One Jump Ahead
Jim Wells, CEO All West/Select Sires
There’s a lot going on these days at All West!
The 75th Anniversary of All West is still in full swing, and we’re nearly halfway through the year-long celebration! If you haven’t checked out our video series at www.allwestselectsires.com, you’re missing some great conversations with those who have built this cooperative. They’re not only informative about the early years of All West, but pretty entertaining as well!
This celebration will overflow into the Select Sires Board meeting that will be held at our office in July. Getting ready to host federation members in a few weeks has been quite an experience! We invite you to check out the “preparation work” on our blog, that’s also on the website! Above all of the controlled chaos, we’re really excited to share the beautiful Pacific Northwest and “How the All West was Won” with our fellow federation members.
We’re also “celebrating”, although that seems like a poor choice of words, the retirement of Ken Haak after working with our cooperative for 47 years. We wish Ken and his wife, Mary Jane, nothing but the best as they enjoy some much deserved time off. Selfishly, however, we’re going to miss having Ken on the team.
We are pretty busy with training these days, including advanced RePRO training in Washington with King Smith of Select Sires, and a new ProTECH training program with Greg Collins and Harry Anderson in California. We’ve also kicked off an All West 101 training series for newer employees. The culture of All West has always been to have a strong sense of curiosity and never stop learning. Through these ongoing training programs, we’re not only developing more knowledgeable employees, we’re enriching the lives of our customers with more highly-trained, capable All West representatives.
Beyond all the other excitement, we’re experiencing an unprecedented run of genetic power! The April 2016 sire summary run showed Select Sires bulls dominating the Holstein lineup. It’s nice to have the prestige of 8 bulls in the top 10, but what does that equate to when talking about better service and profitability for our customers?
In the coming months, we will be showing you more in-depth analysis and advantages of having these high-level genetics available for your breeding program. We all know that in times of challenging milk prices, every breeding decision becomes more critical, so why not capitalize on getting the most bang for your buck?!
So what do all these things have in common? They put All West “One Jump Ahead” of the competition. From our people, to our training programs, to our anniversary celebration to the undeniable power of the bull lineup we have right now, we’re putting our customers “one jump ahead.”
You’ll see the “One Jump Ahead” logo used throughout this newsletter. It was developed and used in 1974 by Jerry Strandlund, then advertising manager for the cooperative. Jerry, still a treasured friend of All West, will be featured in our anniversary video series this summer! Even 42 years ago, All West was committed to putting its member-owners “one jump ahead”, and we’re happy to say that has never changed!
Thanks for your continued business. Enjoy the summer!
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