Some of the most exciting opportunities before us today lie in the arena of e-commerce and Agriculture. There have been some studies done recently that suggests nearly 45% of all farmers have access to the Internet.
If you are one of these farmers, your are no doubt already well aware of the vast amount of information you have access to.
We at Winneshiek Cooperative are in the process of addressing this information opportunity and want to put together an advantageous program for our local producers.
The feed business at your cooperative continues to do well with sales increasing compared to last year. Improvements in dairy, beef and swine are all driving this increase in tonnage. With the additional Feed Mill purchase in Cresco, we will be evaluating these assets and hopefully better utilize them with our product mix.
Our Feed Department is also investigating opportunities in Marketing and Networking for producers in the hog industry. If you have any interest in pork production, please let someone at your coop know. We will get you the information you need to make some business decisions.
Other opportunities that I am aware of in the livestock area are in the Poultry Industry. We have information for people that are interested in Broiler, Turkey and Egg Production. Many different programs are available.
In the neighborhood of Iowa, we

are certainly familiar with contract production. For many years, sweet corn, seed corn and seed beans have been the most commonly contracted crops. This will be driven by the consumer.
All of agriculture is operating in a tough and competitive environment, but there are some exciting opportunities ahead. Winneshiek Cooperative will strive to remain positioned to take advantage of them, to benefit you, our customers.