Please accept my invitation to attend MFA's central annual meeting Nov. 29, 2000, in Columbia. Our annual meeting is in November for the first time. In years past, the meeting was held in August. The meeting date moved because last year MFA's fiscal year-end date changed, as voted on by the delegates at last year's district meetings. The end of our fiscal year is now Aug. 31. Like last year, we're holding our annual meeting at the Hearnes Center (the building where MU plays basketball) at the University of Missouri-Columbia. By attending, you'll have yet another opportunity to have a voice in the direction of your cooperative. Plus, we will share with you the financial results of MFA Incorporated for our just-completed fiscal year end. I'm proud to report those results contain excellent financial results that reflect the fiscal health of your cooperative.

That health, as I pointed out in last month's Viewpoint, is reflected in the fact that we earned the most money ever on our own operations in our 86-year history. By our own operations, I mean our profitability does not stem from total patronage from interregional cooperatives. This profitability is a direct result of our own activities. The previous record on our own operations was $8.1 million. This year's result is $8.8 million. Our total profit stands at $10.1 million.

Even more exciting from a businessman's perspective is the strength of our balance sheet. For a number of years now, our goal for MFA's solvency ratio has been 40 percent. The ratio represents the percentage of assets that MFA's farmer/members own versus the part owned by banks and creditors. We've fallen just short in previous years. But this year, the number stands at 40.6 percent. That's a record of which I'm personally proud. Our net worth stands at an all-time high of $107.7 million before patronage is considered. But what makes these figures even more significant from my perspective is that they have occurred in spite of the difficult economic environment of this past year. We're structured well.

The achievements are the results of several factors as I explained in last month's column. First, our joint ventures have contributed across the board. They were sound ideas that have proven their worth. Added to that is our focus on reducing overhead. Obviously, livestock prices aren't hurting us this year as they did last year. But again, as I pointed out last month, our top-quality people share the greatest amount of credit. Our people continue to place emphasis on customer service. As a result, our customer/owners look to us for advice and trust us to help them make farming decisions.

It's a well-earned reputation; we're proud of it. You can see it displayed in the programs we provide. We have a long history of providing solutions that benefit the customer. And, following the cooperative philosophy, what benefits our member/owners benefits us. As a cooperative, that philosophy distinguishes us from our investor-owned competitors who operate on the business model of squeezing profit out of both ends of the production chain.

That's exactly the opposite of the cooperative approach. We at MFA exist to help our member/owners enhance their production and profitability. Look no further than our products, programs and services. MFA Cattle Charge is the No. 1 weaning, receiving, preconditioning feed in our trade territory. With good reason. It was developed to help our cattle producers take advantage of the efficiencies in rates of gain. Hovering around a 4-to-1 feed conversion, Cattle Charge helps cattle producers maximize profitability. The philosophy holds the same in products and programs on the dairy side, on the crop side, on the swine side.

For proof, look to the performance of our livestock operations group, which offers a swine network and a beef alliance, both of which are designed to maximize returns to our member/owners.

In 1996, the first full year of our swine network marketing, hogs sold averaged 49.6 percent lean. During the first two-thirds of this year, MFA swine network hogs averaged 52.8 percent lean. That's remarkable progress in a short time. Better still, MFA's swine network continues to allow smaller producers to achieve marketing efficiencies enjoyed by the huge pork production entities. We give them an opportunity to compete on an even footing.

The goal of our MFA Health Track Beef Alliance is to keep beef producers and beef production viable parts of agriculture in our trade territory. In structuring our efforts, we have emphasized improving the health (and thus the marketability) of cattle. We are succeeding. As pointed out elsewhere in this issue, calves in the MFA Health Track Beef Alliance have a treatment rate of less than 5 percent and a death loss of one-half of 1 percent in the feedlot. By comparison, the industry averages 25 to 30 percent treatment rate and 2 to 5 percent death loss. In much the same way as in the swine network, we allow smaller producers (Missouri's herd-size average is 35 head) to compete with larger entities.

In fact, as of a late September count, a sale barn in Joplin, Mo., was expecting 3,000 head of MFA Alliance cattle on Dec. 5. Buyers are lining up for that opportunity. Our beef alliance continues to bring premiums to those producers who fully participate.

All of these items are what you've come to expect from your cooperative.