Our Address: 373 Collins Road NE Suite 208 Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402 Midwest Strategic Investments, Inc. (MSI) is a full service commodity brokerage firm specializing in agricultural risk management and marketing strategies. We are located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the heart of agricultural production and processing.  MSI’s main objective is to help clients spread, transfer, and limit risk from the cash markets and transfer it to the futures and options markets.  We have extensive experience with a broad range of clients, ranging from phases in early production to the retail stages of a commodity.  MSI brokers have a strong commitment to communicating directly with clients on a regular basis to achieve specific risk management goals.   Services offered:                                   ·        Risk Management Recommendations                                   ·        Marketing Plan Development                                   ·        Hedge Brokering using Futures/Options                                   ·        Licensed Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) firm.         Jim Nemitz was born and raised on a grain and livestock farm in western Iowa. In 1987 Jim graduated from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa with degrees in Ag Education and Economics. Following graduation he accepted a position as a registered commodity broker/marketing advisor with a commodity firm in Des Moines, Iowa. In 1992 he accepted a position as Sales and Marketing Manager in the feed industry specializing in the swine industry to develop the markets in North, Central and South America. In 1996 Jim accepted a position with a premix feed company as Swine Products Manager and was later named Manager of Risk Management.  In 2000 he co-founded Midwest Strategic Investments with Bill Havertape. From 2000-2004 Jim's livestock market projections and comments were heard weekly on Mark Oppold's nationally syndicated radio programs, "The Bottom Line" and "The Week Ahead."  Currently you can catch MSI's market comments on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and on "MSI Market Minutes", a weekly half-hour program that airs Saturday mornings on WMT 600AM. Bill Havertape was born and raised on a grain and livestock farm in northeastern Iowa. In 1987 he graduated from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa with degrees in Agricultural Studies and Economics. Following graduation he spent a year as a clerk on the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. In the spring of 1988 he accepted a position as a commodity broker/analyst with a Des Moines, Iowa commodity brokerage firm. In the fall of 1992 he accepted a position as a broker/analyst with Securities Corporation of Iowa in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and in 1993 was named Vice President of Commodity Investments. In 2000 he co-founded Midwest Strategic Investments with Jim Nemitz.  From 1995 to 2004 Bill's grain market commentary was heard weekly on Mark Oppold's nationally syndicated radio programs "The Week Ahead" and "The Bottom Line".  Currently you can catch MSI's market comments on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and on "MSI Market Minutes", a weekly half-hour program that airs Saturday mornings on WMT 600AM. Brad Ohrt was born and raised on a grain and livestock farm in northeastern Iowa.  In the summer of 1979 he accepted a position with John Deere as a machinist in the Gearing Division.  Brad attended college while he was working at John Deere, and graduated in 1980 from Hawkeye Community College with a degree in Tool & Die Making.  In 1981 Brad returned to the family farm, joining his father and two brothers, to manage the farrow to finish hog operation, custom harvesting of seed corn, and the production of soybeans, commercial corn, and seed corn.  In February 2004, the family discontinued the hog operation after 128 years of being in the business.  Brad continues to take an active roll in the management of the daily operations of the family farm.  Brad has over 30 years experience in marketing and 24 years experience in futures trading. Melissa Funk grew up in Overland Park, Kansas and moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1997.  She has worked for Midwest Strategic Investments since February 2004 and is a licensed commodity broker.  Melissa recently lent her voice to the highly acclaimed radio commercial for MSI and is looking forward to recording more commercials in the future. Dave Hocker is an Iowa State University graduate and after graduation he returned to the family farm to partner with his father in 1976.  Together they operated a diversified farrow to finish swine farm, feed feeder cattle and crop farmed corn, soybeans and hay.  In 1981 David purchased his father's interest and began producing F1 Yorkshire-Landrace females and terminal boars with high health under the National SPF association.  In 1994 David sold the sows and converted to a wean to finisher operation and expanded production by hiring custom feeding by other producers.  In 2001 he was employed by Sioux Nation as a production specialist and helped grow a network of producers delivering SEW producers with SEW finishers.  In 2003 David was employed by Unique Swine Systems as regional manager to help launch a new company to network pork producers.  In October of 2004, David joined with Bill Havertape and Jim Nemitz to create Overall Ag Solutions, Inc., which is a consulting and facilitating firm helping to implement agreements and business structures for producers and suppliers in the pork industry throughout the U.S. and Canada. John Morgan was born and raised in Dallas, TX where he was first exposed to farming agriculture, working summers on his family's farm in Tyler, Texas where his grandfather farmed cotton, and corn.  It was his first exposure to the East Texas Oil and Gas Markets at their height.  He graduated from Hastings College in Nebraska in 1997, and his first job out of college was working as a well water specialist to central Nebraska Farmers and Ranchers.  In 1999 he returned to Dallas to work as a broker to Texacoma Oil and Gas, a private drilling company, during which time he saw the completion of dozens of oil and gas wells throughout the southwest.  John joined Prodigy Oil and Gas, a fast growing private oil and gas drilling company, in October of 2001.  While he was there he was able to provide his expertise and knowledge to a large client base.  In 2003 he moved to the heart of commodity industry to Eastern Iowa, and worked for a firm in Waterloo before joining Midwest Strategic Investments in early 2005.          Rebecca Lafferty was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and did not have the privilege of growing up on a farm.  Her love for animals drew her to a farm in northern South Dakota where she instantly fell in love with the lifestyle and the people.  It was at this point that she knew she wanted a career in agriculture.  She graduated from South Dakota University in 1991 with a Bachelors and Masters degree, with an emphasis on farm management.  She served as a County Extension Agent for a short period of time, before becoming the Executive Director for the South Dakota Soybean Association.  Her travels with SDSA took her to Washington D.C. and to Pierre, S.D. to lobby on behalf of farmers and the soybean industry.  In 2001, she accepted a position with a mid-western company as a marketing consultant, helping farmers develop and implement marketing plans, with a focus on profitability.  She resigned her position in February of 2007 to pursue other interests.  She is a licensed commodity broker.