| April 17th, 2009 your Board of Directors voted to join the CoMark Grain Marketing LLC group in Cheney, Kansas. The cut over date was May 18th, 2009. Here are a few questions and answers you may have about this alliance or LLC. |
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| Q: What is a grain marketing alliance? |
| A: This is a group of Farmer's Cooperatives who have formed a separate company to store and market grain as one entity under one grain license. Ownership of the physical grain assets remain with the local cooperative. This alliance will have 11 members including the coop in Columbus and Baxter Springs, Kansas with storage capacity of 39,000,000 bushels and average annual grain receipts of 44,700,000 bushels. |
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| Q: Why would my Coop want to be involved in an alliance? |
| A: To increase profits for the cooperative and it's members. Several advantages come in to play, the biggest being marketing efficiencies and more efficient utilization of storage assets. All profits are returned to the local coop and their members. |
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| Q: How will this affect me as a producer? |
| A: You will see little difference in the way you do business with your cooperative. You will still deal with the same people in the same place that you do currently. The difference you will see is the grain check you receive will have CoMark Grain Marketing LLC on the check. New crop contract and other marketing tools will also be written by CGM through the local coop employees. Checks will still be issued at the local Coop office just as before. |
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| Q: How does this affect the local coop employee? |
| A: Local employees will see little change. The coop is still responsible for the daily operation and services to the producer. |
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| Q: Where is the CGM office located? |
| A: CoMark Inc., was formed in 1992 and currently has an office in Cheney, Kansas. David Smith has managed the company since 1997. |
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| Q: Who governs the LLC? |
| A: A Board of Directors. The alliance will be a Limited Liability Company (LLC) and the managers from each participating coop will serve as director. There will also be an advisory board with producers from each cooperative. |
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| Q: When can I sell my grain? |
| A: All grain sales can only be made during market hours. Which are 9:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Monday through Friday. If a producer would like to plan an order with the coop before or after the market opens/closes, he will need to give us an open order that we will enter into the market so if there price is achieved, they will have a contract. All sales of grain will be made during the trading session off live quotes at all locations. |
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| Scale Interface has been added to our computer system at all locations. Scale Interface will weigh, post to your account and print your scale ticket at the scale. This will reduce entry errors and speed up posting time for our office. Please have your farmers/landlord splits ready so we can update our system promptly. |
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