As we enter the month of August, we start to get a good look at how our operations performed for the year and begin the planning process for the fall grain harvest. While our feed division continues to be the primary market for our members’ corn, we do ship a significant amount of grain to other markets throughout the year such as ethanol plants, river terminals, and other processing plants. Timing and logistics of these shipments is a critical part of our business as our team needs to factor in labor and fleet availability, grain ownership, market opportunities, and the need for our bins to be empty and ready for the next fall harvest.
The challenges with logistics for the marketing of grain are also the opportunity and strength of our cooperative. Because of the business diversity of Premier, our team can leverage seasonal grain hauling into a year-round trucking and logistics business including sourcing fertilizer and feed ingredients for our agronomy and livestock nutrition production facilities. It is not one business unit; it is a cooperative focused on production agriculture for the benefit of our members. Whether you work with our grain, agronomy, feed, or energy divisions (or perhaps you work with all of them), everyone will benefit from the mission to profitably grow Premier Cooperative by creating value for our members.
With only two months left in our fiscal year, I would like to thank all of you again for your support. We have an excellent group of highly trained and dedicated staff to help you in all areas of our company. Our board of directors work hard to provide the vision and tools our team needs to serve you. We will continue to strive to exceed your expectations and we appreciate your feedback in helping us stay ahead of your needs. We will continue to look for new ways to add efficiencies to what we are currently doing and will continue to explore ventures, partnerships and other growth opportunities that can enhance our value to you. As with anything that is constantly moving and adapting, we will run into bumps along the way, but if we all work together (board, employees, and owners/members) we will continue to build the company which you will be proud to be owners of and our employees will be proud to be a part of.
