LEADERSHIP CLASS ATTENDS AGRICULTURE SESSION

FILLMORE COUNTY - The Odegeo…Leadership for Fillmore County class held their Agriculture session beginning at the Geneva Public Library March 21, 2017.  Brandy VanDeWalle, UNL Educator, talked about ways to motivate employees, family and friends.  

     Among morning presenters were Paul Bixby and Frank Heinisch, who gave information about Estate Planning. Don Jividen from Heartland Bank, Allan Jefferson from York State Bank, and Alan Emshoff from Generations Bank talked to the group about Ag lending, the different cycles in lending and how technology has influence all aspects of agriculture.  Ryan Norton from Fillmore County Farm Service Agency shared data about number of farmers, production totals, government payments among other farm data.  Clark Poppert from Servi-Tech presented information on the role crop consultants have in farming.

     Geneva Implement and Weaver’s Repair portrayed another sector involved in agriculture.  Keith Shellhase, manager of Geneva Implement, took the class on a tour and showed the class several large implements and the technology in them that has changed farming. Randy & Laura Weaver, owners of Weaver Repair, also talked about the technology in farming today.

    Circle Five Beef, Inc was the final stop of the morning.  Jeff Neiman, the feed-yard manager at Fairmont, told how that feed-yard operates and all the components that go into getting the cattle to market.  The group ate lunch at Sweetwater Café in Exeter compliments of Circle Five Beef. 

    Next the group learned more about the inputs that go into raising crops by visiting Farmers Cooperative in Exeter and Crop Protection Services (CPS) west of Fairmont. Both business are in the seed and chemical business and are very busy this time of year.

The group then stopped at CPI Lansing-Fairmont where Ken Pilsl explained their in-take of corn and soybeans and how most of it is shipped on large unit car trains.  

    The last stop of the day was to visit hog producer Scott Schlegel by a hog finisher barn he uses.  He talked about the ups and downs of hog, cattle, and grain markets and how that affects the profitability of his business.   

  The April session of the Odegeo. . . Leadership for Fillmore County will be about Business and Industry in Fillmore County.  Persons interested in learning more about Odegeo…Leadership for Fillmore County may contact the Fillmore County Development Corporation by calling 402-759-4910 or emailing lentfer.fcdc@genevamail.com or go to www.fillmorecountydevelopment.org