Opportunities can development from changes and challenges presented during the past year through everything from flooding to coronavirus, the leader of a major Wisconsin livestock cooperative said.
Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association president and chief executive officer Curt Larson said the year’s challenges have been plenty but that the cooperative continues to be in a strong position in the industry. Larson spoke with Scott Schultz of WAXX this week during the co-op’s District VI Altoona/Barron annual meeting in Eau Claire, as the co-op got some of its annual district meetings in this week before coronavirus issues brought the series to a halt.
“It was a year of change for us, and we’re continuing to see a little more of that as we get into this year,” he said. “But you know, with change comes opportunity, so you have to look for the silver lining and take it from there.”
Organic marketing at Sparta and Marion have been among the association’s new projects, and its leaders are looking for more organic areas where they can expand opportunities.
Besides dealing during the year with Larson’s transition to the president and CEO position, the nature challenged the co-op’s operations with severe cold, heavy snow and flooding. The cold weather even resulted in packers calling and telling them to not send any more cattle during that time, Larson said.
“Overall, we’re in pretty good shape,” he said. “But you know, last year was a pretty rough year.”
The coronovirus matter has created new challenges; packers have told them to keep the cattle moving. Cattle can’t be held long like some other products, according to Larson.
“This is a 365-day-a-year deal,” he said of the industry.
Larson said the cooperative’s leaders continuously are looking for changes to improve sales opportunities. That includes bringing new programs online and setting some aside some of its programs. He said an example is setting aside programs such as its lamb pool and moving to some Saturday sales at select barns.
Even with glitches caused by coronavirus, Larson said the cattle markets will recover.
“You can buy a year’s worth of toilet paper and put it into your closet, but you can only freeze so much beef and a lot of it is better fresh,” he said.
Larson said a primary message to members is that the cooperative’s leadership continues to look at the world’s changes and evaluating the best positions for the co-op.
Equity’s annual report showed $25.5 million in 2019 assets and liabilities, compared with $26.8 million in 2018; it had $425.4 million in 2019 gross operating revenues, compared with $452.2 million in 2018. Producers received $412.1 million in payments during 2019, compared with $439 million in 2018.
— Scott Schultz
Leave a Reply