Sunray Co-op
Sunray Co-op Grain Industry Leader in The Texas Panhandle
October 2008
www.sunraycoop.com
Issue 90
General Manager Report—Dave Reinders
YOUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jess Willard — President Ellis Moore — Vice President Joe Reinart — Secretary Joaquin Andujo— Director Dan Carthel — Director Butch Harbert — Director David Johnson— Director
The long awaited harvest is finally beginning. The early indications are looking very good for the corn harvest. However, the cotton crop could sure need some heat units and a late frost. We have your facilities ready for harvest. The employees have been diligently preparing the legs, bins, dryers, and fans to accommodate the rush. It is our goal to get your trucks in here weighed, probed, dumped and back to your fields in very short order. We also have put some parameters in place to get your grain settlements and checks to you as quickly as possible. We can also wire the money to your bank if you so choose. All you need is to get us the wiring instructions. Please feel free to let me know if you are not satisfied with any of these. We can’t fix it if we do not know you are dissatisfied.
This past fiscal year has certainly had its challenges. The volatile grain markets have caused stress both in your operations as well as ours. I am very proud of the employees for the outstanding job they did again this past year.
delivered 4.33 cents; all fuels farm delivered and C-store purAs with your operations it is chases 17.5 cents per gallon; very important to have a good and purchases at the Farm and solid banker behind you. CoHome, Service Center, and Bank, with their main office Warehouse 9.27%. We will be located in Denver, is your cooprevolving 35% in cash back to erative’s lender. They did an our members at outstanding job of the Annual Meetunderstanding our ing to be held in operations and be“The 70th Fiscal early December. ing there for us during these stressYear for the Sunray In order to shore ful times. During up some addithese uncertain Co-op ended on tional Capital, we times it is very August 31,2008” may offer you important that we some First Prehave as much ferred Stock opWorking Capital as portunities. When possible. While we we decide to do so each of you had a very successful year fiwill receive a letter outlining the nancially, it has been deterdetails. This may be a great opth mined by the Board of DirecThe 70 Fiscal Year for the portunity for both you the ownSunray Co-op ended on August tors it is not in our best interest ers and Sunray Co-op. to revolve any Book Credits at 31, 2008. The Auditors hired this time. I would like to remind by your Board of Directors I am very proud of your coop, have completed the audit. The you that last year we did reand I certainly am honored to be volve 25% of your total. We year end numbers are as folyour General Manager. We cermay take another look at this lows: tainly have challenges but we sometime in 2009 but for right also have some very exciting Total Sales $179,192,601 now we feel it is prudent not to opportunities ahead of us. Local Savings $3,482,959 do so. Total Savings after Patronage Please harvest safely and we but before Income Taxes This Fiscal Year’s dividends certainly hope it is your most $5,775,285 will be as follows - all grains successful one ever.
October 2008
Page 2
Farm and Home Center—Russell Gadbois
Fall has arrived and we are looking forward to a very busy “off season” at the F&H Center. Our Do it Best transformation is well underway and by the end of October you should start seeing a lot of physical changes taking place that will include a new floor and new fixtures inside and outside the store as well. We will be moving product around to help create a more useful traffic flow and to better utilize the space we have on the showroom floor. We feel that these changes will be beneficial to our customers and help us to provide a more diverse selection in all of our departments. Our goal at this time is to have the store completely finished by late November or early December depending on several outside factors out of our control.
that have included a coupon book , paint sale, and our fall catalog promotion. These sales have proven to be very successful and we are currently running a coupon book sale through the end of October. One of the big advantages of our affiliation with DIB is that we can customize and participate in our own promotional sales that will benefit us. I want to remind those of you that have picked up a Fall Catalog, as well as to invite those of you who haven’t picked one up to do so, that we will be drawing for a $1000.00 shopping spree featuring the items from the Fall Catalog on November 21st at 3:00 pm at the F&H Center. The winner will be drawn from a box that is on display in our store. You may enter by coming by the store and filling out an entry form that we have in the store by the front counter or by filling out the entry form in the back of the Fall Catalog. Sunray Co-op employees and immediate members of our families are not eligible to win.
