Delivering a Helping Hand

By Nichole Gouldie, Communications Specialist

July through August is a busy time for Kansas farmers. Throw in record-setting rainfall, and the pressure is multiplied many times over for producers, meaning busy times for their cooperative. MKC saw this pressure this past summer but was relieved to know some friends up north were there to deliver a helping hand.

 

"This year was a very unusual year for our trade territory due to all the rain we had in late July and early August," said Erik Lange, Director of Southern Operations for MKC. "Generally by mid-August we are beginning to get busy with pre-plant wheat fertilizer applications but due to very wet soil considerations we were unable to start in a timely fashion. By the end of the second week of August, Steve Peterson and I had begun to talk about alternative methods to get our customers taken care of. It came to mind we should call South Dakota Wheat Growers and see if they had people or assets available to help us get caught up."

 

According to Lange, this relationship started with a phone call with Phil Gilbert, SDWG regional manager. Over time, Gilbert and Lange have built a relationship, continuing to find ways to help the other organization when they can.

 

"It isn’t easy to move rigs, but people and tender trucks move quickly," Lange said. "We looked at our situation and realized if we could just tender our existing equipment better we could cover more acres."

 

According to Lange, MKC consciously understaffs tender drivers because it is a seasonal task and normally elevator employees can be relied on to fill in. This year fall harvest started and the elevator employees were engaged in servicing grain customers at the same time fertilizer needed to be applied. "SDWG’s assistance worked out great as they were in their very slow time of the year and had drivers and extra tender trucks underutilized," he said. "Overall, SDWG sent 11 different drivers and four tender trucks to Kansas."

 

Prior to the SDWG team traveling to Kansas, six dry tender trucks, three dry rigs and nine employees of MKC traveled to South Dakota in May 2011. Over this three-week period, the MKC crew helped SDWG meet their customer’s fertilizer application and delivery needs in a year that the weather provided unusual challenges.

 

SDWG began as a state wheat pool in 1923 and has grown into one of the most successful cooperatives in the United States. They are an agronomy cooperative in the heart of the James River Valley of South and North Dakota. Owned by the customers it serves, SDWG exists to provide value for customer owners from Interstate 90 to Interstate 94 and the Missouri River to Interstate 29.