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Hello, my name is Noah, and I am from Peoria, a Junior majoring in Poultry Science at Mississippi State University. Before going on GFAI’s tour and job shadowing, I did not know much about how elevators make money or condition grain, so I decided to shadow Charlie, an Elevator manager at Akron Services’ Brimfield location, which has over 4 million bushels of storage capacity. The first day, he showed me around the facility and talked about how they store and sell grain, as well as sell dry fertilizer, operate a truck shop, truck wash, and store feed there. I watched him load semis bound for Pekin’s Alto ICP Ethanol plant. He told me about how most of the corn in Peoria County winds up there or at BioUrja in Peoria, another Ethanol Plant. He said that they ship corn to both of those places until they are done buying for the week, which usually happens on Thursday. Then on Fridays, they ship beans, which usually end up at ADM in Creve Coeur to be loaded on barges, but they will haul to whoever has the best prices. It was August, so Charlie was working on cleaning the bins out to get ready for fall, and moving corn around in one bin to make a funnel to put wet corn in once harvest starts before it can be dried. He told me Brimfield was Akron’s elevator that had to store the carryover corn this fall that farmers still retained ownership of. The next year the elevators would rotate on who had to store the carryover grain.
The second day, he was still loading trucks bound for Pekin, meanwhile the maintenance man was working on replacing a guardrail on top of the cat walk above one of the dryers. It was impressive to me how he could weld a heavy piece of steel like that at a hundred feet in the air. Charlie talked about grain bin safety as well and how he does not let anyone go in a bin except him, and he has someone outside in case something goes wrong. We also talked about how trucks have to be loaded in all kinds of weather, and how he works long hours in the fall to make sure farmers can dump their grain and get back to harvesting. At the end of my second day, I talked to the truck dispatcher because I was curious how he manages so many trucks, including both company and outside trucks. He said he likes to keep the outside trucks coming to Akrons’ elevators, because they are paid by the load and can get loaded faster at the elevator, but sends most of the company drivers who are paid by the hour to farm jobs which can take longer. This way he can keep outside drivers happy and keep their business. In the end, it was a valuable experience to me, as I got to see what Charlie does on a daily basis, and got to see all of the hard work that goes into storing and shipping grain between arrival and whenever it is shipped to the end market. Hello, my name is Nicole Kerber. I am currently a junior at Illinois State University majoring in agribusiness. I am originally from Manlius, Illinois where I grew up around 4-H and FFA. I was blessed to receive the Illinois Grain and Feed Scholarship this year. This scholarship is very resourceful for college students not only for financial help but also networking through the Industry Immersion Tour.
I spent my fall workdays at River Valley Cooperative on the Illinois side. My first day, I shadowed Ryan Kerber the Grain Operations Manager where he took me to various grain elevators to check the status of grain being hauled out. All elevators were working to core out their bins and hoops. This process started in Princeville, IL where they took in 3.5 million bushels of corn. The market then dictates the amount that is able to be hauled out. Soybeans typically are hauled prior to corn at about 3-4 million bushels but due to tariffs only about half a million have been moved. Ryan communicates between the grain merchandisers and operators making sure the correct number of bushels are being moved at the appropriate time to settle contracts. During the drive to different locations, I got to understand how harvest was down about 20% due to disease pressure in corn along with coming off a record year. The second day, I shadowed Michelle Cooney a Grain Originator for River Valley at the Manlius, IL office. During harvest, she keeps a close eye on the market and contacts farmers when the market rallies. When scale tickets come in from terminals and River Valley locations, she checks which trucks are running and moisture content on the grain. If a ticket is incorrect, it is her job to go in to correct it and apply it to appropriate contracts. After harvest, she runs various reports about revenue for farmers for their upcoming tax appointments. Prospect work is also very important to her job title. She contacts local farmers that have showed interest with the company and works to show them why their services are superior. Her goal is to gain more customers, bushels, and contracts. Another important part of her job is getting the ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) papers signed by her customers. The ISCC is an independent, globally applicable certification system that supports sustainable, traceable and deforestation free supply chains. Overall, these workdays have significantly boosted my knowledge on the grain world, and I feel extremely blessed to have had the opportunity. I’d like to thank River Valley Cooperation for having me and giving me new insights within the agricultural system. Also, Illinois Grain and Feed Association for supplying me networking prospects. My first job shadow experience took place at the downtown Chicago office of CIH (Commodity & Ingredient Hedging, LLC). During my time at CIH, I had the opportunity to learn from the members of the Hog Team. I sat in on multiple calls with the company’s clients, where I learned what commodity hedging is, how it works, and why it is important. On one call, an Account Executive advised a client on what to do with their current positions and what potential positions they might consider taking in the future. The Account Executive explained how weather conditions in Brazil and Argentina could affect the market, and in turn, the client’s business. What I found most intriguing was that the client was based in Canada, yet they had to worry about weather and planting conditions in South America. Before this call, I had no idea how significantly global events could influence the U.S. grain market.
I also participated in the weekly market briefing, where company analysts reviewed their research on various aspects of the hedging market and discussed how they planned to position their clients for success. Commodity hedging was a completely new industry for me, and although I found it challenging, I also found it incredibly interesting. After this experience, I am definitely interested in exploring this field further in the future. |
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