Our spotlight this month is Mercer Landmark located at 103 S. Cleveland St. in Antwerp.
Mercer Landmark Inc. is a locally owned farm cooperative located in West Central Ohio with 19 facilities in Mercer, Darke, Van Wert, Paulding and Defiance counties with more facilities being added.
The mission of Mercer Landmark Inc. is to provide a sound financial entity in which producers can invest in and expect a return on that investment. The entity will in turn then provide markets and services to its owner patrons that they would otherwise not have access to as individuals. The above will be achieved by the entity while keeping the best interest of its employees and the environment in mind. Mercer Landmark https://www.mercerlandmark.com/index.php
The Antwerp Equity Exchange had existed in Antwerp for over 100 years. They merged with Mercer Landmark in 2008. Currently they have 5 employees including Jenn Zartman – Antwerp/Sherwood branch manager. Jenn has been with Mercer for 11 years. Chad Molitor, elevator supervisor, has been at the elevator for 27 years. John Zielke, elevator operations, has been with the company for 17 years and Candace Feehan, office administrator, and Mikel Carnahan, elevator operations, have both been with Mercer for two years.
The silos contain corn, soybeans and soft red winter wheat. The winter wheat is planted in the fall and hibernates all winter and begins growing in the spring. The storage on site is 1.5 million bushels. In 2006-07 they added 2 more silos nearly doubling the size of their storage. During harvest season the elevator can process 100,000 bushels a day and more than 100 trucks will pass through on any given day.
In 1994 corn was yielding 123 bushels/acre. 20 years later farmers were doubling their yield due to advances in seed genetics and plant breeding for higher yields, better fertilizer formulations and equipment advances, and larger and more efficient combines and tractors.
Mercer Landmark, Inc. in association with CHS Hedging offers a full service commodity brokerage service for farmers. They help to strengthen producer operations, enhance producer profitability and provide education information support to enable producers to make sound marketing decisions.
Harvest season is generally from September through November but in very wet years it can last through January. There are less hoppers and more semi’s coming in to unload grain so the facility realized that they needed to make some changes to help farmers and themselves be more efficient. Recently Mercer Landmark increased the dumping capacity to help speed up the process making it quicker for the farmers and to get them back in their fields.
Basis is the difference between the cash price paid for your grain and the nearby Chicago Board of Trade futures price. Basis is often called “the voice of the market” because it’s an indication of whether or not the market wants your grain. A narrow or improving cash basis is a signal that the market wants your grain. This improvement often happens right after the crop has been put away, or in spring when everyone is busy in the field and no one is making cash grain sales. A wide or widening cash basis is often a signal that the grain market doesn’t want your grain. In this case you should hold your grain and avoid making cash sales, according to Farm Progress at https://www.farmprogress.com/
Mercer Landmark also carries many products from rat and mice killer, flower and garden weed preventer, Crossbow herbicide, Muck eliminator for ponds, Copper Sulfate crystals and many kinds of bird seed.
The Antwerp branch of Mercer Landmark works closely with their sister facility in Payne. Jenn has great things to say about her crew here in the Antwerp office. She cannot commend them enough. During the harvest season they put in many long days but they are rewarded when Harvest is officially done for the year.
