System.Threading.Tasks.Task`1[Microsoft.AspNetCore.Html.IHtmlContent]

Where it all begins

I’m spending my last rotation at the Agricultural division, the starting position of Lantmännen’s value chain, from field to fork. Simultaneously my trainee colleagues and I are looking for future positions within the group and soon we will take our first real step into a career at Lantmännen.

Right now we are in the middle of harvesting season and it’s really exciting times to be positioned at the Agricultural division. Especially since it looks like we will have the biggest harvest in 25 years. The harvest phenomenon is difficult to put into words, but I think our Logistics manager described it very accurately: “It is exactly like Christmas, only completely different”. Just like anyone in the Christmas business you only have a few weeks to sell your products, but a whole year to produce them. During harvest season we only have a few week to produce but a whole year to deliver. I wonder whose business is the toughest!

To paint the picture for you Lantmännen has received 1.7 million tons of grain so far…. In comparison a fully loaded truck can carry 36 tons, so the total amount is more than 47’000 fully loaded trucks! Incredible isn’t it?

I’m positioned at the Feed department where I work with a model to simulate pricing and get a better follow up for our fixed price contracts. Never did I imagine when I studied mechanical engineering that I would be working with animal feed and especially not to find it so exiting. It’s a high risk low margin business where it’s critical to keep track on commodity prices and their forecasts – Just like any stockbroker! Additionally it seems as if our customers are just as or perhaps even more interested in nutrition and proteins facts as if they were managing the diet for bodybuilders.

I started this project by spending two days at Lantmännen’s “feed days” in Jönköping where I learned more than I could remember about animal feed and its business. I got to participate in Lantmännen’s launch of our new cattle feed, meet our sales team and saw this funny spectacle about our current market situation:

 teater

Our sales managers put on a show to explain the current market stuation
in an entertatining way

Ebba and I just got back from a road trip in the southern parts of Sweden where we got to see Skåne’s fantastic countyside and visit some of our agricultural plants. In Eslöv we saw the grain reciving and took a tour at our seed plant. After Eslöv we went to Åhus and visited the animal feed production plant. We got a very warm welcome and it was facinating to see these extremly large volumes being processed.

The plants are so big that I couldn’t fit them into a picture with my camera, but I managed to capture some of it at least.

eslöv

Seed plant in Eslöv

åhus

Feed production in Åhus

Next up is our last training seminar with the trainee group, three really nice and interesting days somewhere in the outskirts of Stockholm. I’m really looking forward to meet everyone again and hear what they have planned for the future.

My best to you all

Markus