Farmers connect with Scoular at producer appreciation events

Andres Facility Manager Justin Reed and his team hosted farmers in the plant’s cavernous 13,000-square-foot warehouse. With its soaring ceiling, it looked like it could double as a high school gym. 

His crew set up tables and chairs, ran big fans and left the wide warehouse doors open so there was a nice breeze on the warm August day. Through one of the doors, you could see corn growing in a field on the edge of the facility property.

Farmers rolled up in pickups mid-morning. After checking in, they sipped coffee and sampled donuts from Dunkin as employees from Andres, Omaha, Minneapolis, Overland Park, Kansas, and other Scoular locations visited with them.

Super-sized reminders of the producers’ hard work were lined up along the back of the warehouse: huge totes, each packed with one metric ton of soybeans.

In addition to the grain market report, presentations included Scoular’s community involvement, such as supporting the local FFA chapter, and other company values.

“We stand by our word,’’ Steven Miller, a Minneapolis-based trade unit manager, told producers. “We do what we say we are going to do.”

The Andres team also provided farmers a BBQ lunch and facility tours.

Reed said he was pleased with the turnout and how his team and the other Scoular employees welcomed the producers.

“The farmers are critical to our business,” he said. “We value our relationships with producers and want to show them in every way we can how important they are to us.”