Left: An employee loads an anhydrous ammonia tank.
Below, left: CPS Clarence employees talk with a grower beneath a sprayer boom.
Below, right: The main building on the CPS Clarence grounds features expert landscaping to impress visitors.
CENTR AL
CPS CLARENCE A HERITAGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESPECT
T
HE SMALL VILLAGE OF CLARENCE in north central Missouri is the home of the 2015 DuPont Central U.S. North America Environmental
Respect winner. In mid-summer Clar- ence is surrounded by corn, beans and cattle. The Clarence Crop Production Services (CPS) farm center is the hub for growers within a 50-mile radius. “You have to be a good partner to
your customer,” explains Donald Simpson, farm center manager. “It’s not just what we sell them that builds a relationship. We work hard to add technical advice through our crop consultants’ vast agronomic knowl- edge in seed, fertilizer and crop protection,” he says. The CPS Clarence farm center is located at the end of
the town’s main street. The bright, well kept facility and flower-lined front entrance says “We want to be a good neighbor” with unmistakable clarity. “Even though we are in the middle of town, we’ve never had a complaint about our facility,” says Simpson. “If you do things the right way, you earn community respect.” That word “respect” is apparent in the close-knit,
highly trained CPS employees working under Simpson. Mark Sickal is a 30-year veteran at the Clarence loca- tion. “We can load out 300 gallons a minute to a fleet of four 3,200-gallon tender trucks serving three spray- ers,” explains Sickal. “Every container is triple-rinsed. The building is diked and can easily hold a leak or spill from the largest tank.” The heavy soils of central Missouri are ideal for ap-
plying and holding anhydrous ammonia fertilizer, and much of that anhydrous usually goes out after harvest in the fall. The 2014 fall season was wet and the rains pushed fertilizer application into the following spring. “This spring could only be characterized as controlled
chaos,” says Simpson. “We recently moved our anhydrous storage outside of town, and the new four-bay state-of-the-art loadout facility really kept things moving this spring. The many hours of safety train- ing our employees undergo really pay off when the pressure is on and we are
handling anhydrous for 12 hours a day.” The CPS loca- tion custom applies much of the anhydrous and keeps cautious control of the many tanks leaving the facility to ensure safe handling by customers as well. Back to downtown Clarence and the CPS farm center,
where participation in community events and donations to local causes is commonplace. In fact, Chuck Wood, city administrator, sums up these activities well. “One thing the CPS folks do that is somewhat unique is they plant a large sweet corn patch. Once the employees harvest some for their families, it is opened up for the community to share the bounty.” Many groups including FFA and 4H benefit from do-
nations and participation by CPS employees. Simpson sees the annual seed plots donated by the outlet serving a two-fold objective. “The kids participate in the plots and learn about much more than farming. They observe agribusiness in action and things like sales and technol- ogy give the students models for other possible career fields in the local community,” he says. Simpson sums up the commitment at Clarence when
he says, “to the staff of CPS Clarence, sustainable agri- culture and responsible environmental stewardship are not just buzz words but are part of the DNA of how we strive to conduct ourselves each and every day.” — Bob Wanzel
July 2015
ENVIRONMENTALRESPECT.com
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