Several of you have taken part in As we begin a new fiscal year at our most recent sale promotions Sunray Co-op we look forward to
“One of the big advantages of our affiliation with Do-it-Best, is that we can customize and participate in our own promotional sales, that will benefit us.”
a lot of new and exciting changes at the Farm and Home Center and we want you all to be a part of it!! Be sure to stop in and follow the progress of our new changes and let us know if we can be of help to you in any way. AGAIN stop in and pick up a Fall Catalog and register to win that $1000.00 shopping spree to be given away on November 21st.
October 2008
Page 3
Service Center—Gene Bain Welcome back to the tire learning corner. Hopefully today’s lesson on tire manufacturing will answer some questions. One question that I hope to answer is how a tire is built. While researching and talking to manufacture reps why tires have gone up and are they ever going to come back down in price. First let’s talk about rubber. Tires use natural rubber which comes from, yes, the rubber tree. The milky liquid from the tree is mixed with acids that cause the rubber to solidify. Presses squeeze out excess water and form the rubber into sheets, and then the sheets are placed in to smokers to dry. Synthetic rubber is produced from the polymers found in crude oil. The other primary ingredient in tire rubber is carbon black. Carbon black is a fine, soft powder created when crude oil or natural gas is burned with a limited amount of oxygen, causing incomplete combustion and creating a large amount of fine soot. Carbon black is the additive that gives the tire its strength. Last, are a lot of other chemicals to help with resistant to sunlight, water and even air damage. The main features of a passenger car tire are the tread, the body with sidewalls, and the beads. The tread is the raised
pattern in contact with the road, which is made up of the ingredients above in different qualities. These mixtures are coated on to nylon, polyester, fiberglass, Kevlar and rayon cords to give added strengths. The changing of compounds makes the tread harder for more aggressive treads but have a lower mileage wear. Softer compounds for highway use with longer mileage, wear and smoother rides. The body supports the tread and gives the tire its specific shape. The body also known as the side wall is a rubber and carbon mixture with most of the time covering nylon cords. The beads are rubber-covered, bronzed plated-wire bundles that hold the tire on the wheel.
oil prices? Well, not so much, due to the losses of contracts of synthetic rubber not being filled and or voided. Tire manufactures are going to keep prices up. The only good thing I have heard is that baring any major problem in the future, tire prices should only have one more little round of price increases but most have already taken it. So for the light truck and passenger tires we shouldn’t “Welcome back to see much more price the tire learning changes for a while. Big truck tires are taking a corner.” pretty big increase right now and they should level out as well.
Now Ag tires are another story. With the weaker dollar The source for natural rubber, Michelin and BFG are making is Indonesia, Malaysia and more money staying in Europe. Thailand which account for So Titan, Goodyear, and Fire72% of the world’s natural stone, are trying to cover all of rubber, and when you add the the new equipment or OE rest of Asia that is 94%; so (original equipment) tires maknatural rubber is being shipped ing a shortage in replacement to the United States. The ship- tires. With the companies tryping rates to the U.S. have ing to catch up with OE and gone sky high and are not replacement tires, going to come down due to sprinkler tires are the losses and debit the last on the manushipping industry has enfacturers “to make” dured with the cost of fuel. list, but I am trying Is synthetic rubber the way to hard to be prepared for next go? We all know how high year. Simple economics holds crude prices got, but have true, “supply and demand”, gone down as of late. So will supply is low and demand is tire prices go down with the high, so prices are going to continue to go up.
