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SW WI | I usually don't make negative comments on AgTalk but since this is about Premier Coop, that struck a nerve. Or a lot of nerves. Use to buy 100% of our seed, chemical, fertilizer, gasoline, diesel and LP from them. Service continued to get worse and worse every year. The following is my first hand experiences with them:
1. They brought out a Big A to spread lime and the shift lever kept breaking in half. I had to reweld it back for them until it broke in another spot.
2. Use to hire them to spray, they would consistently forget to spray fields. Run out of chemical with 10 acres to go and "call it good enough" and not tell me about it. Used wrong chemicals at the wrong time and severely damaged corn crop.
3. They forgot to clean out sprayer that was spraying corn when they came here to spray my beans. Killed a perfect 90 foot swath of beans. Happened to be the year when FSA took pics and they counted the 90 foot swath of dead beans as it's own field.
4. I got mad with their incompetent sprayer applicators and bought a sprayer but bought the chemicals from them. Prepaid all chemicals and then they bring me 4 year old Warrent that had settled out and was a tar like substance. Impossible to get it stirred into suspension.
5. Prepaid all chemicals in winter. Come summer they ran out of the products that I had Prepaid. They never did bring those products out. Ended up still having over 8K worth of credit on account because they ran out of products before they brought mine out.
6. Prepaid seed in October. Come next spring they bring my treated beans out in a tender, but they were not the variety of beans I had ordered and paid for. I have some farms that struggle with SDS and these beans had a terrible SDS score. They refused to take the wrong beans back because they were treated, even though they were the ones who treated the wrong beans.
7. Prepaid fertilizer in the fall. A month goes by and Premier calls and says that dry fertilizer went up in price and that I need to pay an additional 5K for the price increase. I told them no, absolutely not because I had already Prepaid for it and Premier has already cashed my check. But they still argued about it.
8. Prepaid all LP in July for drying corn in the fall. We were roughly half done with corn harvest. I was unloading wet corn at a bin, Premier LP truck comes in. Driver started yelling/swearing at me about "I come here every 3-4 days, when is this BEEP BEEP BEEP corn going to be BEEP dry!?" It was at that moment when they lost all my LP business. Yes, let's go swearing and yelling at a prepay customer, that will make him happy. I always called for LP 24 hours in advance, it wasn't like I always ran out then called.
9. Prepaid all diesel in December. Then Premier decided to go to only one diesel delivery truck to "better serve our customers". I was making hay, called Monday morning and told them to bring out diesel any day this week. They said "nope, can't do that. Our diesel delivery truck isn't in your area this week. We hope to get to you by the middle of next week". I told them that I had already paid for it and would like it delivered within 5 days, but nope.
10. I was spreading fertilizer with a buggy. Called for more fertilizer and they told me "no problem, tender truck will be there in 1 hour". Perfect, sounds good. 3 hours later no tender truck, so I called and asked what's going on. The tender truck was at an intersection loaded with my fertilizer in town, went to take off, dumped the clutch and driveshaft snapped. Truck sitting there dead in the water. Had to be towed to a parking lot, then they unloaded it into another truck and brought it out.
11. They run pure junk equipment that consistently breaks.
12. I called for dry fertilizer to be brought out. Truck shows up, goes to swing out the auger and the entire discharge auger falls off the truck and lands on the ground.
13. I called them and told them I was done spreading fertilizer and they could pick up the buggy. They send 2 people out in a truck and back up to the buggy. Neither one of them could figure out how a jack works. They stared at it for 20 minutes and then just drove away and left the buggy in my driveway. Yes I could have helped them, but I was really enjoying the comedy show.
14. Brought out liquid starter fertilizer in a nurse wagon with broken shackles dragging when they pulled in the driveway.
15. Brought out 6 ton of hay fertilizer in a buggy with a flat tire. I had to call them and make them come bring a spare tire so I could go spread. Driver that brought buggy out somehow didn't notice a huge flat tire.
16. They were spraying 2nd pass corn here. I was eating lunch in the house and happened to look out the window at the sprayer. I could see the spray mist stop....then start....then stop....then start. They were using an old wore out 854 Rogator that had wires loose everywhere on that machine. So any little bump, wires would come loose to the solenoids on the shut offs and it would quit spraying. Applicator didn't notice his pressure jumping all over and just kept driving until I stopped him. Did I mention that they love junk equipment yet??
17. They were spraying here and had a main supply hose come off the tank feeding the pump. Applicator didn't have a screwdriver to tighten the clamp so he just slid the hose back on. Then the hose blew off again 5 feet later. Did you know that if you loose a couple hundred gallon of spray solution in 1 spot that no crops or weeds will grow there for about 5-6 years?
18. They were here spraying 2nd pass corn another time. Dark clouds rolled in and applicator kept going. Then it started raining and just kept on spraying. Obviously the rain made the ground wet and tacky. He kept spraying in the rain until the sprayer slid sideways on a hill and the boom went through my fence and broke wires and bent posts.
19. The last time I stepped in their door was to finalize chemical plans and prepay chemicals and next year's 32% needs. They left me a price sheet at my farm the prior week about what different chemical plans would run and clearly stated that those prices were good for 1 month. I go to prepay and all chemicals had magically jumped in price, not at all what my sheet they gave me said. I went directly to the manager there and let him know exactly how I felt about this. Then he comes up with different prices from the sheet and salesman. I already had a check made out to Premier but didnt put the dollar amount in before I got there. I ripped the check up in front of the manager, said some more thoughts I had about the place. Hopped in the truck and left and never looked back. I try really hard to not burn bridges, but I sure didn't care about that on that day. Years of frustration with that place, and I finally had enough.
These are the issues that are coming to my mind. I'm sure there are more that I can't think of at the moment.
I use to have an awesome agronomist there. He was super smart and knowledgeable, but everyone else there would drop the ball.
I absolutely hate, and I mean hate Premier Coop with a passion. They always tried sell me feed. No way was I going to let them screw up the livestock side of the farm as bad as the crops. Extremely happy to not deal with that place anymore.
I have switched to Untied Coop and could not be happier. Very easy going guys, best prices around by far and the service is 2nd to none. I just can't believe how much better the service is with United.
Edited by Ih7110 1/1/2026 14:38
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Premier cooperative in southeast Wisconsin opinions
