The Kanza Cooperative Association Annual Meeting will be held on April 2, 2020 at the Municipal Building, 117 W 3rd St., Pratt, KS. Doors open at 5 p.m. with dinner being served at 6 p.m. Business session and keynote speaker, Bruce Vincent, to follow immediately. Please RSVP to 1-800-546-5614, Extension 310.
Last year members decided to allow for voting by mail on director elections. Eligible voting members were sent a ballot in the mail the week of February 17. Voting members may submit their ballot in advance or vote in person at the annual meeting. Below are the candidates for the open positions in the Eastern District, Northern District and Southern Districts.
Director Candidate Biographies
Eastern District: Alvin Neville
Alvin Neville farms in the Colwich and Andale area, with additional ground in Harvey County and pasture in Butler County. Alvin and his wife Karla work together with their sons Brock and Cody to raise corn, soybeans, wheat, and grass hay on both dry and irrigated acres. They also have a cow calf operation. Daughter, Danielle, who works as an ER nurse at Wesley hospital, also helps. Alvin previously served on the Andale Board and was elected during the merger to represent the Eastern division on the Kanza Board. Alvin says, “I would appreciate your vote to serve and represent you for another term. I will continue to listen to your concerns and questions and get an answer back to you in a timely fashion as I have been doing. Thank you for considering me to represent you for another
term.”
Northern District: Gary Hornbaker
Gary Hornbaker grew up on the farm 10 miles northeast of Stafford, where he now lives. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Ag Economics from K-State, he returned to raise irrigated and dryland crops including wheat, alfalfa, milo, soybeans, corn and sunflowers. His operation also includes an Angus cowherd and backgrounding of steers through the winter and spring. Gary has served as chairman of both the Zenith and Kanza Coop boards. He is active in the community with the Church, Optimist Club, Community Theater, and serves on the East Cooper Township Board. Gary would like to work with management and the board to keep Kanza a leader in the agriculture industry while retuning a profit to the co-op’s members.
Southern District: Jason Howell
Jason Howell is a 5th generation farmer in Pratt County. He grows wheat, corn, soybean, milo and cotton. Jason has served on the Kanza board for three terms. He and his wife Pam have a daughter named Ruby (16), who represented Kanza at the Kansas Cooperative Council Youth Leadership Camp at Rock Springs this past July. Jason says, “My goal on this board is to provide the service our farmer and patrons need to run successful businesses. I would appreciate your vote for the director position.”