Jerry's Blog

Canton River Terminal Update

2011-05-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

We continue to work towards building a river terminal in Canton, Missouri. We have gathered an impressive team of people to help this project along.

Projects Manager, Jim UpChurch from Canton. Jim is our person on the ground working all areas of the project. He is very skilled in working with officials regarding the permits needed from the Corp of Engineers, Rail Road, environmental groups community officials and many other people related to this project.

Bill Smith the Lewis County IDA director has been key in helping develop the property and river area we need to develop this project. His willingness to support this project has been key and will remain very important as the project moves forward.

Outside Consultant, Roger Dowdy from southern Illinois is acting our our outside council. Roger recently retired from CGB as the projects manager for the past 28 years. Roger helped develop projects within their river system of which 8 greenfield sites were built and many others updated to meet the needs of todays agriculture. His understanding of what to do and what not to do is very important as we design the elevator and river site for barge loadings. His experience with the R.R. and Corp of engineers will also help us as we seek those necessary permits.

Although we are not today confirming a build, we are very confident we will be successful in our quest to have a facility in Missouri.

Safe plantings,

Gerald Jenkins

2010

2010-12-31T06:36:00.000-08:00

Everyone,

As 2010 comes to a close on behalf of Ursa Farmers’ Cooperative we would like to thank each of you for all the friendship and support you have given us this past year. We also would like to thank each one of you for taking the time and helping us celebrate our 90^th annual meeting this past year. We only wish that evening could have lasted longer so we would have all had more time to just visit.

Best Wishes and Good Health in 2011.

Gerald Jenkins

Flood Bond & MIssouri Project

2010-12-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

First I would like to wish all of you the best of holidays and upcoming New Year.

As we approach the years end we felt we should update everyone on all these public announcements regarding the UFC projects.

Flood Bond:
UFC became award of a flood bond opportunity a couple months ago. This was a federal program offering assistance to companies that were affected by the flood event of 2008. We only found out about it at the last minute but in fact with the help of several business partners were able to qualify for the program. Now just so everyone know the program was not a grant or gift, it was just a friendlier form of a bank loan. It is a federal loan that allows a company to lock in a long term interest rate. We locked in a loan for the replacement of the storage bin that was lost in the flood of 2008 and we also qualified for a loan to update our feed mill because that project was put on hold due to the flood event of 2008. We are happy to let you know yesterday Dec 21st that loan was completed and the loan funds are in our bank to do those projects. The bond process is a very, very complex thing but it did allow us a long term low interest loan and that allowed the CoBank our lenders the ability to approve these projects for the betterment of UFC.
Missouri Project:
As you know a few months ago the Missouri Governor announced a stimulus grant for the development of the Canton River Front area. Many people think that grant was given to UFC, that is not correct. The grant was given to the IDA of Lewis County which has been working with UFC to purchase enough river front property to build a terminal in Missouri. So the grant was given to the IDA not UFC. Yes this was all necessary for UFC to keep our hopes alive to develop terminal in Missouri. Keep our hopes alive? It is just that, we have several issues that need completed before any firm public announcement can be confirmed.
I hope these updates help you understand the exciting future this company is working towards. If you have any questions please contact me. In closing: I would like to thank all of you for the remarkable jobs you do for the company regardless of the situation and for the relationships that have developed between our employees and memebers.
Happy Holidays
Jerry

60 Day DP

2010-12-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

60 day D.P.: December 1^st UFC is going to begin offering 60 day free D.P. Be aware we are not sure how long this will last before we run out of room but we felt we should at least make it available as farmers mostly appear to be done farming and are shifting their thoughts toward moving grain. If the weather allows us to load through Dec 15 or 20 we should make a lot of room. If the river shuts down before, we will fill fast. Maybe we should have waited until Jan 1^st but we felt with farming done and the weather good we needed to take the chance. We do NOT have much room for Non Corn and plan calling people with Jan and Feb contracts warning them to haul now or be at risk they will not be able to deliver Jan/Feb contracts.

2010-11-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

Harvest Update Nov 5

2010-11-08T12:08:00.000-08:00

Ursa Farmers will be going back to working Monday thru Friday and closing on Saturday's beginning Saturday November 20th. I would expect the Ferry Boat to start operating winter hours which are the same as UFC very soon.
I would like to thank all the locations and employees for the outstanding job they did during this harvest. In all the years I have worked for UFC this is the first I never heard "ONE" complaint from a member about a concern they had during harvest. Although many might think this was an easy harvest it was not. As we entered harvest our elevators were nearly filled with damaged grain we purchased from our members this summer as a result of last year's poor quality grain. Then the challenges put before us with the explosion at Warsaw, that was intense to say the least. The determination of the Warsaw employees is just remarkable, we were back operating within 24 hours of the event and how about the employee. He was burnt, knocked down from the explosion and nearly broke an arm but was back to work within a couple days. just another story of the many we could mention about this company and our team.
The OSHA inspector and the safety director for the state of Illinois both praised Truman and the employees of Warsaw for the outstanding safety procedures they abide by. Nothing was found in error to cause that explosion, it just occurred. All the repair have been complete and we move on.
Thank you to everyone and enjoy the Holidays.
Jerry

Agriculture Announcement in Canton 10/21

2010-10-20T10:07:00.001-07:00

We just wanted to update everyone on an exciting event occurring Thursday October 21st.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and State Senator Wes Shoemyer will arrive in Canton, Missouri tomorrow at 12:15 to officially announce funding for a river front development area in Canton, Missouri.