August 2008
Page 4
Petroleum News—Harry Lunt As all of you have noticed the price of fuel has been coming down. There have been a few spikes in prices because of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, but for the most part, prices have fallen as rapidly as they have risen. There are at least two factors at play. The dollar has been gaining ground
against other world currencies and the higher prices that we experienced earlier in the summer have had a lasting effect on fuel demand. This is not only in the U.S. but world wide. Crude prices lately have been affected by the value of the dollar. When the dollar is weak, people put their money into com-
modities such as crude, but when the dollar increases in value, people buy dollars as a safe haven. The big question now is how the bailout of Wall Street plays out, and what affect that will have not only on crude and fuel prices, but on the economy as a whole.
Grain Marketing—Gary Holcomb
“Effective September 24th we began bidding again for 2009 corn.”
Grain prices have declined substantially from the highs made in late June due to funds and speculators liquidating long positions and improving crop conditions in the midwest. The financial market crisis has given some support to prices recently but we still have harvest to work through the next two months. As all of you are aware, input costs have risen to levels that are making it difficult for producers to justify planting corn next year. Since the total demand in the United States has risen to such a high level due to ethanol production, the market cannot tolerate any reduction in corn acres. We will start hearing more about the
threat to corn acreage after fall harvest and it should be the catalyst to move grain prices higher or bring input costs down. Effective September 24th, we began bidding again for 2009 corn. We are pleased to be back in the market after a difficult and volatile time the last 9 months. Unfortunately, for the reasons discussed above we don’t expect that many of you will want to contract at these prices. Please call or check our website for basis levels. Due to the extreme volatility in futures markets, cash markets are very thin. The result is a lower basis than we have become accustomed to. As we begin harvest this year and again next year,
basis should improve as buyers cover their needs. Thank you for your patience during this period. Early corn harvest results are indicating better yields than we were anticipating 45 days ago. Great news for all of us! We are prepared to handle your grain quickly to get your trucks back to the field. We have less wheat in the elevators compared to last year due to the smaller wheat crop, so more corn storage available. We look forward to working with you this fall. Have a safe and bountiful harvest.
October 2008 August 2008
Page 5
Gruver Branch - Mike Morlan As I am writing this we are waiting for our first load of corn. We were very happy the way wheat harvest went and were able to keep trucks headed back to the field in a timely manner. Corn harvest will give another test. The nice August weather has helped the corn out and looks like we will be having another big crop. We have updated some more equipment since last corn harvest and this should help expedite the unloading process. We will also continue to be able to settle on your corn here at
the office in Gruver. The Sunray grain office has implemented some new ideas that should make the settlement process much more efficient. The one thing I would like to mention is that now we provide a service that allows Sunray Co-op to wire money directly to your bank account for grain settlements. This is a great convenience if you are tied up in the fields and can’t make the time to get to our office. The second thing I would like to mention is we still have use of a good cash flow program
that evaluates different crops like wheat, corn, milo, or cotton, to see what crop would cash out better with your input and irrigation costs. If you have any interest in “Gruver has updated this, we would love to equipment since last show it to you and maybe corn harvest, and make next year’s business this should help plan a little easier to put expedite the together. unloading process.” I would like to close by thanking the producers of Gruver for their support of your coop and we wish you all a bountiful harvest.
Did You Know??? In May of 1968 the Sunray Co-op decided that there was a great need to better serve its patrons by providing diesel and gasoline delivery. The co-op bought its first fuel delivery truck that spring and made its first fuel delivery. Once this service started, it has maintained a steady increase every year. Today, the Sunray Co-op averages between 800,000 to 1,000,000 gallons of fuel hauled every month. Under the leadership of Harry Lunt and Brian Martin, the fuel department of the Sunray Co-op remains a vital service today with Billy Reinders delivering to our patrons, and Cleve Rousser delivering to our commercial accounts.
PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID
SUNRAY, TX PERMIT NO. 5
Grain Industry Leader in The Texas Panhandle
P.O. Box 430 Sunray, TX 79086 Return Service Requested
Halloween Treat Fountain Drinks
All Sizes 79¢ 2:00PM—5:00PM During October At The
Country Store
October 2008
www.sunraycoop.com
Issue 90
General Manager Report—Dave Reinders
YOUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jess Willard — President Ellis Moore — Vice President Joe Reinart — Secretary Joaquin Andujo— Director Dan Carthel — Director Butch Harbert — Director David Johnson— Director
The long awaited harvest is finally beginning. The early indications are looking very good for the corn harvest. However, the cotton crop could sure need some heat units and a late frost. We have your facilities ready for harvest. The employees have been diligently preparing the legs, bins, dryers, and fans to accommodate the rush. It is our goal to get your trucks in here weighed, probed, dumped and back to your fields in very short order. We also have put some parameters in place to get your grain settlements and checks to you as quickly as possible. We can also wire the money to your bank if you so choose. All you need is to get us the wiring instructions. Please feel free to let me know if you are not satisfied with any of these. We can’t fix it if we do not know you are dissatisfied.
This past fiscal year has certainly had its challenges. The volatile grain markets have caused stress both in your operations as well as ours. I am very proud of the employees for the outstanding job they did again this past year.
delivered 4.33 cents; all fuels farm delivered and C-store purAs with your operations it is chases 17.5 cents per gallon; very important to have a good and purchases at the Farm and solid banker behind you. CoHome, Service Center, and Bank, with their main office Warehouse 9.27%. We will be located in Denver, is your cooprevolving 35% in cash back to erative’s lender. They did an our members at outstanding job of the Annual Meetunderstanding our ing to be held in operations and be“The 70th Fiscal early December. ing there for us during these stressYear for the Sunray In order to shore ful times. During up some addithese uncertain Co-op ended on tional Capital, we times it is very August 31,2008” may offer you important that we some First Prehave as much ferred Stock opWorking Capital as portunities. When possible. While we we decide to do so each of you had a very successful year fiwill receive a letter outlining the nancially, it has been deterdetails. This may be a great opth mined by the Board of DirecThe 70 Fiscal Year for the portunity for both you the ownSunray Co-op ended on August tors it is not in our best interest ers and Sunray Co-op. to revolve any Book Credits at 31, 2008. The Auditors hired this time. I would like to remind by your Board of Directors I am very proud of your coop, have completed the audit. The you that last year we did reand I certainly am honored to be volve 25% of your total. We year end numbers are as folyour General Manager. We cermay take another look at this lows: tainly have challenges but we sometime in 2009 but for right also have some very exciting Total Sales $179,192,601 now we feel it is prudent not to opportunities ahead of us. Local Savings $3,482,959 do so. Total Savings after Patronage Please harvest safely and we but before Income Taxes This Fiscal Year’s dividends certainly hope it is your most $5,775,285 will be as follows - all grains successful one ever.
October 2008
Page 2
Farm and Home Center—Russell Gadbois
Fall has arrived and we are looking forward to a very busy “off season” at the F&H Center. Our Do it Best transformation is well underway and by the end of October you should start seeing a lot of physical changes taking place that will include a new floor and new fixtures inside and outside the store as well. We will be moving product around to help create a more useful traffic flow and to better utilize the space we have on the showroom floor. We feel that these changes will be beneficial to our customers and help us to provide a more diverse selection in all of our departments. Our goal at this time is to have the store completely finished by late November or early December depending on several outside factors out of our control.
that have included a coupon book , paint sale, and our fall catalog promotion. These sales have proven to be very successful and we are currently running a coupon book sale through the end of October. One of the big advantages of our affiliation with DIB is that we can customize and participate in our own promotional sales that will benefit us. I want to remind those of you that have picked up a Fall Catalog, as well as to invite those of you who haven’t picked one up to do so, that we will be drawing for a $1000.00 shopping spree featuring the items from the Fall Catalog on November 21st at 3:00 pm at the F&H Center. The winner will be drawn from a box that is on display in our store. You may enter by coming by the store and filling out an entry form that we have in the store by the front counter or by filling out the entry form in the back of the Fall Catalog. Sunray Co-op employees and immediate members of our families are not eligible to win.
