The week of July 28 is a big, busy week for CVA and an even busier week for the interns! With a new facility open house to intern team-building activities, there is much to look forward to. The Courtland Hub Open House is set for Monday, July 28. The event will showcase the new facility, with opportunities for attendees to enjoy trolley tours. Stops along the tour include the Agronomy Plant, Fuel Site, Office and Scale, Hoop Building and the Grain Facility. This facility includes industry-leading technology, onsite grading lab for state testing, and the latest safety features: all aspects designed to serve and protect the employees, growers, and community members who will use the facility. The Intern Ag Olympics will be held Wednesday, July 30, in Royal, NE. This is a day of friendly competition as teams of interns compete for a $500 scholarship. The Intern Olympics serve as an opportunity for the interns to work as a team one last time before their internship ends. August 1 marks the end of the summer internships! Interns will travel to York, NE to share their capstone presentations with the CVA Senior Leadership Team. This presentation is an chance for the interns to share what they learned and accomplished over the summer, as well as show the senior team how the internship program, as a whole, is doing. This event will serve as the last day of summer internships! CHECK OUT THE CVA SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES THE WEEK OF JULY 28 TO SEE MORE! 2025 Central Valley Ag interns at the Intern Kickoff, May 27 in York, Nebraska. JulyNEWSLETTER Wrapping Up Internships
Clinton Foster, an H-2A worker from Cape Town, South Africa, has been working in the States under the program for 6 years, one of those with CVA. He began working in the U.S. as a referral from his brother-in-law, at the Dehy Alfalfa Mill in Lyons, Nebraska, and then began working at CVA in May 2024. “I can’t even say that I recruit for this,” said Newlin, “because we have our guys who are so loyal to us. And what’s beautiful is if I do have additional openings or additional visas, the guys want to bring their families over. So, they’re giving me references of uncles, of sons, of fathers, of friends.” Clinton got his start at CVA through a friend, also on the H-2A program, who had put him in touch with Newlin. Central Valley Ag is a leader in the area of H-2A Temporary Agricultural Workers, according to Paula Newlin, Talent Development Manager in charge of the program at CVA. H-2A is a temporary Visa program that allows for agriculture-based companies and businesses to bring in foreign workers to help with seasonal work. “What the [program] means to CVA is this: first, it allows relief to our domestic workers that are so loyal to us,” Newlin said. “It’s eighty individuals we’re bringing in to help do the work, because we cannot find labor in the states. Second, we are impacting the lives of these guys coming over, who don’t have these opportunities in South Africa.” “CVA, they’re very transparent, and they let you know pretty early, that here’s your contract, here’s your stuff. Before your holiday even started, you’re already organized for next year. They’re very well established, and I only hear good things about them. That’s why I said a lot of people that I did work with at the alfalfa mill have transferred here.” CVA offers different length working “seasons” within the H-2A program: one at 9 months, starting in February and ending in December, and another at 6 months, running during fall harvest in Region 10. Once the working season for that year is over, H-2A workers have to leave the country until the next season begins. For Clinton, these 3 months are a vacation. Clinton standing in front of the new Courtland Hub grain facility and hoop building. Photo by Bella Bowen. Beautiful scenery in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Photo by Bella Bowen. FROM CAPE to Courtland STORY BY BELLA BOWEN 9,000 miles of travel: Clinton Foster’s H-2A experience from the cape of South Africa to the rural Midwest. “Basically, it’s our holiday, vacation.,” he said. “Before we go home, we plan our bookings and stuff, because obviously you don’t see your family for nine months, you don’t want to go home and work, so you try to spend as much time with them as possible. My daughter’s still at school when I get home, so we go watch her sports and she does netball, cricket, soccer, whatever sport you get that time of the year, that’s what we go do.” Clinton works in the agronomy division, originally out of the Beloit location, but now works in Courtland. Handling chemicals, filling trucks to spray fields or deliver chemicals to growers, has been a large learning experience for Clinton, who had little to no experience with such chemicals prior. “There’s a lot of equipment that you learn to drive, you know, machinery that you’ve never used before,” Foster said. “You learn about a lot of chemicals that you’ve never worked with and the severity of them, how dangerous they are.” Aside from working with chemicals and filling spray rigs and trucks, Clinton also works in other agronomy-related facets at CVA. Helping with maintenance and filling in as needed is another side to Clinton’s work at CVA. Currently, he is working at the corn bunkers, filling trucks to bring corn over the new Courtland Hub. Central Valley Ag has embraced the H-2A program to the fullest, holding close the value these employees bring to the company, the culture, and the communities. “This program hits all of our core values,” said Newlin. “I talk about that a lot; how important our core values are to CVA. This program, for me, hits every single one of those values, and I believe that to be true for CVA.” The value of the cooperative spirit seen throughout CVA is not lost to H-2A employees. “For me, it’s about teamwork,” said Foster. “Understanding what the customers want, building good and long-lasting relationships with the customers. The customers need us, FIND PICTURES AND DETAILS OF CLINTON’S EXPERIENCES ON THE NEXT PAGE! and we need customers. That’s why it’s all about teamwork, being a unit where you work all together, no individual performances.” The deep ties to community seen throughout the culture at Central Valley Ag are also strong within this program. “These guys have become my family,” Newlin said. “I mean, we talk all the time and not just me, but their locations. There’s been weddings in South Africa and some of the location managers or people they work with, they fly over to go to it. I just think that’s so awesome. They spend Christmases and Thanksgiv
2025 CVA PHOTO CONTEST RESULTS The 8th annual CVA Photo Contest winners have been selected! There was a total of 149 submissions over the length of the contest, from 59 participants. There were many incredible entries this year. The 5 contest winners are Axie Shrack (People’s Choice), Roger Richters (Farming in Action), Peittyn Johnson (Black and White), Clinton Foster (Ag Close Up), and Julie Lacy (Grit). Each winner was awarded a $100 cash gift card. Keep your eye out for these images on CVA material and posts in the future! Next year’s contest will open in the summer, with new categories! Farming in Action People’s Choice Award GritAg Close Up Black & White Clinton’s wife and daughter on a trip to the U.S., visiting a Dehy Alfalfa Mill, where Clinton used to work. Photo by Clinton Foster. Photo by Clinton Foster of a lightning strike behind the Beloit elevators in May 2025. Clinton, his wife, and daughter. Clinton during his time at the Dehy Alfalfa Mill. Photo by Clinton Foster at the NEW Courtland Hub! Central Valley Ag has a brand-new location to showcase! Standing tall in Courtland, KS, the CVA Courtland Hub features state-of-the-art facilities and technology design to support and serve member-owners, customers and community for generations to come. Photo by Bella Bowen. Courtland Hub
Available to you is special employee-only store with exclusive apparel from our partnerships with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Kansas State University, and Iowa State University, as well as gear celebrating the International Year of Cooperatives — all available in adult and youth sizes, with warm and cool season clothing options. This is your chance to gear up with high-quality CVA-branded apparel that showcases your co-op pride, your favorite university, and our commitment to the cooperative system. Purchases made through this employee exclusive storefront cannot be paid for with yearly apparel allowances. Store open from July 21 to August 1. YEAR OF THE COOPERATIVEATHLETIC PARTNERSHIPS ADULT ADULT YOUTH YOUTH APPAREL STOREEmployee