Hello again everyone! My name is Megan Hagemann, and I will be going into my senior year at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in the fall. I am currently majoring in animal science with a comprehensive emphasis in nutrition. I have recently completed my spring job shadow at Bocker Ruff Grain in Polo, IL for the GFAI Industry Immersion Scholarship.
I had the opportunity to job shadow at Bocker Ruff Grain in the fall of 2022 and learn the ins and outs of the business. This spring, I was able to have more hands-on experience as part of my job shadow. First, I observed morning paperwork to gain more insight into the flow of Bocker Ruff Grain. I was given the chance to run the outbound scale for the day for all the trucks that had unloaded at the elevator. I then had the opportunity to watch a train being loaded as well. I observed the computer system behind the train and was given more information on how the train sector of the elevator works. I would like to extend a thank you to Bocker Ruff Grain for allowing me to job shadow at their facility for my fall and spring job shadow. I am extremely thankful for all the opportunities and networking events the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois Industry Immersion Scholarship has provided me the past year, and I look forward to my future in this industry! Hello again! My name is Carli Wright and I am from Bradford, IL. I recently graduated
from Black Hawk College -East Campus with my Associates in Science. My plans for the fall have remained the same since my last blog post, as I will be attending Iowa State University to major in Agronomy. While at ISU, I plan on continuing my collegiate Soil Judging career and become involved within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Pigeons, chickens, horses, oh my! For the Spring portion of my job shadowing experience, I was able to tour Rumbold and Kuhn’s Feed Division located in Kewanee, IL. Throughout this two day job shadowing, I had the opportunity to view the inside operation as well as the outside operation. As far as the insider operation went, I was able to see “the day in the office” with Tracy who is the Office/Accounting Manager. I was able to view the process of ordering inventory, waiting on customers, and so many ins and outs of the operation!! For the outside operation, I toured the facility and learned more about the operation from Adam, Brandon, and Austin. I was able to see several recipes of feed get made and then bagged or loaded onto the truck. I also was able to see a wagon of corn be delivered which was then sent to storage for it to later on be cracked. Rumbold and Kuhn’s Feed Division sells all different sorts of animal feed ranging from pigeons, chickens, horses, cattle, goats, and so much more! I am extremely grateful for Rumbold and Kuhn for allowing me to tour 3/8 locations and be able to expand my knowledge within the grain industry. Throughout my job shadowing experience, I have encountered numerous individuals who talked so highly of their profession and R&K and it goes to show the high levels of respect and gratitude the business holds. As always, a huge thank you to the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois for assisting me in my educational plans and for providing me with knowledgeable experiences within the grain and feed industry. It is an honor to be a recipient of the Grain and Feed Industry Immersion and all of the opportunities that have been provided throughout. I look forward to what my future entails within the agricultural industry. Hello again everyone! My name is Megan Hagemann, and I will be going into my senior year at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in the fall. I am currently majoring in animal science with a comprehensive emphasis in nutrition. I have recently completed my spring job shadow at Bocker Ruff Grain in Polo, IL for the GFAI Industry Immersion Scholarship.
I had the opportunity to job shadow at Bocker Ruff Grain in the fall of 2022 and learn the ins and outs of the business. This spring, I was able to have more hands-on experience as part of my job shadow. First, I observed morning paperwork to gain more insight into the flow of Bocker Ruff Grain. I was given the chance to run the outbound scale for the day for all the trucks that had unloaded at the elevator. I then had the opportunity to watch a train being loaded as well. I observed the computer system behind the train and was given more information on how the train sector of the elevator works. I would like to extend a thank you to Bocker Ruff Grain for allowing me to job shadow at their facility for my fall and spring job shadow. I am extremely thankful for all the opportunities and networking events the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois Industry Immersion Scholarship has provided me the past year, and I look forward to my future in this industry! The Sublette Elevator is a place that values the community and the people who help support them. As an elevator, they continuously buy and sell grain to generate a profit that they can then share with their stockholders and patronage who have bought products from their lumber, feed, fertilizer, ammo, and general store supply. Of all the grain the Sublette Elevator attains, about 90% of the corn is trucked to the ethanol plant, Marquis Energy in Hennepin Illinois which I had the privilege to tour.