Several of you have taken part in As we begin a new fiscal year at our most recent sale promotions Sunray Co-op we look forward to
“One of the big advantages of our affiliation with Do-it-Best, is that we can customize and participate in our own promotional sales, that will benefit us.”
a lot of new and exciting changes at the Farm and Home Center and we want you all to be a part of it!! Be sure to stop in and follow the progress of our new changes and let us know if we can be of help to you in any way. AGAIN stop in and pick up a Fall Catalog and register to win that $1000.00 shopping spree to be given away on November 21st.
October 2008
Page 3
Service Center—Gene Bain Welcome back to the tire learning corner. Hopefully today’s lesson on tire manufacturing will answer some questions. One question that I hope to answer is how a tire is built. While researching and talking to manufacture reps why tires have gone up and are they ever going to come back down in price. First let’s talk about rubber. Tires use natural rubber which comes from, yes, the rubber tree. The milky liquid from the tree is mixed with acids that cause the rubber to solidify. Presses squeeze out excess water and form the rubber into sheets, and then the sheets are placed in to smokers to dry. Synthetic rubber is produced from the polymers found in crude oil. The other primary ingredient in tire rubber is carbon black. Carbon black is a fine, soft powder created when crude oil or natural gas is burned with a limited amount of oxygen, causing incomplete combustion and creating a large amount of fine soot. Carbon black is the additive that gives the tire its strength. Last, are a lot of other chemicals to help with resistant to sunlight, water and even air damage. The main features of a passenger car tire are the tread, the body with sidewalls, and the beads. The tread is the raised
pattern in contact with the road, which is made up of the ingredients above in different qualities. These mixtures are coated on to nylon, polyester, fiberglass, Kevlar and rayon cords to give added strengths. The changing of compounds makes the tread harder for more aggressive treads but have a lower mileage wear. Softer compounds for highway use with longer mileage, wear and smoother rides. The body supports the tread and gives the tire its specific shape. The body also known as the side wall is a rubber and carbon mixture with most of the time covering nylon cords. The beads are rubber-covered, bronzed plated-wire bundles that hold the tire on the wheel.
oil prices? Well, not so much, due to the losses of contracts of synthetic rubber not being filled and or voided. Tire manufactures are going to keep prices up. The only good thing I have heard is that baring any major problem in the future, tire prices should only have one more little round of price increases but most have already taken it. So for the light truck and passenger tires we shouldn’t “Welcome back to see much more price the tire learning changes for a while. Big truck tires are taking a corner.” pretty big increase right now and they should level out as well.
Now Ag tires are another story. With the weaker dollar The source for natural rubber, Michelin and BFG are making is Indonesia, Malaysia and more money staying in Europe. Thailand which account for So Titan, Goodyear, and Fire72% of the world’s natural stone, are trying to cover all of rubber, and when you add the the new equipment or OE rest of Asia that is 94%; so (original equipment) tires maknatural rubber is being shipped ing a shortage in replacement to the United States. The ship- tires. With the companies tryping rates to the U.S. have ing to catch up with OE and gone sky high and are not replacement tires, going to come down due to sprinkler tires are the losses and debit the last on the manushipping industry has enfacturers “to make” dured with the cost of fuel. list, but I am trying Is synthetic rubber the way to hard to be prepared for next go? We all know how high year. Simple economics holds crude prices got, but have true, “supply and demand”, gone down as of late. So will supply is low and demand is tire prices go down with the high, so prices are going to continue to go up.