The Governor and Senator along with IDA director Bill Smith and UFC projects manager Jim UpChurch have teamed together to create an opportunity to

develop this riverfront area. This is a giant step forward for the

company

of Ursa Farmers to build a river terminal in Canton, Missouri. This is

NOT

an announcement "tomorrow" that UFC is going to build as we have many hurdles to cross, but it is a large step in the right direction.

The Governor and Senator have asked Bill and myself to say a few words regarding this opportunity. The concept has been to create an opportunity

for UFC and others to build in Missouri. If we build and I say "IF"

because we have issues that need resolved, UFC was to be the foundation of development for the riverfront business area.

We are sending membership notice of this event by DTN text messaging and several email accounts we have setup. Be aware the media have been notified and membership will be asking questions.

Once more this is NOT a UFC announcement. It is a public announcement of

the state funding an opportunity to develop Canton's Riverfront area.

So this will be an exciting day for all involved.

Gerald Jenkins

Bond Issue

2010-10-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

We felt it best to update you on something that might be made public on the late news or tomorrow’s news.

UFC is meeting with the county board tonight to seek a bond related opportunity as a result of the 2008 flood. Adams County was awarded 7 million dollars of bond opportunities for business affected by the 2008 flood.

UFC is seeking a bond to help replace the lost bin at Meyer and to update our Feed Mill at Ursa a project we planned but had to delay because of that flood.

If the County Board supports our request a lot of work remains before confirming anything. So this is just a part of the process.

Remember a bond is just a fancy name for a loan. No free money here.

We will update you on any important issues that come forth as best possible.

2010-10-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

Harvest Update:
Meyer will fill up with Non-gmo corn today we posted a sign on the window and sent a text message to everyone. Warsaw does have some room left for Non-gmo but Truman did tell me if the soybeans start coming hard he will have to stop taking non-gmo corn until the leg and pit area that exploded is back in operation. First, the leg and pit area should be back operating early next week, hoping by Tuesday? We hoped it would be going today, but it is not. When that pit reopens we will be able to take regular corn,,,Soybeans and non-gmo corn. But remember they also only have so much space for non-gmo and that space will eventually run out also.

We had hoped everyone would be able to cut soybeans for a couple weeks then go back to corn including the non-gmo corn until at least the 15th, if we do that and cannot plan loading those bushels until at least the last half October.

Producers that have regular corn or soybeans if they could we should tell them if they can harvest those now and leave the non gmo until later we will have more space for non gmo. We have 550,000 that will be loaded probably beginning October 17th on.

2010-09-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

To all cooperative members:
We have a great team, a great spirit to never look back, and always move forward. The pit that blew up will be down probably one month. But we built a new receiving pit and leg last fall. Actually the same capacity of the one that blew up. So the elevator in general is the same as always. The state fire Marshall was their yesterday along with our facility insurance companies inspection team. Nothing mechanical was found to be wrong. Something created friction and or a spark within the leg. That could have been a leg bolt, something within the elevator that fell back into the leg,,, a bolt or piece of metal out of a truck load of grain. Our Meyer location has a big magnet on the boot pit leg. We have taken bullets, bolts, and pieces of metal from that magnet, all of which came from truck loads of grain. The Warsaw location is not designed to have a magnet on their pit area. Anyone wishing to send an email to Warsaw please do. Kathleen@ursacoop.com. Kathleen Fuller. That team as all our others are truly remarkable people. It appears we will never know what occurred, so we move on.
Gerald Jenkins

Annual Meeting

2010-08-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

What keeps UFC going

2010-08-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

Last Flood Update-July 29

2010-08-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

Well I hope the laugh is not on "us" next week but all reports have lowered the river crest down to 18.8 with the crest occurring tomorrow thru Sunday then the river dropping at a fast pace. AWESOME news. We see 18 ft rivers nearly each year.
The Ferry boat is closed due to high water and we cannot load barges until the river goes down. Guessing maybe Tuesday we might be able to start loading barges,,, Wednesday the Ferry might resume.
There are many ways to measure a person, the best is how will they react when time are challenging so I have one request. For those of you savy with the computer, send Terry at Meyer an email recognizing him for his Excellent decision making when we heard last Saturday the river was going to 22 ft. He never hesitated to put the wall down and prepare. Putting that wall down, then taking it back down is no easy task. UFC is a much better place with the strength of Terry.

Cardinals Trip

2010-08-05T12:47:00.000-07:00

July 18th was a wonderful day at the ballgame!! Three charter buses travelled to St. Louis to watch the Cardinals vs Dodgers game. The bus ride down during the pouring rain had many of us wondering how this was going to go, but right before game time, the rain stopped and the sun came out. We were in the Bank of America Club which is an all inclusive area. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We are now working on plans for our 90th Annual Meeting. We mailed out the proxies last week with the Agenda and details of the night. We hope to find a lot of people dressed for our costume contest!!

Classified Ads

2010-05-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

We are adding a new feature to the website. Classified Ads can be added by members and will exist for 14 days. This will give all members an added outlet to sell or buy farm implements to and from other interested members.

A link will be available on the home page and once selected, a member will be able to login using their current user name and password and add items to sell or view items for sale.

If you like this new feature and find it useful, let us know. We would love to hear your feedback.