4 minute read
In the News
by GENEX
Dugan Elected to GENEX Council
Four Council Members Re-elected
At the GENEX annual meeting, dairy producer Casey Dugan of Casa Grande, Arizona, was elected to his first term on the cooperative’s governing council after serving as a delegate since 2014. In this council position, he represents dairy and beef producers in the GENEX membership region which includes Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Four incumbents were also re-elected to the GENEX council. Those re-elected to new three-year terms include Dan Tetreault of Champlain, New York; Lamar Gockley of Mohnton, Pennsylvania; Kay Olson-Martz of Friendship, Wisconsin; and Jody Schaap of Woodstock, Minnesota. •
GENEX Announces Senior Leadership Team
“Change is inevitable,” states Huub te Plate, GENEX Chief Operating Officer. “2018 went into the books as the year GENEX became part of a new organization, URUS. While we continue to market cattle genetics, herd care products and reproductive service, as part of this new organization we can realize significant savings.”
The formation of URUS and centralization of operations, along with the desire to position GENEX for the future, also led to a restructuring of the GENEX senior leadership team.
“The new leadership team is an experienced multicultural team that, with the help of all employees, will move GENEX to the next level and enable this cooperative to serve dairy and beef producers around the globe long into the future,” states Huub.
The senior leadership team consists of Dean Gilge, Vice President of Wholesale Markets; Dave Goedken, Vice President of U.S. Dairy Sales and Service; Judd Hanson, Vice President of U.S. Dairy Strategic Sales; Nick Hemauer, Vice President of Global Sales Support; Dave Mellinger, Chief Financial Officer; Humberto Sánchez DVM, General Manager of GENEX México; Sergio Saud, General Manager of GENEX Brazil; Jeff Swenson, Vice President of Beef Sales, Service and Product Development; and Terri Dallas, Vice President of Member Relations.
Koepon and CRI combine to form URUS
Two strong organizations – one cooperative and one privately-owned company – have combined to form a new global leader in cattle artificial insemination genetics and farm management information.
Koepon Holding BV and Cooperative Resources International (CRI) announced their intent to merge in December 2017. Following due diligence and votes by each organization’s board of directors as well as the member delegates of CRI, the business combination was completed in October 2018. The new organization is known as URUS.
“While URUS is a new name in the global agriculture industry, its roots run deep,” states Cees Hartmans, CEO. “The companies within the URUS family – AgSource, Alta Genetics, GENEX, Jetstream Genetics, PEAK/GENESIS, SCCL and VAS – have a history of serving dairy and beef producers across the world. Now, as part of this new organization, these companies are even better positioned to meet the future needs of members and clients.”
The formation of URUS, with its size and scale, makes possible a significant increase in investment towards products and services that will benefit producers across the globe.
“The companies of URUS will be leaders in new developments for the cattle industry,” states Hartmans. “Dairy and beef cattle producers are the heart of this organization, and so we want to ensure our members and clients have access to the best products and services at a competitive price. We want to be your partner of choice for cattle genetics, reproduction and farm management information for years to come.
“Together, we can focus on producing high-quality and healthy food while contributing to a sustainable, productive and profitable global dairy and beef industry.”
GENEX Awarded $7.7 Million Grant for International Development Work
Farmer cooperatives in South Africa and Peru will improve their profitability, productivity, resilience and competitiveness in the marketplace as the result of a new five-year, $7.7 million grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This project coordinated by GENEX will build on work completed in the previous eight years through similar grant-funded activities.
GENEX is the program partner for this USAID Cooperative Development Program (CDP), which focuses on building the capacity of cooperative businesses for self-reliance, local ownership and sustainability. As a cooperative, GENEX values living out the cooperative principle of cooperation among cooperatives.
“The CDP is an opportunity for our cooperative to share its business values while using its products and services to improve farms of all shapes and sizes worldwide,” explains Matt Gartman, a dairy farmer from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, who participated in the previous GENEX CDP activities in South Africa by presenting on cooperative governance.
Since 2010, GENEX has helped build South African agricultural cooperative businesses. The goal has been to elevate these developing businesses as suppliers to local and regional processors, sellers of value-added products, and buyers of inputs from local and regional firms.
For example, during the first phase, GENEX staff with expertise in beef cattle genetics and reproduction traveled to South Africa to provide consultation and training to a cooperative desiring to offer artificial insemination services to members. The GENEX representatives worked with local partners to provide training and conduct the first inseminations. Opportunities like this - within the grant-funded venture - create new markets for GENEX products while also benefitting smallholder farmers.
In the previous round of funding, GENEX CDP activities in South Africa helped 13 cooperatives achieve substantial growth. In eight years, the cooperatives experienced a 713% growth in sales, 510% growth in profit and near-total growth in patronage dividends.
With the new five-year, $7.7 million grant, GENEX intends to further support South African and Peruvian dairy and beef producers and their cooperatives through business-planning guidance, technical assistance from industry mentors, better access to affordable financing, and finally, training and networking to develop sound cooperative governance.
After his experience in South Africa, Gartman states, “It’s clear the CDP has and will provide farmers with an opportunity to grow their livelihoods while also bringing value-added U.S. goods to an expanding market. It’s all about cooperatives helping cooperatives succeed in the global agriculture industry.”
Delegate Elections Scheduled for July
Last year the GENEX council decided, with input from delegates and alternates, to change the annual membership qualification period and the delegate election timeframe. The membership qualification period is now May 1 through April 30. For example, to qualify as a member in 2019, a customer had to spend $500 on GENEX semen, products and/ or services between May 1, 2018, and April 30, 2019. In addition, they need to have a membership agreement on file
GENEX members who meet the above-mentioned requirements will receive a self-nominating postcard in early June. The self-nomination postcards must be returned to GENEX in Shawano, Wisconsin, and then ballots will be created using the self-nominated names. Ballots will be mailed to GENEX members in early July.