With just one hour of instruction, Steve Christner took charge of the Adams County Co-op's Web site more than four years ago. Today, he manages the same Web site for Harvest Land Co-op following the merger in 2001 of Adams County Co-op and Harvest Land Co-op Inc.

In addition to serving as Webmaster, Christner serves as office manager at the Monroe, IN, location and performs some risk and safety management duties along with operations support. “The original creation of the Web site was done by a person who we hired specifically to create the site. Then he gave me an hour of instruction, and that was the beginning of my new responsibility,” laughs Christner, who admits that he enjoys updating and fine-tuning the Web site.

“We've never gone through a complete revision,” Christner says, “but I'm continually updating the site one section at a time and adding new pages or features.”

The site features eight main pages plus a page devoted to each of the co-op's 31 branch locations. Branch location pages include the names and contact information of key employees, a list of available services, photos and driving directions.

Harvest Land Co-op's Web site functions as an information source for its customers. “The majority of our ‘more info requests’ are customers asking for additional information on services,” Christner says. “I retrieve all the requests to our Web site and then forward them on to the appropriate person who responds directly to the customer.”

As a full-service cooperative, Harvest Land Co-op offers custom application of dry and liquid fertilizers, crop protection products, seed, soil testing and GPS mapping, equipment rental and sales, lawn care products, building services, fuel, grain storage and commodity services.

“If there's a pole barn in our territory, Monroe's Building Department [a Harvest Land division] probably built it,” Christner says. “We remodel barns, build pole barns and garages as well as sell building materials.”

Harvest Land Co-op also operates four Energy Plus 24 C-stores in its territory.

Over the past four years, Christner has expanded the Web site by adding a photo gallery page, driving directions to each location, a safety newsletter, and a grain page with daily updates.

“As we become more involved in Harvest Land Co-op's YieldPro program and as that program develops, we hope to add a feature to the Web site that would allow customers an ‘ask the agronomist’ section,” Christner says. Online fuel ordering is another feature that Harvest Land is exploring.

He notes that the tough parts are to keep the site fresh with new information and features and to get other divisions to supply news items in a timely manner.

Harvest Land Co-op is based in Richmond, IN, and services six counties in eastern Indiana — Adams, Allen, Wells, Jay, Wayne and Randolph — and six counties in western Ohio — Darke, Miami, Preble, Butler, Hamilton and Montgomery.

Corn, soybeans, wheat and alfalfa constitute the area's major crops, with the majority of grain produced for commodity markets. A few growers also produce seed for Croplan Genetics.

Following the trend in agriculture, Harvest Land's customers continue to increase their farm size. “Our average farm is approximately 1,200 acres with fewer small farms every day,” Christner reports. “This is a change from the traditional farms of smaller scale.”

Harvest Land Co-op stands tough on homeland security and safety issues such as the proper handling and security of propane and fertilizer. “The general manger of Harvest Land Co-op puts safety first,” Christner stresses. “If something needs to be done, it gets done.”

The co-op's home page on its Web site features the latest threat condition from the Homeland Security Advisory System and a link to the National Homeland Security Knowledgebase.

Following the co-op's motto of safety first, the Web site also supports links to CDMS labels and MSDS information for crop protection products as well as MSDS information for petroleum products.

Visit Harvest Land Co-op's Web site at www.harvestlandcoop.com.

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