THE GARDEN CITY CO-OP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Talent & Partnership Coordinator
Annie Gerber is our Talent & Partnership Coordinator. Annie is a Garden City native, who has found value in southwest Kansas and what it has to offer others. Annie helps out GCC in finding talent to enhance the pipeline of our company and the ag industry. She also is developing relationships alongside our communities, schools and universities across our area. If you have any questions about working for GCC or building a relationship with us whether it is to your school, classroom or business. Contact her at 620-275-6161 or at agerber@gccoop.com
Job Titles:
- Grain Accounts Receivable
Job Titles:
- Petroleum Operations Support Specialist
Job Titles:
- Asst Secretary / Treasurer Dighton Area
Job Titles:
- Secretary
- Treasurer
- Secretary / Treasurer Deerfield Area
Clayton farms with his family North of Deerfield Kansas. Maddux Farms is a fifth generation multi-crop operation, on both irrigated and dryland acres.
After graduating valedictorian from Deerfield High School, Clayton attended Kansas State University where he earned a degree in Aeronautical Technology with a minor in Safety Studies. After college, Clayton worked for a short time as a flight instructor for Kansas State, and as a regional airline pilot, before returning home to farm.
Clayton and his wife Sarah live in Garden City Kansas.They have two sons, Carter and Roland.
Clayton became an Associate Director of the Garden City Co-op in December 2015 and Secretary / Treasurer in December 2017.
Job Titles:
- Strategic Business Operations Manager
Job Titles:
- Lowe Operations Assistant Manager
Job Titles:
- Sales Manager / Agronomist
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director Dighton Area
Dylan was raised in the Dighton area with a strong passion for agriculture. He now farms in Lane and Northern Finney County with his Father In-law and Brother In-law. It is a dryland operation that primarily raises wheat, corn, and milo.
Dylan and his wife Sarah have one son, Sage, and they are members of the St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Dighton.
Dylan joined as an associate in 2020 and was elected as a director of the board at the 2023 annual meeting.
Job Titles:
- Sales Manager / Agronomist
Eric was born and raised in southwest Kansas and grew up in Dodge City, KS. He graduated from Fort Hays State University with a degree in General Agriculture. Before coming to the Garden City Co-op, he worked for Crop Quest for 12 years as an agronomist and Division Manager. Eric came to the Garden City Co-op as a Sales Manager in October 2013 at our Plymell location.
Job Titles:
- Garden City Area Grain Manager / Maintenance Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Vice Chair
- Vice Chair Garden City Area
Gordon Drees was raised North East of Garden City. He attended Garden City High School and Kansas State University where he majored in Agricultural Technology Management and minored in Business. He worked in the grain industry after college and is now back helping with the family farm north east of Garden City. They raise wheat, corn and milo.
Gordon is a fifth generation farmer. Gordon and his wife, Kelly have three children: Cooper, Cody and Catie. They belong to the Trinity Lutheran Church.
Gordon served as an Associate Director of the Garden City Co-op between December 2011 and December 2013, and was elected to the Board of Directors, December 2014.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director of Grain Operations
Grant Geyer has been the Director of Grain Operations since August of 2023. He previously worked as the safety director from June 2016 to August 2023 and before that worked as the Grain Elevator Manager at Lowe.
He currently resides in Garden City, Kansas with his wife Landi, two children and two dogs. He is sports fan who loves the Royals and Chiefs and still plays recreationally when time allows. Born in Garden City and raised in Leoti, Kansas he is proud to live close to home and work as the Director of Grain Operations for the Garden City Co-op.
Job Titles:
- Owners of the Moore Grain Company
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Coach for Her Daughter 's Odyssey
- Human Resources / Administrative Services Manager
Holly attended Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, OK where she graduated with a B.S. degree in Psychology.
She began working for Sullivan Inc. in 1999 in Ulysses as scale help during wheat harvest in the summer. Cowan didn't intend to stay but the harvest temp help position turned into a full time job and she became more involved in grain accounting, accounts receivable, and accounts payables. ​While she was growing up, Cowan's parents had operated a custom harvest crew and the family would travel from Texas to North Dakota every summer; an experience that made an impact on Cowan and would ultimately lead to her staying instead of pursuing other career paths.
Sullivan, Inc. was purchased by GCC in 2006 and the GCC Crop Production accounting responsibilities were also added to Cowan's list of assigned tasks.
In 2019, Holly took over as the Human Resources and Administrative Services Manager upon the retirement of Caroline Duvall. Her twenty previous years in the accounting department has given her a lot of experience with the co-op, particularly in grain and crop production accounting.
