Lloyd Godtland will be honored Friday, February 16

Lloyd Godtland will be honored on his last day of work at the Gully Tri-Coop on Friday, February 16. They will have cake, donuts and coffee from 10:00 am to 2:00 p.m. at the Fertilizer plant on “Lloyd’s Retirement Day”. 

Lloyd has worked there for 38 years starting in the spring of 1980. At that time it was just the gas station and fertilizer plant together. Kenny Johnson was the General Manager who asked him to work as a floater driver. 

He was working construction and he thought it was a good idea to be able to be home with his wife Linda and the girls.

Bob Olson was the manager at the fertilizer plant and there were two Terragator floaters. He starting driving one and Harvey Carlson drove the other one. The next spring there was a new manager with Alan Van de Streek and Rick Netterland was the Agronomy Manager. Lloyd was a floater driver with Ron Hanson. Other general managers that he has worked with were Daryl Loe, George Rinde, Brian Klein and Russ Crawford.

By the spring of 1982 the Coop board offered Lloyd the job as Agronomy Manager which he held until last fall when they hired Nathan Preuss to be trained in by Lloyd on his retirement.

Lloyd went on to tell about changes at the Coop, “Equipment at the fertilizer plant has changed a lot over the years. When I started, we had spinner spreaders with no foam markers or GPS. In the mid 80’s a Loral floater with 60 ft. booms and foam markers for guidance system was purchased. At the present time we have Case IH floaters with 70 ft. booms & auto steer for guidance system.

For spraying, we started with 2 pickup sprayers with 40 ft. booms and no guidance system. Today we have 2 Case IH sprayers with 90 ft. booms and 1 John Deere sprayer with 120 ft. booms, all with GPS guidance systems & auto steer.

Most of the fertilizer used to come in by 100-ton rail cars and today is delivered by 26-ton hopper bottom semi-trucks. Ag chemicals were mainly 2,4-D, Atrazine and a few others. Today there is a wide variety of crop protection products. I have dealt with a wide variety of crops including Wheat, Corn, Barley, Alfalfa, Timothy, Grass hay, Flax, Oats, Onions, Carrots, Wild Rice, Soybeans, Sunflowers, Potatoes, Horseradish, and Cranberries.

Acreage has steadily increased over the years and at the present we cover about 32,000 acres of spraying and 44,000 acres of fertilizer spreading.

I hope everyone continues to remain loyal to and support the Gully Coop and the new Agronomy Manager, Nathan Preuss.”

In 2012 the Gully Tri Co-op purchased the Clearbrook Ag Service which has been a good asset for the Co-op.

In his retirement, Lloyd plans to spend more time with family. Wife-Linda; Daughter Melissa, husband Tom Senger and their children. Cole (20) who is a junior at UND majoring in Chemistry, Katie (19) who is a sophomore at UND majoring in Elementary Education, Keegan (13) 8th grade at Fosston High School and an avid wrestler and loves to hunt and fish. Daughter Jennifer and special friend, Jay who own the Clinic Bar & Grill in Lengby and their son Spencer who attends 6th grade at Magellson Elementary in Fosston.

Other plans include settling into their new home in Fosston, traveling, and spending time with kids and grand kids.

 

The day has come for Nathan Preuss, as he will be taking over for Lloyd Godtland after his retirement on Friday, February 16. He has been in training as the Agronomy Division Manager at the Gully Tri Coop Association. Nathan has a long history in the agronomy business having done everything from running equipment & sales to business operations.

He came from central Iowa where he was the Agronomy Supervisor for a privately-owned business called Van Diest Supply Co.  Before working for Van Diest he worked in a few other roles as a location manager, regional manager and seed division manager.  He grew up in the cooperative business since he was a child, as his father worked for Cenex for many years managing local cooperatives.  It was this experience that he decided to get involved in learning the cooperative system.  He attended college at Southwest State University in Marshall, MN and Willmar Technical College in Willmar, MN where he received his degree in Agronomy.

When Gully Tri Coop relocated, the fertilizer plant in Clearbrook, they had a small area that could be used for a test plot and made the decision that any crop harvested there, the cash value would go to the local chapter of the FFA. This year they had soybeans there and Gully Tri Coop has donated the sale of the grain from the Clearbrook test plot to the FFA chapter at Clearbrook- Gonvick High School. 

He currently resides in Bemidji with his significant other, Amanda, and their four wonderful children ages 9, 10, 11 and 13. In his spare time he enjoy hunting, fishing, and spending time with Amanda and their family.