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Farmers Union Industries still profitable in tough farm economy
The President and CEO of Farmers Union Industries says the slowdown in farm equipment purchases is impacting their manure spreader and trailer business. Dale Bednarek tells Brownfield their Artex Redwood Falls, Minnesota plant began the year with a backlog of spreader orders, but they’re caught up and looking for business. “We didn’t anticipate the slowdown in the economy. We thought it would maybe pick up here with the farmers and we would get towards year end and we would have more units to produce in 2025 but that has not been the case so we have the salesmen all over the country right now trying to pick up more sales territory.”
Bednarek says the down economy and high interest rates have farmers making careful purchasing decisions and putting off what they can. “It’s one of those things where they’re not going to, they’re probably going to use it another year if they have to because it’s not something that they’re using all of the time in most cases, so it is hurting us.”
Bednarek says although equipment sales are slow, there are no plans to lay off any workers. “We have not. It is our directive that these guys work for us all year. We’re going to, like I said, we’re in an R & D (research and development) phase. We’re looking at other things to do within the facility to keep them busy and occupied until we hopefully pick up a little bit here going into 2025.”
Bednarek says all six divisions of Farmers Union Industries remain profitable, although overall sales revenue is down in 2024. “Other than a few operating expenses that we’ve had that were above and beyond this year, we were in pretty good shape as far as operating income.”
Dale Bednarek tells Brownfield their Northland Choice wet pet food operation is performing about the same as last year despite lower prices. “The biggest issue there has been price. Prices are down so it hasn’t been as lucrative. We’re getting squeezed a lot with what we buy and what we sell.”
And their Performance Pet Products canned pet food operation recently expanded. “They have been able to out produce where they were last year by about 3.2 million cans through October, either through efficiencies or through sales. We had another significant account come on that took off very quickly for us.”
Bednarek says The Estherville, Iowa based Redwood Farms pork processing plant continues to have a steady output, and Midwest Grease in Long Prairie and Redwood Falls, Minnesota has collected more waste cooking oil for feed ingredients and biofuels. He says volumes this year are above pre-pandemic volumes.
Bednarek says their rendering business Central Bi-Products doesn’t have much growth, but they still processed 1.1 billion pounds of material this year through October.
Bednarek spoke to Brownfield during the Wisconsin Farmers Union convention in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
AUDIO: Dale Bednarek discusses Farmers Union Industries with Brownfield’s Larry Lee
2024-12-16 16:21:43
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