Holly married her husband Daron, who also works in the ag industry, in 1998. They live in Ulysses with one daughter, Lily.
Holly is a coach for her daughter's Odyssey of the mind team, active in her 4-H projects and volunteers at her church. She also enjoys cooking, shopping and home projects. She will graduate with her Master's Degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Kansas State University December 2019.
Cowan states that the best part of working for the co-op is "The great people / coworkers and the farmers."
Job Titles:
- Branch Manager - Charleston
Job Titles:
- Customer Care Representative
Job Titles:
- Chief Operations Officer - Agronomy
Job Titles:
- CEO
- General Manager
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
Jeff Boyd grew up on a family grain farm north east of Garden City. He joined the Garden City Co-op in April of 2002 after graduating from Kansas State University with a Bachelors in Ag Business. He is the General Manager / CEO, taking over upon John McClelland's retirement in November 2018. Jeff previously held the role of IT Manager as well as operation, sales, and accounting roles in the crop production, petroleum, and grain departments, and most recently was the Chief Financial Officer. This diverse background enables Jeff to understand the needs of the member farmers of the Garden City Co-op. He also represents the Garden City Co-op on the board of Windriver Grain, LLC.
Jeff earned his MBA from Colorado State University in May of 2013. Jeff is married to Cassy Boyd and they have one son, Braeden.
Job Titles:
- Petroleum Sales / Operations
Jeff Herald farms in the Hooker, Oklahoma area, where he raises dryland wheat and milo in addition to having a cow/calf operation. He is the fourth generation to farm NW of Hooker.
Jeff and his wife Kathy have four children: Brent (& wife Kayla), Grace, Ema, and Roy. They have two grandchildren: Paisley and Clara. They also attend the Hooker Church of Christ.
Besides farming, Jeff enjoys following the activities of his children and grandchildren.
Jeff served on the Hooker Equity board for several years before merging with GCC. Jeff has had relatives that served Hooker Equity in many roles, including a great grandfather that was one of the early managers of the cooperative.
Jeff joined the GCC board upon the merger with Hooker Equity in December of 2022 to serve a one year term and the board voted to elect him as associate board director n December 2023.
Job Titles:
- Agronomy Accounting Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Vice President - Petroleum
Peebles comes to Garden City from Greeley, Colorado where he most recently was the Lead Energy Sales Representative for Agfinity, Inc. in Loveland. Prior to his role with Agfinity, he worked for United Cooperative in Wisconsin as a Cenex Lubricant Terminal Manager and Energy Sales Development Specialist. He also has experience as a Certified Energy Specialist for Cenex.
He brings over ten years of dedicated and results-driven experience, providing leadership and influence for the largest cooperatives in Wisconsin and Colorado. This cumulative experience has given him expertise in such areas as program & promotion development, profitable sales growth, pricing & margin management, communication and customer experience. Peebles attended the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Job Titles:
- Dighton Agronomy Operations Manager
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director Plymell Area
Joanna Schmeeckle is a 5th generation farmer that grew up in the Plymell area south of Garden City. Joanna was a 11 year 4H member and attended Garden City High School. After high school, Joanna graduated from Kansas State University majoring in Animal Science. Joanna is married to Brian Schmeeckle and together with their three children they farm Joanna's family's farm consisting of corn, milo, wheat, soybeans, camelina as well as custom farming and harvesting. Joanna and her daughters also breed and sell reining and cowhorses. The Schmeeckle's are members of Pierceville Church. Their children are Brady, Anna, and Jillian.
Joanna served as an associate in 2020 and joined the board in March 2021. (Board selections were delayed due to Covid-19.)
Job Titles:
- Garden City Area Grain Manager
Job Titles:
- Sales Manager / Agronomist
Job Titles:
- Agronomy Purchasing & Logistics Manager
Job Titles:
- Agronomy Warehouse Manager
Job Titles:
- Branch Manager - Rock Island
Job Titles:
- CHS Certified Energy Specialist
Josh works for CHS, serving our members petroleum needs, providing support with any questions and providing expertise with CHS products and services.
Job Titles:
- Ulysses & Hooker Area Grain Manager
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
Kendra is a born-and-raised Garden City girl. She graduated from Garden City High School in 2013 and was involved in 4-H, cheerleading and music. She attended Garden City Community College and received an Associates' Degree in Agriculture in December 2014. She then attended Fort Hays State University where she received her Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture, specializing in Agronomy in December 2016. Throughout her tenure in college she worked as a student assistant to the Agronomy division at Kansas State Research and Extension in both Garden City and Hays. Kendra joined the Garden City Co-op in January of 2017. She currently is assisting the Ag Technology department as a Precision Ag Specialist.
