogg • Plainview • St. Charles • Viola, MN

Cooperative Link

Back in Business: How the Hoffman family rebuilt their farm & their herd

pg. 6

MEET YOUR NEW AGRONOMY DEPARTMENT MANAGER, SCOTT SCHWANKE

PG. 9

Grain policy reminders for fall & a new prepaid grain storage program

pgs. 10 - 12

Glenn LuttekeGENERAL MANAGERc. 507-251-9323glutteke@allamericancoop.com

Todd StockdaleGRAIN DEPT. MANAGERc. 507-438-8535tstockdale@allamericancoop.com

Brent VorpagelFEED DEPT. MANAGERc. 507-380-2068vorpagel@allamericancoop.com

Scott Schwanke AGRONOMY DEPT. MANAGERc. 507-259-7611schwanke@allamericancoop.com

Cheryl SimpsonADMINISTRATION MANAGERcsimpson@allamericancoop.com

Jeff AndersonCONTROLLERjanderson@allamericancoop.com

Tyler CarriganSAFETY DIRECTORc. 507-272-2109tcarrigan@allamericancoop.com

For a full list of contacts, please visit us at www. allamericancoop.com.

Board of DirectorsMike Heim - PresidentJim Klavetter - Vice PresidentDavid Severson - SecretaryLawrence Schwanke - DirectorJoe Horstmann - Director

Stewartville - Feed, Grain, & Agronomyp. 507-533-4222113 4th St. SE,Stewartville, MN 55976

Plainview - Agronomyp. 507-534-314735 7th St. SWPlainview, MN 55964

Elgin - Feed & Grainp. 507-876-22221 Center Ave. NElgin, MN 55932

Elgin - Agronomyp. 507-871-374027594 Cty. Rd. 25Elgin, MN 55932

St. Charles - Agronomy**p. 507-932-4732942 Wabasha Ave.St. Charles, MN 55972

Eyota - Grainp. 507-545-2921North Front St. Eyota, MN 55934

Viola - Grain**p. 507-876-226311201 Viola Rd.Eyota, MN 55932

Kellogg - Agronomy**p. 507-737-3275335 S. Smith St.Kellogg, MN 55945

Directory

**denotes seasonal locations

Leadership

Locations

ON THE FRONT COVER:A few friends at North Creek Dairy pose for a photo during a chat with dairyman Gary Hoffman in June. The girls have a new roof over their head in their new home on Highway 30 west of Chatfield.

Summer 2020

Hi everyone, Dan Klavetter here. I am hap-py to announce I have accepted the role of Agronomy Location Manager for Elgin/Pla-inview as Scott Schwanke moves to his new role as Agronomy Department Manager.

For those of you that don't know me, I grew up on my family’s farm near Viola, graduated from Dover-Eyota High School in 2010 and went on to the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. I started at All Ameri-can Co-op in the summer of 2012 as a crop scout intern and returned again in the summer of 2013. Right after graduation, in January of 2015, I was hired full time as an agronomist where I ran the dry fertilizer plant in Stewartville. I eventually made the transition over to the Plainview location in the fall of 2017 as a sales agronomist, where I have been working ever since.

My wife Rogena is a veterinarian in Plainview. We had our daughter, Ruth, in February. In my spare time I enjoy help-ing on the farm, snowmobiling, golfing, and spending time with my family.

I am excited to dig in to my new position and my responsibilities while also maintaining the relationships that I have built with producers over the last six years—please reach out to me if you have any questions. I am happy to help and look forward to hearing from you.

allamericancoop.com 3

Our summer is rolling along. Lately we have been running into wind and rain—it might be post spray time. Because of COVID-19 I am not able to write about county fairs or gatherings of any size. At the co-op we are looking at summer traditions that we normally plan for and have found that we are having to get creative, as well as a little more tech-saavy. Hopefully the important lessons learned from all of this are those of creativity and overcoming adversity to

get the job done.So let’s talk about one of my favorite

topics—fertilizer. On a positive note, it looks like fertilizer inputs will be down for this fall. There is minimum strength in any of the fertilizer sectors as we start to see surer fill pricing. This should equate to lower costs going forward. I would say we are early in this process. A lot of factors could come in to play. But with the farm economy where it is today, the big word I use a lot is demand. What will or will not drive demand for more fertilizer usage? Farm prices increases would probably be the biggest driver. That would be very positive at the far gate. Short-term outlook looks positive for lower fertilizer prices.