August 2008
Page 4
Petroleum News—Harry Lunt As all of you have noticed the price of fuel has been coming down. There have been a few spikes in prices because of hurricanes Gustav and Ike, but for the most part, prices have fallen as rapidly as they have risen. There are at least two factors at play. The dollar has been gaining ground
against other world currencies and the higher prices that we experienced earlier in the summer have had a lasting effect on fuel demand. This is not only in the U.S. but world wide. Crude prices lately have been affected by the value of the dollar. When the dollar is weak, people put their money into com-
modities such as crude, but when the dollar increases in value, people buy dollars as a safe haven. The big question now is how the bailout of Wall Street plays out, and what affect that will have not only on crude and fuel prices, but on the economy as a whole.
Grain Marketing—Gary Holcomb
“Effective September 24th we began bidding again for 2009 corn.”
Grain prices have declined substantially from the highs made in late June due to funds and speculators liquidating long positions and improving crop conditions in the midwest. The financial market crisis has given some support to prices recently but we still have harvest to work through the next two months. As all of you are aware, input costs have risen to levels that are making it difficult for producers to justify planting corn next year. Since the total demand in the United States has risen to such a high level due to ethanol production, the market cannot tolerate any reduction in corn acres. We will start hearing more about the
threat to corn acreage after fall harvest and it should be the catalyst to move grain prices higher or bring input costs down. Effective September 24th, we began bidding again for 2009 corn. We are pleased to be back in the market after a difficult and volatile time the last 9 months. Unfortunately, for the reasons discussed above we don’t expect that many of you will want to contract at these prices. Please call or check our website for basis levels. Due to the extreme volatility in futures markets, cash markets are very thin. The result is a lower basis than we have become accustomed to. As we begin harvest this year and again next year,
basis should improve as buyers cover their needs. Thank you for your patience during this period. Early corn harvest results are indicating better yields than we were anticipating 45 days ago. Great news for all of us! We are prepared to handle your grain quickly to get your trucks back to the field. We have less wheat in the elevators compared to last year due to the smaller wheat crop, so more corn storage available. We look forward to working with you this fall. Have a safe and bountiful harvest.
October 2008 August 2008
Page 5
Gruver Branch - Mike Morlan As I am writing this we are waiting for our first load of corn. We were very happy the way wheat harvest went and were able to keep trucks headed back to the field in a timely manner. Corn harvest will give another test. The nice August weather has helped the corn out and looks like we will be having another big crop. We have updated some more equipment since last corn harvest and this should help expedite the unloading process. We will also continue to be able to settle on your corn here at
the office in Gruver. The Sunray grain office has implemented some new ideas that should make the settlement process much more efficient. The one thing I would like to mention is that now we provide a service that allows Sunray Co-op to wire money directly to your bank account for grain settlements. This is a great convenience if you are tied up in the fields and can’t make the time to get to our office. The second thing I would like to mention is we still have use of a good cash flow program
that evaluates different crops like wheat, corn, milo, or cotton, to see what crop would cash out better with your input and irrigation costs. If you have any interest in “Gruver has updated this, we would love to equipment since last show it to you and maybe corn harvest, and make next year’s business this should help plan a little easier to put expedite the together. unloading process.” I would like to close by thanking the producers of Gruver for their support of your coop and we wish you all a bountiful harvest.
Did You Know??? In May of 1968 the Sunray Co-op decided that there was a great need to better serve its patrons by providing diesel and gasoline delivery. The co-op bought its first fuel delivery truck that spring and made its first fuel delivery. Once this service started, it has maintained a steady increase every year. Today, the Sunray Co-op averages between 800,000 to 1,000,000 gallons of fuel hauled every month. Under the leadership of Harry Lunt and Brian Martin, the fuel department of the Sunray Co-op remains a vital service today with Billy Reinders delivering to our patrons, and Cleve Rousser delivering to our commercial accounts.
PRESORTED STANDARD U.S. POSTAGE PAID
SUNRAY, TX PERMIT NO. 5
Grain Industry Leader in The Texas Panhandle
P.O. Box 430 Sunray, TX 79086 Return Service Requested
Halloween Treat Fountain Drinks
All Sizes 79¢ 2:00PM—5:00PM During October At The
Country Store
