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Congressman David Young (R) and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig (R) visited Guthrie County Friday as part of Young’s “Bringing in the Harvest Tour.”

Young and Naig handed out donuts and talked with executives and employees of Landus Cooperative in Yale, including Chief Operating Officer Brett Bell, Chief Animal Nutrition Officer Mark Cullen, Chief Commodity Marketing Officer Ron DeJongh, and Yale Location Manager Jason Petersen. Naig mentions this was one of three facilities they toured in southwest Iowa Friday, “Here we this morning talked about what’s happening with harvest progress, we talked about some of the things that are going on from an agronomy standpoint this fall with fertilizer applications, some things like that. So it’s a great way to check in and understand what’s happening with our farmers in the area, some of the challenges or how they’re doing this fall, so of course these folks know very, very well what’s happening across this region with harvest and what needs to be done this fall.”

Young and Naig discussed the ongoing trade war with China. Young commented on reaching out to other potential trade partners for a more diversified market. “We’ve got the best workers in the world here and the best goods here they come right out of the earth. And some challenges out there (are) making sure that we have those markets out there so continuing to push the administration on bilateral agreements to find markets as well (as) the infrastructure. We learned a little bit about some issues with rail going into Mexico and making sure we have a strong infrastructure, (with) roads and bridges. And then some labor issues as well with the 2.5% unemployment rate we’re looking for workers and so all problems that are solvable.”

As the U.S. seeks to regain losses in the soybean market in the next year, Landus Cooperative executives commented that they could see a shift in focus to corn production.