Making Life Easy

Ottawa Lake Co-op Elevator choses AgTrax software for its ease of use

As a full-service agricultural retailer dealing in fertilizer, chemicals, feed,seed, and grain, Ottawa Lake Co-op Elevator’s focus is on service, according to Scott Wahl, office manager and controller. The coop was founded in 1947 and has its headquarters in Ottawa Lake, MI, as well as a second location in Britton, MI, which opened in March 2023.

“We’ve built our business around being a one-stop shop for all our local farmers,” says Wahl, who has worked at Ottawa Lake since September 2016. “Our company’s core goal and message is ‘Service is our motto.’ We have always believed that farmers can get their products from any company, but they can’t always get the same service from everyone. We strive to be best-in-class with our service.”

Ottawa Lake Co-op has used AgTrax software technology since August 2019 to serve approximately 150 farmers in four counties, Wahl notes. “The main reasons we chose AgTrax over the numerous other companies we evaluated were ease of use and the seamless transition they provided from our previous software company,” Wahl comments. “Another great feature that drew us to AgTrax was how frequently they roll out updates. We are very happy with the performance of all the AgTrax software solutions and modules.”

One of his main jobs, Wahl says, is handling all the inbound and outbound grain at Ottawa Lake. “I absolutely love the commodity accounting program in the AgTrax program. It is by far the easiest commodity program I have used in the 20 years I’ve been working in the agricultural industry. AgTrax is constantly improving an already great product.”

AgTrax Software Solutions Ottawa Lake Co-op uses the following AgTrax solutions:

• TraxView: “We use TraxView for almost all of our day-to-day business,” Wahl says. “Specifically, we utilize the purchasing, invoicing, commodity accounting, accounts receivable, inventory, feed formulas, and prepay programs.”
• AgRemote® Scale Interface: “We have been very satisfied with the performance of the scale interface; the ease of use is very nice.”
• ODBC Compliant Driver: “We utilize this program for our year-end inventory and to build custom reports that aren’t currently in the AgTrax program. We don’t use this program very much but, when we do, it is a nice option.”
• OnlineAccess Web Portal: “We are getting our OnlineAccess account ready so that we can roll it out to our customers early this year.”
  AgTrax provides great customer service, Wahl reports. “One of the main things I like about their customer service is that they direct you to someone who specializes in the part of the program you’re having issues with. Customer support and follow- up has been truly responsive when we’ve contacted AgTrax.”