Hali Kohl: Rabideau Grain and Lumber

Hello! My name is Halie Kohl and I reside in Herscher, IL. Coming from a grain and livestock family, I developed my passion for agriculture very quickly. In May 2020, I created Halie’s Farmstand which fulfills the need for fresh produce for approximately 1,500 nearby residents as the nearest major produce source is a half hour away. Having witnessed the success of Halie’s Farmstand, I aspire to develop it into my career through a larger physical farm-to-fork operation and hope to eventually commercialize my tomato production. Currently, I am dually enrolled at Kankakee Community College as a General Education major and at Illinois State University as an
Agribusiness major. I am honored to have been selected as a recipient of the Illinois Grain and Feed Industry Immersion Scholarship and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to job-shadow at Rabideau Grain and Lumber this fall.

On day one, with the guidance of the office manager, Bev Buckley, I learned to operate the scale. I utilized their software program called, Theos where I recorded the gross and tare weights of trucks. In addition, I operated the probe to collect corn and soybean samples and then tested the moisture. I sent trucks to designated pits depending on their moisture level and handed out tickets. I was also informed of Rabideau’s grain discount schedule regarding grain damage and foreign material. When I was not busy operating the scale, I calculated the basis for Rabideau’s physical books and made sure Rabideau Grain stayed below the open position limit of 50,000 bushels of corn and 25,000 bushels of soybeans. I assisted in hedging grain when necessary and copied hedges from Rabideau’s physical books into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. During a quiet period, I prepared several field maps for Rabideau employees to utilize when spreading fertilizer on customer fields. Comparing customer field maps to the previous year’s maps, I wrote down field acreage, type of fertilizer required, and the ratio per acre.

​​As if day one was not learning-packed enough, day two was no different. While shadowing office assistant, Lisa Patchett, I listened in on phone calls, prepared farmer checks when they decided to sell grain, and billed farmers for the use of Rabideau’s grain hauling service. In addition, I entered Rabideau Grain’s bills into their software system, Theos. I selected the correct expenditure department based on the type of bill, entered the invoice number, amount
due, printed the check, and then filed the check and statement to be mailed off before its due date. I also collected Rabideau Grain’s mail from the Post Office. In the afternoon, when the markets closed, I recorded the corn and soybean settlements in a book and posted them on Rabideau Grain’s website. In addition, I utilized their customer texting program, Textedly, to send out a mass text to customers with their bids.

Overall, I am very grateful for the opportunity and knowledge obtained through these two fall job-shadowing days with Rabideau Grain and Lumber. I was able to apply a multitude of skills deriving from my Agriculture Economics and Agriculture Marketing courses. I look forward to returning in a few short months for my Spring job-shadowing days.