Marquis Energy is the biggest dry ethanol plant in America with production of just about 400 million barrels of ethanol a year. The plant intakes between 500 and 550 trucks a day from surrounding elevators to meet their production goals. It is a 24-hour facility that takes trucks from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Not only do they make traditional grade ethanol, but they also have two tanks dedicated to pharmaceutical grade alcohol that they use when they are outsourced to make cleaning supplies and sanitizers. In 2016 they doubled in size from making just about 200 million barrels to the 400 million they are capable of today. Ethanol plants use a lot of water in the form of steam in the fermentation process. Marquis Energy implemented a piece of machinery that recycles the steam and evaporates the water out of it before it is released so at least some of the water used can be reused again. The plan operates on the structure of redundancy as well. They are currently building a third scale with a probe so if one of their other two breaks, they still can operate. The facility has little to no storage of the grain they intake because they believe in turning the corn right into production, but even though they don’t have storage on the facility grounds, doesn’t mean they aren’t a part of elevators trying to build more storage. Marquis contracted their grain extremely far out this year because of the drought on the western side of the corn belt. They wanted to ensure they had enough grain to sustain their production. If something was to happen and they did not need grain in one month but wanted the elevator to carry it to the next month, Marquis works to pay the elevator the interest they have on that carry to justify them storing it. The Marquis cousins who pioneered this facility come from a family who used to own a community elevator, so they value and only buy from the community elevators in the area instead of large corporate ones. The Marquis cousins, Dave and Mark, built their business model on needing two things, quality people and quality location. They lucked out on the quality location piece as they are right off the Illinois river and send most of their ethanol to New Orleans via barge. Next, they value their employees and give them benefits such as lunch every day and company vehicles, so they know they are valued. While Marquis has doubled in size with 11 tanks and 1 beer well, they are expanding their production to biofuels as they are looking to build a bean crush plant in the next two years. It was truly amazing to see the journey in which corn comes to the elevator, leaves, and what it is made into. As a daughter of a corn producer and the many experiences I have had with the Sublette Elevator, I have enjoyed being able to witness how much the grain industry impacts not only my community, but the world. Blog #1
Hello, my name is Coy Crull, and I am from the small Southeastern Illinois town of Grayville. I am currently attending Murray State University in Murray Kentucky, where I am majoring in Agronomy. For the first portion of my job shadow I went to Tosh Farms in Henry Tennessee. While there I visited Wayne Casey, who managed the granary. I learned that this portion of Tosh Farms was put in place to supply their demand for corn to feed swine. Their storage capacity is over 6 million bushels, and they need 4 million bushels of corn per year to supply their hog barns. Wayne told me that he always makes sure to get enough corn to supply the needs of Tosh Pork, but also buys and sells soybeans, wheat, and even white corn based on the market. I was able to learn procedures for scaling incoming trucks and grading the grain. I learned so much more about the grain handling industry. I would like to thank Wayne and Tosh Farms for allowing me to visit. Blog#2 Hello again! For my second portion of job shadowing, I went back to Tosh Farms. While there I was able to learn more about the feed mill. I was able to learn more about other ingredients and alternative feeds that are used to feed their pigs. I walked around the feed mill and watched as the alternative food sources were put into a separator and shredder. They then separated and bailed the disposables and put the food source into its own bay. This was the busiest part of the mill as people were loading and unloading trucks nonstop. I found it very nice to be able to learn more about the nutrition and feed requirements of hogs and how Tosh Farms was able to meet those needs. I want to thank Tosh Farms once more for being so helpful and giving me more experience in the industry. My name is Collin White, and I am a senior at Illinois College majoring in Agribusiness with a minor in Economics and business administration. My goal after high school is to return to the family farm to work alongside my brother and grow diversified row crops. As a kid, I spent a lot of time during harvest in the passenger seat riding back and forth to our local grain elevator which sparked my interest in what happens behind the scale. This made me incredibly grateful to receive the Illinois Grain and Feed scholarship and go on the immersion tour to learn more about the industry.
