Salute to Beef and Dairy 2014

STUTSMAN, WERNING

Posted By: Mistina Christner (email)
Date: 7/24/2018 at 10:02:20

Source: Kalona News 6/26/2014

Salute to Beef and Dairy

Stutsman a name in local agriculture since 1934
By Bruce Adams

On Aug. 5, Eldon C. Stutsman Inc. will celebrate it's 80th anniversary at the Hills facility. In 1934 Eldon C. Stutsman started a milk route and neighbors started asking him to bring them supplies back from town. The business started during the depression and there were no pickup trucks to haul good. Stutsman is still a family owned business that is now Eastern Iowa's largest supplier of wholesale and retail agricultural products. Stutsman now has 165 employees in Johnson County.
There are several areas of operations. The primary areas of equipment include fuel trailers and tanks, grain storage and conditioning, land rollers/tillage equipment, rotary cutters and snow blowers, seed tenders, sprayer fertilizer equipment, tanks, and manure handling. Stutsman is the Nation's largest distributor of manure spreaders and manure handling equipment.
Stutsman also distributes a large number of agronomy products such as liquid, dry, and anhydrous fertilizer with custom application. A wide selection of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, with the objective of fitting the right seed to your field.
Stutsman is also a wholesale animal nutrition distribution company, with a focus on livestock nutrition and animal health. Products include feed ingredients, animal health, vitamins and amino acids, salts and trace minerals, pet food, bedding, and forage containment supplies. Stutsman Logistics provides a third party transportation service; providing additional capacity and related transportation services for shippers, receivers and carriers.
In 2003 the truckload for hire operators were turned into a separate company, Stutsman Transportation Inc. There are 60 over the road trucks that deliver products, serving most of the continental U.S. except Northeastern states. Stutsman Transportation is primarily a dry van freight hauler.
Mark Stutsman, Stutsman CEO, believes that the trucking operations have a competitive advantage with professional drivers, and products that are clean and on time. Mark comments that there is a lot of company pride regarding the quality of Stutsman employees, 60% of which have worked with the company for more than 10 years. Mark goes on to explain that the company is very diversified with a lot of meaningful work to accomplish; most employees are fulltime.

The nearby Stutsman family farm is where Mark got his passion for agriculture. the 1500 acres is 50% each of corn and soybeans, and fees mostly certified angus beef. They buy western cattle at about 800 pounds and feed to about 1400-1500 pounds. They will market from 1,000 to 1,200 cattle each year. Greg Werning has been the feed lot manager for 22 years. He states that they can produce a better animal by using corn that is produced on the farm. He meets with nutritionist from Nebraska to formulate the feed mixture, which can include corn, silage, hay, wet corn gluten, sugar syrup, and vitamins and minerals.
Mark states that he has a very positive outlook on the beef industry. Beef is higher priced now with drought problems in the West and South. Beef producers in Iowa are blessed with feed that is ample and less expensive when compared to the rest of the country. Also, there are advantages to producing ethanol in Iowa.
Stutsman also owns Bazooka Farm Star in Washington, which specializes in manure management equipment. Mark believes that "our customers and employees have a lot of success in their lives."