Job Titles:
- Corn & Soybeans Merchandiser
Kevin was raised in Lakin, graduating from Lakin High School in 1981. In 1975 he began working with his family and local farmers in custom harvesting and farming, as a laborer and mechanic as well as a truck driver. Kevin's first harvest job was operating combine at the age of 12. He traveled with the crew in the summers, cutting wheat from Oklahoma to South Dakota and worked fall harvests at home in Lakin, Kansas. Weekends between harvests were spent farming and maintaining pivot irrigation systems on a farm South of Lakin.
Following graduation from Lakin High School, Kevin attended pipe welding school. In the spring of 1982, after building a temporary feedyard for cattle that were starving on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Farmington, New Mexico, he spent the summer harvesting a large irrigated wheat and pinto bean operation south of Valentine, Texas on the Mexican border. Kevin returned to Farmington, NM in the G C C E m p l o y e e s | 11 fall where he helped his father, who was partner in a firm contracting with Navajo Agricultural Products Industry (NAPI) harvesting Barley, HRW and HRS Wheat, Pinto and Navy Beans, Corn, Potatoes and Indian Ricegrass Seed.
Kevin began his employment with the Garden City Co-op in March of 1986, accepting a position as an elevator operator at the Wolf Elevator, becoming branch manager in 1987 and transferring to the main office as a grain merchandiser in 1997.
Kevin is married to Diane and they have a son, two daughters, a son-in-law and three grandchildren.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director Plymell Area
Kyle Deaver was raised in the Plymell area just south of Garden City. He attended Garden City High School and then furthered his education at Garden City Community College where he earned a certificate in agriculture in 2015. Kyle has been very active in agriculture since a young age, being involved in 4-H, FFA, Farm Bureau and is currently serving on the Finney Co. Fair board and has been an associate director on the GCC Board of Directors since 2018. He is the third generation to serve on the Garden City Coop Board, following in the footsteps of his grandfather (Harvey Richards; 1984-1995) and his father (Mike Deaver; 2004-2015).
Kyle is a third generation farmer on his family's farm south of Garden City, where he farms alongside his dad. Together they raise both irrigated and dryland wheat, corn, soybeans, milo, triticale and alfalfa in Finney, Gray and Haskell counties.
Kyle married Aleasha (Krehbiel) in June of 2015. They have two children together, Harper (4) and Jace (2).
Kyle served as an associate from Dec 2018 - Dec 2021 and joined the board December 2022.
Job Titles:
- Sales Manager / Agronomist
Kyle grew up in the small town of Hanston, KS. He graduated from Fort Hays State University with a Bachelors Degree in Crop Science and a Minor in Chemistry. Upon completion of college in 2001, he accepted a job with Crop Quest out of Garden City, KS. He worked there from May 2001 till September 2008, at which time he accepted a job with the Garden City Co-op as a Sales Manager at Lowe.
Job Titles:
- Dighton Area Grain Manager
Lindy grew up south of Garden City and has always been involved in agriculture. She graduated from Kansas State University in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Economics. After college, Lindy spent almost three years with Cargill in grain origination, located first in Overland Park, Kansas and then in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado. Lindy and her husband Matt knew that they eventually wanted to end up back in western Kansas. When the opportunity came up in Spring 2020 for them to move to Matt's family farm south of Dighton, they jumped at the chance. Lindy works out of our Dighton office, and is excited about offering her perspective to serve farmers' risk management needs
Logan was born and raised in Scott City, Kansas where he was active in 4-H and FFA. Logan first discovered his passion for agriculture while working for a local farmer throughout his high school years. He attended Butler County Community College and Fort Hays State University, majoring in Agriculture Business. After college, Logan worked for a Scott City farmer where his responsibilities included a variety of tasks from running farm machinery to making decisions involved in crop production, to caring for livestock. Logan started for the Co-op in January 2012.
Job Titles:
- Data Analyst
- Data Analyst / SAFETY
Job Titles:
- Sales Manager / Agronomist
Mark Vance grew up in Dighton, attending Dighton schools before attending Fort Hays State, where he graduated in 1999 with a B.S. in Agronomy.
Following college, Mark worked for a crop consulting company in the Norton, Kansas area for four years. He then moved to Scott City to be in the Co-op ag retail business in 2003. Mark joined the Garden City Co-op in 2015 and is the Agronomy Sales Manager for the Dighton area.