Have a great summer.

DANKlavetterElgin/Plainview Agronomy Location Managerdklavetter@allamericancoop.com507-272-0157

Klavetter named Elgin/Plainview AgronomyLocation Manager

GLENNLuttekeGeneral Manager507-533-4222glutteke@allamericancoop.com

Manager’s Notes

Good luck, Dan!

We look forward to your leadership with All American Co-op!

IN AGRONOMY NEWS:

4 Summer 2020

Layne Vaupel studies Agriculture Education at South Dakota State Uni-versity. Layne is intern-ing this summer with the Agronomy Team in hopes of learning a little bit more about the pro-duction agriculture field, specifically on the crop side of the industry.

He hopes to dig deeper into the different stages of crop life and

experience first-hand the different types of weeds and planting styles that make an impact on production.

Layne has a background in FFA and music and hopes to use his experience at All American Co-op to prepare him for a career as an educator in ag.

L AY N EVaupelAgronomy InternRacine, MN •South Dakota State

Lauralee Eaton has joined us again this summer as an agrono-my intern. She studies Agriculture Education at South Dakota State University and hopes to learn more about agro-nomic goals and what being an agronomist is all about. When on her campus, Lauralee acts as the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental

Sciences advocate. While at All American this summer, she hopes to extend her advo-cacy efforts by establishing positive relation-ships with AAC customers. Lauralee hopes to someday make it back to the area to teach agriculture at a local high school or, maybe even find a career in agronomy.

L AU RA L E EEatonAgronomy InternPine Island, MN •South Dakota State

Kaylee Wendt studies Agriculture Business at the University of Wiscon-sin-River Falls. Kaylee has joined the Agronomy Team this summer as she works to gain a better understanding of how cooperatives like All Amer-ican work with farmers. Kaylee looks forward to the hands-on experience she will gain with agrono-my. Kaylee hopes to use

the life skills she picks up this summer in her future career. She has a background in 4-H and FFA showing lifestock and horses. She is also involved with Pony of the Americas Club and the UW-RF western horse show team.

Kaylee hopes to work in production agriculture someday.

KAY L E EWendtAgronomy InternEyota, MN •UW-River Falls

Joshua Wiemer is work-ing on a degree in Ag Business with a minor in crop science at UW-River Falls. Josh is interning for a second year with agronomy this summer in hopes of gaining expe-rience on the sales side of the business. Josh has a background in FFA and the Ag Business and Marketing Society. When Josh is back home in WI,

he enjoys hunting, fishing, racing, demo derbies, and helping out on the family farm.

This summer at the co-op, Josh hopes to learn more about agronomy products and methods to benefit the farmer. Josh hopes to someday work in agronomy sales or management.

J O S HWiemerAgronomy InternArcadia, WI •UW-River Falls

It has been quite the year so far and our internship program was not immune to the effects of COVID-19. We had to make a few changes to the structure of our intern-ships, which allowed us to maintain the same experience for these local students seeking an education in agriculture, but without the travel. Our agronomy training from Winfield was held virtually this year, but it made for more time in the field.

At All American Co-op, we understand the important role an internship plays for college students. That is why, despite the circumstances this year, we challenged our interns with the same amount of hands-on experience to gain useful skills for their future careers. We were forced to be more careful with farm visits, but fortu-nately, the CDC did not limit the amount of crop scouting we could do!

McKAY L AWingertPrecision Ag Specialist/Agronomy Internship Coordinator

McKayla attended UW-River Falls and interned with All

American Co-op in both the summers of 2018 and 2019. She was hired on to our staff as a preci-sion ag specialist just before graduation and now she also runs our agronomy internship program.

InternsMEET OUR

AGRONOMY

allamericancoop.com 5

All American Co-op agronomist Jamison Schneckloth (right) and summer agronomy intern Lauralee Eaton (left) helping out at the Gunderson show plot on HWY-30 in May.

