Get Your Grain Checks Quicker

Spring has officially sprung. Those April showers didn’t just bring May flowers. It brought in calls to the energy division that flooding on some of our customer’s property tipped over their propane tanks. The first thing propane tanks do when the water gets high enough for them to float is roll over. This rollover can allow liquid to reach the vapor valve. The last thing you want coming through a propane line and traveling to your house is propane liquid. It can cause a pressure surge, which over-pressurizes the piping, regulators and appliance valves. This can cause leaks and a potentially very dangerous situation.

As I write this update in the last week of April, we’re at the front edge of planting season and eager to get all equipment rolling on a consistent basis. A wet, windy start to spring has limited fieldwork windows in some areas and created uncertainty about when conditions will finally cooperate. At the same time, recent geopolitical issues continue to add volatility to energy and input markets and contribute to financial stress. Layered on top of these pressures, commodity prices remain stubbornly low, making timely execution and disciplined planning more important than ever. Once the weather breaks, the work that typically spreads across several weeks will be compressed into a much shorter timeframe, and our agronomy team is ready to help coordinate products, logistics, and application services so every acre is covered and yield potential is protected. During this busy stretch, please continue to put safety first—watch for equipment entering and leaving fields, expect wide loads on the road, and never assume others can see you. Take it slow and stay safe.

After nearly a decade in this role, it is not often a question of “if” herds are overcrowding, but more so “how much”? There are a ton of factors to consider when deciding to keep a cow around. Is she carrying a black calf? Is there enough feed inventory on hand to feed the herd and have the desired carryover? What might the income per stall look like at 140% overcrowding versus 125%? The challenge is that no two dairies have the same answer.