Mark is married to his wife, Nicolle, and they have three children: Megan, Cody and Cauy. He spends his free time chasing his kids all over for different sporting events, hunting and team roping.
Job Titles:
- Plymell Operations Assistant Manager
Job Titles:
- Dighton Operations Assistant Manager
Job Titles:
- IT Manager
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Programmer
Michael Davis graduated from Southwestern Oklahoma State University with a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics. He then attended Texas A&M University's Master in Visualization Sciences program.
Michael began working with the Garden City Co-op in 2010 as the IT Developer. In 2016 he became the IT Manager where he and his staff are responsible for the current and future technological needs of the Co-op.
Michael resides in Scott City with his wife Alicia and three daughters, Payton, Piper and Preslee.
Job Titles:
- Energy Risk & Pricing Analyst
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Vice President - Grain
Wisner comes to Garden City from Phillipsburg, Kansas where he most recently was the Director of Purchasing for Prairie Horizon Agri-Energy.
He brings a diversified background of buying, selling and hedging a variety of raw materials, including grains and energies. He is familiar with fundamental and technical market drivers and how to apply strategies to maximize current market trends. He is recognized for his skills in negotiation, market consulting and ability to communicate with key stakeholders.
He also brings experience as a GAP Partnerships expert negotiator, education with StoneX - Hedging with Futures and Options and he sat on the Phillipsburg City Council from 2018 to 2020.
Wisner holds a B.S. in Economics and a Master's in Agribusiness from Kansas State University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Grain Originator
Job Titles:
- Branch Manager - Pierceville
Job Titles:
- Customer Care Representative
Job Titles:
- Grain Accounting Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Branch Manager - Milepost
Job Titles:
- Sales Manager / Agronomist
Ryan was raised in Dodge City, KS. He graduated from Fort Hays State University with a Bachelors Degree in Crop Science in 2001. Before coming to the Garden City Co-op, he interned with Crop Quest from 1998 thru 2000. He then worked as a full-time Agronomist from 2001 thru 2006. Ryan came to the Garden City Co-op in October 2006 and is now a Sales Manager at Lowe.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director Ulysses Area
Shane Browning graduated from Deerfield High School. He moved to Garden City and attended Garden City Community College where he studied Science and business management.
Shane is married to Kay Lynn Browning and they have two children: Parker and Hailee.
Shane is a first generation farmer who moved his family to Ulysses in 2008 to help his father-in-law on their fourth Generation farm. They farm dryland and irrigated acres of wheat, corn and milo and run a cow/calf herd.
Shane enjoys spending time with his family, hunting, camping and fishing.
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Safety Director
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing & Communications
Job Titles:
- Member of the LEADERSHIP Team
- Vice President - Agronomy
Trevor grew up working on the family farm in Ingalls, KS. He attended Kansas State University, graduating in 2008 with a Degree in Agronomy. Throughout college, he interned with Crop Quest and accepted a full-time job with them upon graduating and worked there from 2008 to 2011. Trevor then took a position with Syngenta as the Western Kansas Area Agronomist working there for just a short time before coming to the Garden City Co-op as a Sales Manager in May 2013 at our Plymell location and assumed the role of Vice President in June 2021.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of the Garden City Co - Op
- Chairman Plymell, Friend & Deerfield Areas
Tyler Hands was raised in the Plymell community just South of Garden City. After graduating from Garden City High School, Tyler attended Kansas State University where he majored in Milling Science and Management and minored in Leadership Studies. After graduation, Tyler worked for three years at Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is now back helping out on the family farm south of Garden City and south of Deerfield. They raise irrigated wheat, milo, corn and soybeans and also dryland wheat and milo.
Tyler is the fifth generation to help farm the family farm and the fourth generation to serve on the board, starting with his great-grandfather, V.V. Hands, then his grandfather, Fielding Hands, followed by his father, Greg Hands.
Tyler and his wife, Amanda, have three daughters - Macy, Gentry and Lainey. They attend the First United Methodist Church. Tyler also enjoys hunting and fishing.
Tyler became an Associate Director of the Garden City Co-op in December 2010. He became a Director in December 2012 and Chairman in December 2017.
Job Titles:
- Branch Manager - Garden a / B
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director Holcomb Area
Zion is a fourth generation farmer that grew up north of Holcomb and attended Holcomb High School. After graduating, he attended Fort Hays State University where he majored in Agronomy. After receiving his degree, he returned to the family farm located in the Garden city area. It is an irrigated and dry land operation that raises corn, milo, wheat, and sunflowers. He and his wife, Hannah, have one daughter, Nina.