Getting Back Together

The crowd stood and applause filled the room as Allen Rozema called Dave Hedlin to the stage.?The honoree spoke about a legacy of farming and the mission of the Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland (SPF), but the message was really one of giving.?Giving time to a cause, giving credit to others, and giving thanks to the crowd for coming together with purpose and generosity of spirit.?The annual fall fundraiser for SPF sold out St. Joseph Center in Mount Vernon and might even have put a punctuation mark on our farming community as we continue to see large crowds return to in-person congregations.?It seems necessary for our society to get back together.

This newsletter will highlight the many ways our employees and members are getting back together.?Our summer appreciation picnic(s); including one in late September for our Lynden growers who were busy with the berry harvest in July, employee retreats, our Skagit Farmers Supply (SFS) leadership retreat in Spokane and more.?We recognized the need for in-person events, while also recognizing the exposure it could create.?Our agronomy team was already back to live events last winter, and we came back together for our annual meeting in March (after going virtual once in March of 2021).?It is nice to feel the enthusiasm in our employees and management the same way those who attended the SPF fundraiser felt on September 17th.?

We continue to face adversity in our business units.?Inflation is hitting our expenses and our balance sheet.?Especially in our cost of inventory and the higher receivables we’re carrying.?Neither of them is out of line on a percentage basis, but the dollars are higher due to higher energy and input costs.?Fortunately, our working capital is at a record level, our multi-year sales growth continues (assisted by inflation, but our sales on a unit basis is higher than it’s ever been) and we’ll have another extraordinarily strong year financially.?We’ve closed out of fiscal year and the board will find out from our auditors in December what the final numbers look like.?It’s been a strong year for many cooperatives across the country, and it’s no different for us.?

We’re not the only ones getting back together.?Our daughters are looking forward to homecoming soon.?As they plan for the events with their friends, it’s good to see them celebrating their senior and junior years together with their classmates and not virtually from home.?We’re lucky to have Kelly’s mom Anna still hanging out with us and for our kids to be able to share those milestones with their grandmother.?

I hope you get to enjoy a beautiful fall.