Grain and Feed Association celebrates history, looks to future
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 03/11/2010 9:09 AM
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MANKATO, Minn. — A winter storm made travel difficult, but more than 500 people attended the 103rd annual convention and trade show of the Minnesota Grain and Feed Association held Feb. 6-9, said MGFA executive director Bob Zelenka.
About 300 attendees, seven exhibitors and two speakers were unable to attend, he said.
Among those who weren't there were representatives of Nassau Farmers Elevator. The elevator was inducted into the MGFA Century Club at the meeting. The Century Club honors elevators that have been in continuous operation for 100 years or more. There are now 13 elevators in the prestigious club.
Representatives from the FCA Co-op of Jackson were on hand to receive their award and pose for an induction photo.
The cooperative began in Jackson in 1909, when organizers bought a small elevator from Cargill, said FCA Co-op general manager Dennis Hunwardsen. Two employees served farmers in the Jackson area.
Today, FCA Co-op has six locations, 67 full-time employees and serves 1,600 farmers primarily in the counties of Nobles, Jackson and Martin in Minnesota and Dickinson County, Iowa, Hunwardsen said.
The location in Trimont is a grain facility as is the location at Sherburn. The facility at Round Lake provides grain and agronomy services. Okabena and Lakefield locations offer agronomy and energy services. In Jackson, there is full service agronomy, grain services, energy and a feed mill.
Prior to becoming FCA Co-op, the cooperative was known as Farmers Cooperative Association of Jackson, Sherburn, Spirit Lake and Trimont. It became known as FCA Co-op when Round Lake merged with it.
Also honored was Wayne Longtin of Mahnomen. MGFA presented Longtin with the 2010 Minnesota Grain and Feed Association Community Service Award.
Longtin began his career in the grain elevator business at Walhalla, N.D., in 1957. He managed the seed plant there until 1962, when he moved with his wife, Irene, and their children to Circle, Mont., to manage an elevator there.
Ten years later, Longtin moved east, taking the job as general manager of Mahnomen Farmers Co-op. He kept the job until his retirement in 1997.
Longtin organized and is president of a Retired Grain Dealers Association. He has also served his business and community in many ways. He served six years on the board of directors for the Minnesota Grain and Feed Association and he served on the Mahnomen City Council. He was president of the Red River Valley Chapter of the Grain Elevator and Processing Society and of the Mahnomen Wild Rice Day Committee. In 2004, he and Irene received the Mahnomen County Valley Farmer and Homemaker Award.
After honors were awarded, attendees settled in to hear from several speakers including Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., John Johnson, chief executive officer of CHS Inc., and Matt Rose, chairman and chief executive officer of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
In his slide presentation, Rose showed that 11 percent of the volume shipped on BNSF in 2009 was agricultural products, compared to industrial products at 14 percent, coal at 28 percent and consumer products at 46 percent.
Consumer products are electronics, clothing, food, furniture and many imported goods found at retailers, said Suann Lundsberg, a BNSF spokeswoman, in a later e-mail.
Lundsberg said agricultural products are an important part of their business and that BNSF is optimistic about the future.
"We have been investing significantly in the ag business," Lundsberg said. "We have consistently added new locomotives to our fleet to help move ag products and are the only railroad to have made a significant investment in covered hoppers for grain customers."
In 2009, BNSF had 357 locomotives in its fleet, up from 340 in 2004 and 352 in 2008, according to Rose's presentation. The company had 16,081 grain covered hopper acquisitions in 2009, up from 9,000 in 2004 and 15,700 in 2008.
"Through initiatives such as increasing train length and units per train, revising intermodal storage policies and reshaping the carload network, BNSF has made great productivity increases," Lundsberg said. "From 2000 to 2009, we increased ag velocity by more than 22 percent."
When looking at grain volume from 2000 to 2009, 2008 was a peak year, Rose's slides show.
It was a record year for corn and soybean exports, Lundsberg said. In 2009, soybean exports remained strong, but corn exports dropped by about 20 percent.
Total volume on the railroad peaked in 2006 and has fallen since as the nation has been in an economic recession.
"In fact, hindsight might argue that railroads were a leading indicator for the recession," Lundsberg said. "Our volume bottomed in March of 2009, with subsequent periods of some improvement."
Most volume loss occurred in consumer, manufacturing and housing sectors, Lundsberg said.
The BNSF connects with all other Class I carriers and about 200 short lines, regional carriers and switch carriers, Lundsberg said. Each size of rail carrier has a different strength, she said, and they complement each other.
Lundsberg also shared a little about passenger rail, since there's been a lot of talk surrounding the issue. She said that passenger rail service over BNSF or its predecessor railroads has been in operation since the Civil War. BNSF works with passenger and commuter rail authorities to accommodate the service on their right-of-way while still protecting the needs of freight customers.