All American Co-op supports local students continuing their education in an agri-cultural field of study through our internships and scholarships. Students working on a degree in agriculture may be eligible for either of our programs. If you know a high school senior or college freshman going to school specifically for agriculture, look for our scholarship application next spring. If you know a college student working on a degree in agriculture, our paid internships may be right for them. We design our internship programs with the help of Winfield (agronomy) and Purina (feed), and students can often obtain college credit for their summer experiences with All American Co-op. We hire our interns during the fall semester before the summer internship begins. You can find more information on our website.

6 Summer 2020

Back in businessAll American Co-op Dairy Production Specialists Todd Hendrickson and Ashley Murphy stopped at North Creek Dairy on highway 30 west of Chatfield on a wet, chilly morning in late June.

Gary Hoffman was in his usual spot in the skid loader, and the conversation quickly turned to the rebuild of both the free stall barn, and their herd after snow loads caused a major roof collapse in February of 2019.

Disaster strikes Physically, the family lost a number

of cows, had few options but to sell their herd, and lost months of productivity. But emotionally, when asked what that day in 2019 felt like, Gary Hoffman explained, “It is hard to describe—you just don’t know that feeling until you’ve experienced it. We were just numb.”

North Creek Dairy is run by third-gen-eration farmers Gary and Jo Hoffman, their sons, fourth-generation farmers Corey and his wife Bridget, and John and his wife Dan-ielle. Everyone in the family has a role to play on the farm, including working on the books and filling in where needed. North Creek Dairy already has their fifth gener-ation of dairy farmers lined up in Gary's grandchildren, who are also known to be quite the little helpers around the dairy.

Corey runs the dairy side of the busi-ness while John takes care of the fieldwork. Of the 750+ acres of land, all agronomy out-puts are used for feed and goes right back in to the 450+ head dairy.

“Of the farms I see that work the best, everybody has their own areas of interest,” Ashley Murphy said. "This is one of those true family farms where every-one has a part."

The Hoffmans have worked with All American Co-op for a handful of years on both the feed and agronomy sides of

their business, but have started working with Todd and Ashley in the past year while rebuilding their herd and their operation. All American Co-op has also spent the last year rebuilding, with the addition of a handful of experienced feed nutritionists.

In the days and weeks after the roof collapse, the family did not know if their operation would rebound. It took multi-ple parties to make sense of the decision, but ultimately, the family knew they wanted to keep milking. However, that meant the Hoffmans needed a new barn.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident, although the family recalls a close encounter while sorting through the rubble of the initial collapse, when a secondary collapse occurred just min-utes after being positioned underneath. The second collapse solidified the diffi-cult decision to disperse their herd.

Gary Hoffman had one overarching theme that kept coming back into the conversation—the support from the community after the collapse. He said friends, businesses, other dairies, and even strangers extended their resources to help as much as they could. Hoffman received stacks of cards and people showed up to help. They were amazed at the offers from fellow dairymen to utilize space in their barns for his displaced cattle. However, with the logistics of a segmented herd needing to be milked and fed, as the cows entered the parlor that week, they were color coded for

their destinations. Most of the herd was sold, never to return to North Creek Dairy.

Rebuilding After a few months’ worth of phone

calls, emotions, paperwork, and logis-tics, the Hoffman family could see a light at the end of their nonexistent free stall barn. Gary set his sights on milking by Christmas—the boys optimistically set their sights on milking by Thanks-giving—but by early October, to the surprise of all at North Creek Dairy, the Hoffmans were milking once again.

“Stuff happens—you know, nobody got hurt. And yes, it set us back, but I know we’ve got a lot better barn now,” Gary said. With the reconstruction, which was completed by KBS and has the same footprint as the old barn, there have some improvements. The new building included a highly efficient fan system, which the dairy hopes will improve cow comfort.

Humility is the word that comes to mind when thinking about our recent conver-sation with Gary Hoffman—a man that took over milking on his family's farm as a freshman in high school, after his father's first heart attack."When I grad-uated, I was headed to the university and I wanted to be a veterinarian," Gary said. "I took a year off when Dad had his second heart attack—but like I tell everybody—it has been a long year off."