For my job shadowing this fall, I had the opportunity to work with Cole Stock at Western Grain Marketing in Prentice, Illinois. On my first day, I spent time with many of the staff members to walk through the day-to-day operations at the elevator and see what happens when a load comes from their point of view. I started at the scale learning about the different programs and systems used to process shipments and how to manage multiple trucks coming through at once. While working the front, not only did I learn about the importance of staying organized, but also how important it is to maintain connections with farmers and understand their different needs and operations. After working on the scale, I went out to the pits to understand how the flow of grain is controlled within the facility. We first went over some safety practices to not only ensure the safety of the people working when around moving trucks and pits but also to prevent accidents that could damage large parts of the facility. After talking about safety and getting a tour of the outside of the facility, we looked over the control panels and pits to go over the logistics of moving grain throughout the facility. This includes understanding what commodity is in which bin, how full they are, and what pits can reach which bins. We talked about the logistics of filling bins and when loads can be shipped out to ensure there is still enough space on site. For my second day, I came back to the office to work more closely with Cole to understand his role and what needs to be done when preparing for post-harvest. With harvest winding down, farmers are now watching the market and making decisions on when to sell and how much to sell. When farmers call in asking for advice, there are typically two things to keep in mind: first are you profitable, and second are you comfortable riding the volatility of the market? Being there for farmers and maintaining that relationship is incredibly important for small, rural elevators so providing support for customers takes priority after harvest. Working with Cole, we also talked about winter operations of elevators shipping loads out toward end-user terminals and balancing the storage of the facility. On the line same, we discussed the margins of an elevator and what information is used to develop the basis. The biggest takeaway I got was the central role that a local elevator plays in a mutual relationship between customers and the elevator to ensure that both parties can navigate the market for years to come. Hello, My name is Jack Beetz and this fall I shadowed at Consolidated grain and Barge in Hennepin. I grew up on a family farm where we grow corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and seed corn. My family also runs Meriden Grain which is a member of the Grain and Feed Association which is an agribusiness that spans from seed sales and custom application to grain storage and drying at our elevator. The first day I spent most of the time with Dan Aubry who is the grain Origination Manager and Taylor Pollock. Taylor showed me around the facility and then I watched Dan for the first day. He showed me how he goes about communicating bids with his staff and then looking over contracts that his team has bought and showed the process of how he reviews them and looks for any errors. The second day I spent at CGB was with Taylor and we started by looking at different programs on the computer that she uses as an originator. She also showed me some pictures from different grain industry trips she has been on. Next, we went out to the grain probe and I learned how they do the tests on all the grades that they take. I also learned about the process of grinding and testing organic corn which isn’t something I was familiar with so I found it very interesting.
Hello again, everyone! This is Emma Kuhns checking in after her spring job shadow
days. To reintroduce myself, again, I am currently a junior at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign studying Agricultural & Consumer Economics with a concentration in Public Policy & Law. I grew up on a hog and grain farm near Mason, IL and have been involved in the agricultural industry my whole life. This led me to choose my college and major and now, is what inspires me to pursue a Juris Doctorate from a law school in Illinois. I hope to use my degrees to be of service to the grain and feed industry in Illinois. Both of my job shadows were with Hasselberg, Grebe, Snodgrass, Urban, & Wentworth, Attorneys and Counselors in Peoria, Illinois. For my spring job shadow, I had the opportunity to meet with attorneys in the firm like Kyle Tompkins, whom I met with in the fall, James Grebe, David Wentworth and William (Bill) Streeter. I met with each of them first at the Grain and Feed Annual Conference where I was recognized as one of the scholarship recipients. They talked to me about their involvement with the association over the years and their passion for representing it as well as some of its members. Following our time at convention, I toured their temporary and permanent offices and learned more about the structure of their practices. I had the chance to sit down with Mr. Wentworth and learn more about the litigation aspect of agriculture as well as his current projects. I greatly enjoyed this portion as I have not had much experience with litigation in the past and he gave me a deep dive into his practice. He specifically touched on an environmental case he was currently charged with that aligned perfectly with some of the information I had learned in my environmental law class last semester. I want to thank the Hasselberg, Grebe, Snodgrass, Urban, & Wentworth team for welcoming me into their offices and sharing their line of work with an aspiring student. This experience has further my excitement for law school and my career afterward. If there is one take away I have from this experience is that I have chosen the right field to study and I can’t wait to be a part of the Grain and Feed Industry! As the daughter of a grain farmer and small agricultural business owner, the importance of agriculture, and especially the grain industry, has been instilled in me from a young age. My name is Margaret Vaessen and I am currently a junior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying agricultural and consumer economics with a concentration in finance in agribusiness. I am from the small rural village of Sublette, Illinois where I had the privilege to observe and speak with the men and women who are responsible for the operation of the Sublette Farmers’ Elevator.
