(Essex) – Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig made a swing through southwest Iowa this week.

Naig visited several counties in KMAland, including a stop in Essex early Thursday afternoon to tour the NEW Cooperative location just off Highway 48. Earlier this year, The Red Oak-based United Farmers Cooperative merged with NEW, bringing its sites, including Essex, under the new name. Nick Krehbiel is the Southern District Manager for NEW Coop, which covers south of Interstate 80 between the Missouri River and just east of Interstate 35. After a merger study done earlier this year, Krehbiel tells KMA News United Farmers garnered enough votes from its membership to carry out the merger.

“You have to meet a certain threshold for the vote from the members of the United Farmers Co-op that they wanted to be a part of the NEW Co-op and they voted in favor of it,” said Krehbiel. “The merger went live on September 1st, so it’s still a pretty new entity and we’re working out the kinks and doing the best we can.”

During his visit, Naig visited with NEW Cooperative workers and representatives ranging from the workforce and early yields from farmers to drought conditions and harvest preparations. Particularly, Krehbiel says they are working to ensure they have enough hands for when the brunt of farmers begin bringing in the fall harvest. He adds they do offer a few different amenities for producers.

“This particular location, we can take corn and beans, and we have both fully enclosed, covered, steel bin storage and we also have a couple of open air bunkers–once we fill those up, we’ll tarp over them to protect the crop,” he said. “Then we offer anhydrous ammonia that can be hauled out of here or applied out at this particular location.”

Naig also stressed the importance of places like the Essex NEW location for area producers and the local economy in a time-sensitive industry.

“These locations really provide such an important service both on the input side and on the grain handling side really when it comes down to one of the most important things which is whether we have markets for our products and crops,” said Naig. “Here, you’ve got a location that hauls and purchases grain here for the export market, but also for processing locally at ethanol plants and feed mills.”

Krehbiel says they deliver to multiple local ethanol plants, including Green Plains in Shenandoah. But, like many industries, Naig says the workforce in agriculture is evolving, but the need for truck drivers to deliver the product for cooperatives is still there.

“We always need good folks to be able to safely operate (a truck) but also someone who can get that CDL and work during a pretty intense harvest season,” Naig explained. “Companies are having to think a lot more about the incentives, pay, and benefits packages, but also the work-life balance that folks want. It’s just important to recruit and work hard to retain that talent once you have it.”

During the discussion, Krehbiel also noted that a background in agriculture isn’t always necessary to have a career with a company like NEW Cooperative. Over the past two days, Naig has also made stops in Taylor, Adams, Fremont, Mills, and Cass counties.