Gary never returned to school, but said although it would have been fun to work with the animals as a vet, he has no regrets with what he and his family have accomplished together.

Congratulations to North Creek Dairy on your triumphant return to an unforgiving and beautiful industry—All American Co-

op is proud to be working with you!

Humble Hoffman family grateful & confident, despite setback

“It is hard to describe—you just don’t know that feeling until you’ve experienced it,"

Gary Hoffman explained. "We were just numb.”

allamericancoop.com 7

Dairyman Gary Hoffman (left) with All American Co-op Dairy Production Specialists Todd Hendrickson (center)

and Ashley Murphy (right) with a new roof over their heads at North Creek Dairy.

“ Working with you”

8 Summer 2020

With a constant goal of profitability in mind, it is important to make sure all parts of the operation are analyzed and operating as efficiently as possible. One area that I believe continues to be overlooked on farms is heifers. Most farms have improved reproduction in the milking herd in recent years, and sexed-semen has provided plentiful

heifers. There is an obvious trend of using some beef semen on poorer producing cows, or maybe some hard breeders, but I believe there is some opportunity not captured when we do not have the plan dialed in. I believe there is opportunity to improve profitability by having a set plan to replace the cows we need to replace rather than culling cows just because we need room for heifers.

We can take the guess work out of the process by using this common formula to figure out the number of replacement heifers needed to be born to maintain the size of your milking herd. I have outlined

both the formula and the variables that we need to identify, in order to do the math. (See below.)

When considering the cost of raising a heifer to calving is at least $1,800, it makes sense to only raise heifers with top genetics. I have seen how heifer health and performance improves when there is less overcrowding, and you are able to have some very high performing first-calf heifers.

If you want any assistance with putting a plan together for your operation, the feed team here at All American Co-op would be happy to help!

JUSTINHackmanDairy Production Specialist/Purinajhackman@landolakes.com563-419-6240

A simple formula to take the guess work out of herd management

FORMULA:HEIFER CALVES NEEDED TO MAINTAIN HERD SIZE

VARIABLES:

HERD SIZE =MILKING COWS + DRY COWS

HEIFER CULL RATE = % OF HEIFERS BORN ALIVE THAT DO NOT MAKE IT TO CALVING-IN

CULL RATE = % OF COWS THAT LEAVE THE

HERD FOR ANY REASON(U.S. AVERAGE CULL RATE IS 33%)

+ 1

allamericancoop.com 9

U P D A T E S in the agronomy department at

ALL AMERICANCO-OP

Get to know your new AGRONOMY DEPARTMENT MANAGER

5questions for Scott Schwanke

SCOTTSchwankeAgronomy Department Managerschwanke@allamericancoop.com507-259-7611

It was announced on Tuesday, June 9th that Scott Schwanke, our former Elgin/Plainview Agronomy Location Manager, has been named the new Agronomy Department Manager. Scott will now office out of our Stewartville location, but can still be reached on his cell at 507-259-7611.

Jon Schmitz, current Agronomy Sales Manager, will now office out of the GrowMor office in Plainview instead of Stewartville. Jon will stay in his same position. He can be reached primarily on his cell phone at 507-434-0016 instead of calling the Stewartville office.

Scott’s promotion and move to Stewartville left a vacancy in our eastern agronomy locations. Effective Monday, June 29th, Dan Klavetter, former Sales Agronomist out of Plainview, took on the role of Elgin/Plainview Agronomy Location Manager. Dan can be reached, like always, in the Plainview office or on his cell phone at 507-272-0157.

What has been the most significant change in the industry since you started with High Plains Co-op in 1995?1.I would say there are two big changes that stand out to me. One change is transgenic crops that give our crops insect and herbicide tolerance. The other change is the use of GPS technology in our equipment. It will steer the equip-ment for us, as well as vary the rate of inputs across the field.

What stands out to you when you compare All American Co-op to other cooperatives?2.I feel that All American Co-op has always put an emphasis on doing what is best agronomically for the grower. This includes doing a lot of crop scouting to make sure the right product is going on the field, not just pushing certain products whether they make sense for the grower or not.

