EMPLOYEES ARE OUR NUMBER ONE ASSET
Apr 06, 2023
I’ve farmed both part-time and full-time. Besides raising corn, sweet corn and soybeans, I’ve always been curious and passionate about agriculture and business.
My school was the school of hard knocks. I worked at General Trading Company for a total of 26 years, 15 of which I served as manager. That experience helped with my current role, big time. It taught me a lot about customer interactions and making decisions, which are lessons I try to bring to the UFC board today.
After serving on the board of directors for Bird Island Elevator, I decided to join the UFC board after the two entities merged in 2010, serving in roles as both vice chair and chair.
Being chair has provided me the chance to participate in the agriculture industry in a new way and serve our fellow cooperative patrons. It’s helped me with my own risk management decisions on the farm, too. One of our core focuses is how we can better collaborate with our neighbors, build partnerships and create greater efficiencies.
UFC has always done a great job adapting to industry changes and we look for people who can do the same. Recruiting help is not easy in today’s environment of remote work, shorter work weeks, people moving away from their hometowns and all the other factors.
Nonetheless, this a very rewarding place to be if you want to be in agriculture. We want to find and keep good people. And we challenge management every day in how we can better do that. It’s something we talk about all the time: how to find people and retain talent.
Employees are the number one asset of the co-op and without them we have nothing.
Anybody with a work ethic who wants to learn is welcome here. Anyone can be taught the skills required if they choose to join us. We’re willing to teach them as a co-op.