The Sublette Farmers’ Elevator is a place I hold near and dear to my heart as I first experienced it as a little girl when I would walk with my wagon up there every Monday to collect that week’s supply of chicken feed. There I was always met at the door with a smile and a reference by name. I have come to discover that the Sublette Farmers’ Elevator is a crucial part of the community. As I was sitting with Reed Acre, the general manager, we were able to discuss how national events impact how much grain he sells and at what price. There was a drought in the west causing consumers to be concerned that they would not be able to attain their normal consumption for their companies. Reed is challenged every day to look farther and farther ahead into the future so he can sell Sublette Farmer’s Elevator grain at a fair but profitable price as people are demanding more corn to be allocated to them in the coming months than they ever have before. Further, while Reed is making business decisions, the elevator is also making decisions for farmers indirectly. As I sat in the elevator on a day that was spitting rain and not in the best conditions to be harvesting, I still saw trucks coming into the elevator from the fields. It was near the end of harvest, and the farmers were tired from going for the past seven days straight and needed a break. I learned that day that sometimes the elevator makes the hard decision to shut down for the benefit of the farmer. The Sublette Farmers’ Elevator is a vital part of the community. When I was shadowing, I learned a great deal about where the grain goes, how it is bought and sold, and who is working in the facility. Running the Sublette Farmers’ Elevator is a team effort, and it was fun being a part of the team for a while. Salutations! My name is Gunnar Wuebben, I am from the small town of Albany IL, located at mile marker 513.5 on the Mississippi River. Growing up in a small town I have developed a love for nature and agriculture. As a child to the point now I have always loved being involved in agriculture and helping out at the family farm. This love for agriculture has motivated me to work hard in school and to be a part of ag related groups at my college. It has helped me in my business classes, marketing and grain merchandising programs. With that I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to gain greater insight into the grain and feed industry through the GFAI Summer Immersion Tour as well as my fall job shadow days this fall at ADM in Clinton Iowa. During my fall job shadow in Clinton Iowa, I was in the bean area of the ADM plant. I thought it was very interesting since my family has taken corn there my entire life and I never knew they had a bean area of the plant. In this area and the time that I was there I got to see them unload trucks and trailers, along as the process from the inside of what happens when a truck is probed. Besides watching them unload trucks, I got to go outside and tour the bean area of the plant, and watch as they loaded barges full of beans and witness how they move them up and down the river with pulleys as they fill them up. I also learned that most of the beans they buy at that plant are just resold to other ADM sites farther down the river. As I was informed that the beans they were buying were getting bought and shipped to Quincy Illinois to be used by another ADM processing plant. Lastly I got to sit and visit with the people in the merchandising room their. Danial Hartman was the guy I got to sit with and ask all my questions too. He informed me on several topics and things I didn’t know about the grain and comedies market and how they do things there. He explained to me that his main job there is to get ahold of farmers and other grain co-ops and buy grain most importantly corn to help feed the monster of an ethanol plant that ADM is there. I would like to thank Daniel for having me at ADM for my fall shadow and teaching me many things about the grain industry that I didn’t know, along with helping me set up a spring shadow date to check out the other aspects of the grain industry
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Grain & Feed Association of Illinois3521 Hollis Dr. Archives
April 2024
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