Tell us about yourself.3. I grew up on a farm north of Rochester, where we raised corn, beans, hogs and a few beef cattle. I graduated from John Marshall High School and went on to graduate from the University of Wisconsin - River Falls with a degree in Ag Business and an Agronomy minor. My wife, Sara, and I live in the country west of Elgin, with 2 kids and 3 dogs. Our oldest son is going to school at Washington State. I also farm; we raise corn and soybeans with a lot of help from my dad. When I am not working or farming, I enjoy traveling with my family and attending our kids’ various sporting events.

Is there a year that stands out to you as one of the good ones? Is there a bad year that stands out to you?5.2012 stands out to me as one of the good ones. We had great weather to get a lot of things done and commodity prices were at all time highs. It was pret-ty easy for everyone to turn a nice profit that year. Of course, that was too good to be true‒one of the bad years was the very next year, 2013. We had 10 inches of snow on May 2nd and rain about every other day all spring. We lost count of how many machines we got stuck that spring. There were a lot of acres of prevent plant and All American had to carry over a lot of fertilizer inventory. 2013 was not a very fun year.

Where do you find yourself at 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning?4. It depends on the time of year‒in the spring, I am probably going to be at work. The rest of the year, you can either find me heading to one our kids’ sporting events or out working in the shop getting my farm equipment ready to go.

Scott started with High Plains Co-op in Plainview in September of 1995 as a Crop Production Specialist. He became an official part of the All American Co-op team when High Plains Co-op and All American Co-op created the Progressive Ag Center joint venture in 1998. Scott was named the Plainview Location Manager in February of 2001 and held the position for almost two decades.Scott will now run our Agronomy division at All American Co-op:

10 Summer 2020

Grain Programs & PoliciesUPDATES & REMINDERS

Intent Upon Delivery: Producers need to let the scale attendant know upon delivery of their grain whether it is to be Sold, Warehouse Receipt (Open Storage), Delayed Price, Grain Bank, or Contracted. If no notice is given, the scale ticket will be posted to Open Stor-age. Open Storage rules and rates to apply.

Custom Dry Program: Normal discounts for dry and shrink will be taken to 15%. A $.05/bushel load out fee will be charged. Grain must be hauled out within 7 days of delivery; from the location it was deliv-ered to (unless location is closed for season). If past 7 days, grain will be moved to Open Stor-age. Open Storage rules and rates to apply.

Load Out/Handling Fees: Load Out/Handling fees are as follows $0.10/bu. on corn and $0.15/bu. on soybeans.

Storage Rates for Soybeans & Corn: Open Storage is $0.20/bu. minimum for the first 150 days, after 150 days it is $0.04/bu. per month. Storage fees will be taken out of the check at time of sale or charged out at time of hauled out.

Grain Bank is $0.04/bu. per month. Storage fees will be charged monthly.

All American Co-op reserves the right to change or cancel policies or

programs at any time.

DELAYED PRICE PROGRAMSRules applied to both short-term & long-term programs:

» Grain placed on Delayed Price transfers ownership to All American Co-op. Grain cannot be Warehouse Receipted, or hauled out at a later date.

» Shrink and drying rates will be to 15% moisture » Contracts must be priced during CBoT trading hours » Contracts not priced by final pricing date will be priced at noon

Short-term: » Program will run from June 23rd, 2020 through September 15th, 2020 » No service fee on this program

Long-term: » Current 2020 program will run from September 16th, 2020 through

September 15th, 2021 » Service fees will be $0.04/bu./month at a prorated daily rate; no minimum

PREPAID STORAGE PROGRAM In addition to our current grain storage options, All American Co-op has launched a new, prepaid program for the fall of 2020. Participants in the program are guar-anteed storage from September 1st, 2020 to December 31st, 2020.

