March Newsletter

From The Manager’s Desk

We are always looking for board members. Our 104th annual meeting is on June 17th so think about running for a position. We have a good time at our Coop and it is very educational. This year we have one position up for election as it is every year. The term is for five years. This year please contact Phil Schumacher @ 970-520-3881 if you or anyone else is interested in running for a position.

Finally, we are starting to see progress across the highway. We do have our 30,000-gallon propane storage tank set. We sell over a million gallons of propane each year and when it is cold, we are always waiting on propane so we could make our deliveries. The dirt work has started. The plans are to build a new office with a new scale. This scale is one foot wider and twenty feet longer than our old scale. This should make everyone happy that needs to use the scale. It should be easy to get onto and plenty of room for you hay haulers.

Also we are putting up a 565,000 bushel grain bin. A large project that we are all excited about.

On March 31, 2021 cash wheat was $5.18 bu.; corn was $5.84 bu. and

Cash millet was $31.00 cwt.. 2021 new crop wheat was at $5.27 and new crop corn is $4.73. Iliff cash corn was at $5.89/new crop $4.78. Millet new crop is $11.50/Act of God contract $10.50.

We are geared up to mix or order your 4-H or FFA Purina Show feed.

For all your feed grinding, mixing and delivery please contact Gary or Jason at 970-334-2341. We do make deliveries in all surrounding communities. With pasture just around the corner, come see us for your salt and mineral needs.

Don’t run out of propane. Serious safety hazards, including fire or explosion, can result. If an appliance valve or a gas line is left open when the propane supply runs out, a leak could occur when the system is recharged with propane. Air and moisture could get into an empty or depleted storage tank, which can cause rust build-up inside the tank. Rust can decrease the concentration of the odor of propane, making it harder to smell. If your propane tank runs out of gas, any pilot lights on your appliances will go out. This can be extremely dangerous if not handled properly. If your tank runs out of gas, a leak check must be performed by us. If you are on one of our routes, this would not be your fault so we will not charge for the leak check. If you are not on a route, there will be a charge for the leak test. We are encouraging all of our customers to be on a route or order enough gallons to make it worth our delivery. We have run in to problems with customers not wanting to be on routes and ordering 100 or 200 gallons of propane. We lose money delivering to these people in the country. You do not save money by doing it this way. We have taken on a larger territory and we do not have time to stop and run out for one person. Please make plans to be put on a route or order enough gallons to make it worth the delivery or your cost of propane will be higher. We need to do everything to keep the cost of delivery down and that includes you doing your part.

Propane line safety checks are a very important part of our propane business. We do about two hundred fifty per year. Businesses, churches, schools anything that have gatherings must be done every year, Residential homes need to be done every five years. We have run across a few homes that had leaks. Some were severe enough we installed new lines from the home to the propane tank. With this all said we feel these safety checks are very important. These checks are not free. We do charge for this service. You need to be safe and we want you to be safe.

April 30th we will be closing at noon for our year-end inventory count. Please plan your fuel and feed orders with this in mind.

BOOK MILLET EARLY

We will be selling Huntsman, White Wonder and Golden German millet this spring. Please call in to price and book your millet seed. There is no guarantee that the supplies will last so we need to get our order in early.

In the month of February we omitted that Richard Gillham of Peetz passed away. In March Rod Williams, also of Peetz passed away. According to our audit reports, Rod served on our Board of Directors from June 1970 to May of 1979. Gary Narjes of Sidney, NE also passed away in March. He brought white wheat to our elevator. We extend our condolences to their families and friends. They will all be missed

Are you buying the right diesel fuel? Ruby–Fieldmaster diesel fuel exceeds all standards for any make or model of diesel engines. The straight #2 diesel has had most of the sulfur taken out for pollution reasons. The sulfur was the lubricant for your engine. Without this lubricant it can become very hard on the injectors, etc. Ruby–Fieldmaster has an additive package that contains this lubricant. It also gives you a higher cetane for quicker easier starts and will not gel the fuel as easily. Ruby–Fieldmaster costs three cents a gallon more than the straight #2 diesel. Money well invested. I have talked to patrons who tried both diesels and they claim they get more power and better miles per gallon from the Ruby–Fieldmaster diesel. This premium diesel can be purchased in either red off-road or clear on-road.

We do have fuel & propane contracts available. Fuel and propane contracts are on a day-by-day basis. This year on propane there will be a change. We will be sending out a letter instead of a contract stating that you may call in and ask for our contract price, then you can verbally contract if you like, then we send out the contract. Look for this letter sometime in the near future. It is too early at this time as we feel like propane will come down in price.

Have a good month of April.

Sincerely yours,

Phillip M. Schumacher