Second Harvest

During the holiday season nothing makes me feel better than helping those in need.  That’s why I couldn’t have been more excited when I learned that Landmark partnered this year with Second Harvest Foodbank and the NBC 15 Share your Holiday’s campaign to help local families in need. 

 

In the preliminary meetings of our committee we knew we had an opportunity to make a HUGE impact throughout our entire organization and the communities we serve if we came up with just the right activities for our employees to get involved with.

 

So, after numerous pots of coffee, a bit of research and some collaborative brainstorming, our committee came up with several activities for employees to participate over the course of the campaign. 

 

The activities, albeit a bit ‘off-the-wall’ if you will, truly captured the excitement, big hearts and generous nature of the Landmark team.  I mean, who doesn’t love a good game of “Cow Pie Bingo,” seeing a “Pie in the Face” of one of our team members, having a friendly “Cook-off Contest,” or seeing your “CEO do something extraordinary” if your company meets their giving goal?!

 

All details aside, let’s get down to the brass tacks of how truly amazing and generous our employees are.  Over the course of the 1-month campaign, through the aforementioned activities, a food drive, a generous Landmark donation and matching funds from our partners at Co-Bank and Land O’Lakes we were able to donate 50,581 meals to Second Harvest Foodbank and the NBC 15 Share your Holiday’s campaign!  You guessed it-- that translates to enough meals to feed 10 families for one year.  How amazing is that? 

 

In our first year of participating in this program, I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of a team who truly opens their hearts, unselfishly gives, and whole-heartedly cares about helping our communities.  So, from the bottom of my heart I say THANK YOU.  Thank you to our employees for their generosity.  Thank you to our management team for allowing our ‘off-the-wall’ ideas to be put into action.  Thank you to our partners for their matching funds.  Thank you to everyone who helped make this entire campaign happen.  Simply put, THANK YOU!

 

 

Partners, Planning and Profit

This growing season has been a wild ride, from shockingly low corn prices to incredibly high yields and surprising weather all year long- and a huge spurt in innovation across the industry. What worked? What didn’t? What would you change if you could, and how can you use this to make sure your future is stable?

Partners

If you followed the prescription of your agronomist to the letter, I bet you saw great yield. In a market like this one, all you have to hang your hat on is yield, and hope that yield will cover the cost of operating and give you some left over. If you didn’t use all the tools in the box, and went mediocre- you probably saved money on inputs but got a less than desirable yield, leaving you with little to no wiggle room.

Your grain marketers should be your best friend right about now. Between your agronomist and your grain go-to person, you should have both on speed dial. Why wouldn’t you use the people that exist to make you profitable? Think about it- if you’re not profitable, Landmark isn’t profitable. We are a cooperative- partnerships are the reason we were formed- over 85 years ago.

Speaking of partners, have you  Heard of Innovation Edge Test Plots? Probably not- it was “Top Secret.” Landmark stuck their innovative neck out and tried prescriptions, products and seed to test their “promise” in the types of conditions our growers face so they could  prove out these inputs. Why? So our team could go to the farm gate with 100% confidence that what they are recommending will work. Our team eats, breathes, lives and sleeps YOUR profitability- if it isn’t going to make you money, they are not going to recommend it. Now THAT is a true partnership.

 

Check out the InnovationEDGE test plot Curry Seed trial results. Pretty interesting and a bit exciting to think that we have the ability to reach 300 bushel.

Planning

Without proper planning, you will get poor performance. Plan ahead for 2015- set goals, get your farm plan together and work with Verity for your financial needs.

 

0% Seed financing for a year and competitive rates on equipment, farm input and real estate loans.

Call your agronomist and get your inputs ordered- get your yield goals set and above all else, dream of a profitable year.

 

Profits

Trust Landmark to work with you and help you remain profitable. Our toolbox gets bigger every year with tools to help you stay strong, and our team gets bigger too- and their priority is to keep you doing what you love not just for today but for future generations.

Happy Holidays- get planning for profits for 2015!