20¢/bu. » Sign-up runs August 1st through August 31st or until filled » This is a first-come, first-serve program » All prepayments are due at the time of sign-up » All payments are non-refundable » After 150 days from date of delivery, normal storage rules and rates apply » Contracts will be assigned to one entity only » Maximum contracts offered: Soybeans 5,000 bu. / Corn 20,000 bu. » Deliveries must be marked “Prepaid Storage” upon delivery » Storage contracts are non-transferable » Load-out rates are the same as CCC filed rates

Contact Todd Stockdale or Chrissy Vrieze in the Stewartville office with questions.

507-533-4222 • www.allamericancoop.com

2020

I cannot decide if we have flattened the COVID-19 curve, or eliminated the sec-ond wave, but the offices of All American are open again with slight modifications. We have definitely flattened the grain markets and disrupted the livestock profitability in a severe way, however. We believe and hope that this is a once in a lifetime event.

In general, the local crops look good and much better than last year. The na-tional crop ratings for corn and beans are over 70% “good to excellent” this week, indicating trend-line yields are possible at this time. On the 30th of June, the acreage and grain stocks report could set the tone for the markets into harvest. There are some dry areas but the core of the Corn Belt has had ample precipitation. The market believes that the crop that is coming will be plentiful, and the current market reflects that.

There are so many moving parts to the world market right now it is impos-sible to make any predictions. Today, it is hard for me to see where a significant rally will come from. Farmers own most of the carry-over in the country, and I have heard that very little of it is priced and almost none of the coming new crop. The ethanol plants are back up and running but mostly at a reduced capacity. Keep in mind, when their bins are full, they close for the day and for the weekend. Times are hard—decisions have costs as well as benefits.

I hope the local harvest will go as smooth as the planting season did. I hope there are unseen events that will change the markets and bring us all reasonable profit opportunities. I wish everyone a healthy, happy, and safe remainder of 2020.

N O T E S O N 2 0 2 0 P R O G R A M SShort-term Delayed Price Program

All American Co-op will be offering a short-term, free, delayed price grain program from now until September 15th, 2020. This is offered to allow for some farm-stored grain management prior to this next harvest. Bushels deposited with us under this short-term program will need to be priced by noon on September 15th, or we will price the bushels at that time.

Prepaid Storage Program

We are also offering a prepaid storage program again this year. This year the sign up will run between August 1st and August 31st. The prepayment this year has been reduced to 20 cents per bushel for the first five months. Grain may remain in storage under the pro-rated 4 cents per month from there forward. Any additional storage will be deducted when grain is actually sold.

Long-term Delayed Price Program

We have also added a long-term de-layed pricing program. This program will begin on September 16th, 2020 and terminate on September 15th, 2021. This program will not have a minimum fee but will have a daily service fee that will equate to 4 cents per month until the grain is priced.

Custom Dry Program

We will still offer a custom dry pro-gram for corn. Normal discounts and drying charges will apply. There will be a 5 cent per bushel load out fee on the dry bushels loaded out. The one change in the program is that corn must be loaded out seven days after being brought in. Any corn remaining after the seventh day will be moved to storage and the normal storage fees will apply including the 20 cent per bushel minimum fee. Please check with your local grain locations for details and questions.allamericancoop.com

TODDStockdaleGrain Department Managertstockdale@allamericancoop.com507-533-4222

Grain Outlook

P.O. Box 125Stewartville, MN 55976

Change Service Requested

A message from the grain department:

» Sign-up runs August 1st through August 31st or until filled » This is a first-come, first-serve program » All prepayments are due at the time of sign-up » All payments are non-refundable » After 150 days from date of delivery, normal storage rules and rates apply » Contracts will be assigned to one entity only » Maximum contracts offered:

• Soybeans 5,000 bu. • Corn 20,000 bu.

» Deliveries must be marked “Prepaid Storage” upon delivery » Storage contracts are non-transferable » Load-out rates are the same as CCC filed rates

All American Co-op reserves the right to cancel the program at any time.

20¢/bu.

PREPAID STORAGE PROGRAM

In addition to our current grain storage options, All American Co-op has launched a new, prepaid program for the fall of 2020. Participants in the program are guaranteed storage from September 1st, 2020 to December 31st, 2020.

Now Available!

Contact us today! 507-533-4222 • www.allamericancoop.com