Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture makes stops in Buffalo Center, Hanlontown, Stacyville

HANLONTOWN — Iowa Secretary of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Mike Naig made three stops in north-central Iowa on Thursday afternoon.

Naig toured BMC Aggregates near Hanlontown, where he learned about the company and how they work with the agency’s Mines & Minerals Bureau.  “This has been fascinating. A huge capital investment to make sure this operation runs. Of course all the different materials that are coming out of here and where they are going. Our streets, our bridges. Think of any of the infrastructure that has concrete and rock involved in it, and this is a huge component of that. We can’t have those kinds of improvements without operations like this.”

Naig last night spoke at the grand opening of the North Country Cooperative’s new facility in Stacyville that will better serve area farmers.  “It’s a testament of we’re always innovating in agriculture, and so you have to keep moving forward. The new service center and the services and the technologies that they’re bringing to their customers, that’s a hallmark of agriculture, and certainly the cooperative system, ag retailers are a large component of that.”

Naig says the facility will provide better services to farmers in about a 50-mile radius.   “Farmers are always needing to adopt all kinds of new technologies. It’s better seed genetics and crop protection tools and precision placement of fertilizer and precision agriculture. Those are all components and part of the investment that’s being made by the coop is to provide services for their owners and their customers.”

  The new Stacyville facility includes features like liquid fertilizer storage capacity of 3.25 million gallons to better serve today’s large farming operations, new operations offices, seed, crop protection products and bay areas, plus 24-hour access for growers.

Naig also stopped at The Stock Cropper in Buffalo Center.