Luke Wessels, University of Illinois

Hello! My name is Luke Wessels, and I am currently a senior studying Agribusiness Markets & Management at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I plan to graduate in May 2026 and pursue a job in farmer-facing commodity brokerage and consulting. It has been an honor to be selected for the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois scholarship. This scholarship has allowed me to network with many different people and learn a great deal about the grain industry in Illinois. Without this scholarship, I would not have the network and knowledge that I have today. I am very thankful for all the industry leaders who took the time to show us their facilities this past summer. I am also thankful for the industry leaders I had the opportunity to job shadow.

In December 2025, I shadowed Jeff Kapraun. Jeff is a grain buyer at One Earth Energy in Gibson City, IL. One Earth Energy is a single-location ethanol plant. They buy corn from farmers and then turn it into ethanol and other products. Some of their products include ethanol, distiller’s grain, and non-edible corn oil. Jeff's job is to buy corn from farmers throughout the year and to make sure they have an adequate supply to run the plant. Jeff has some bulk storage to work with, so if the price is right, he can stock up at certain times throughout the year, but he regularly needs corn because the plant is running 24/7. When I was there, I met Steve Kelly, who is the CEO of the company. He told me about the history of the company and how he started it. I enjoyed learning about all the business aspects of the company being started. At the plant, Jeff drove me around and showed me the whole process. Semi-trucks loaded with grain arrive at the plant to dump grain. Sometimes there can be very long lines, but it was not super busy when I was there. He then showed me the path the corn takes and how it travels throughout the plant. My favorite part was seeing the distillation building. They were adding on to it when I was there, so I would love to see how it turned out. I also enjoyed learning about carbon capture and storage. Jeff showed me the brand-new carbon sequestration facility that they installed. He said that he enjoyed learning about the process, and I did as well. It was fascinating to say the least. Carbon dioxide will be captured directly from the fermentation process at the ethanol plant. Carbon dioxide is a natural byproduct that occurs in the process of making ethanol. Usually, the carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere, but the new process will allow them to compress the carbon dioxide into a fluid and inject it over 6,000 feet underground. Down there, the liquid will be safe and in permanent storage. They have been working on the project for a while and have been waiting to receive grants and permission. They had to hire more employees to keep this side of the business running. Jeff has a lot to keep track of, other than just buying grain, and it was very beneficial to see him work.

In December 2025, I shadowed Doug Cropp. Doug is the lead merchandiser for Premier Cooperative. Doug works out of their headquarters in Champaign, IL. Premier Cooperative has 22 elevator locations spread across the eastern half of the state, around Champaign. Premier is also involved in the energy business, and they sell a few different products. These products include fuel, propane, lubricants, and DEF. Premier is also connected through ownership with United Prairie. UP is the agronomy and application side of the business. Premier has a fleet of trucks that they use to haul grain for farmers in their farm pickup program. They also use these trucks to haul grain out of the elevators to the end user. Doug started his career in Wisconsin working for a cooperative. His job before joining Premier was overseeing the grain business of a large cooperative in Wisconsin. At Premier, Doug works to oversee all the bushels from the 22 locations and hedge the risk. He also must sell the grain out of the locations to an end user. Some of Premier's elevators are on rails, so they can load trains and ship them out. Premier is using some new technology for their grain business that is very effective. One of the programs technically acts as another grain merchandiser. The program can monitor the status of their positions and continue to run in the office when Doug is gone. It was interesting for me to see all the locations, their active bushels, and hedged status all in one place. It was very well organized and a smooth online program. Premier’s customers can also sell grain and manage their positions online. This allows farmers to be more efficient and effective in their grain marketing.

In March 2026, I shadowed Tyler Endress. Tyler is a grain merchandiser at Akron Services Inc. and works out of the Brimfield office. Tyler buys grain from farmers and then later sells it. Akron has four elevator locations, 3 being west of Peoria and 1 north. Akron also has a fleet of trucks that they use to haul grain from farms and their elevators to deliver to the end user. The end user in their geography consists of river terminals and ethanol plants. The river terminals take the grain in, store it, and then load it onto barges. The barges go down to St. Louis, where they are then directed to New Orleans. The ethanol plants grind the corn to create ethanol and other products. Tyler must manage his risk of buying large amounts of grain. He manages his risk by hedging his positions. There is a big emphasis on the local basis and what people are willing to pay for grain. Tyler must manage when he sells and buys his grain based on the basis and consider trucking and storage costs. Sometimes there can be slim margins and risk involved. Tyler must maintain good relationships with farmers and with the grain buyers at the end users. He told me that relationships are key in his line of business. When I was with Tyler, he was working on the details of his average pricing program for the elevator. The average pricing program allows farmers to sell X number of bushels through the elevator at the same time, once a week. Tyler is the one who makes the sale and manages the bushels. This program lasts about 15 weeks and is a great way for farmers to get some bushels sold. Tyler is also in charge of Akron's non-GMO program. He merchandises non-GMO bushels to different end users for farmers. CGB and Cargill are both options to take non-GMO bushels nearby.

In April 2026, I shadowed Connor Lay. Connor works for Consolidated Grain and Barge at the Hennepin office. He trades the container market and manages logistics for CGB’s container business. Connor works alongside a team of people to manage the entire container business for the company. They ship thousands of containers from the United States across the world. One of the guys on the team negotiates and makes the deals happen with the steamship companies. Steam ships carry the containers from the US to other countries. Two other members of the team work together to sell the containers to people outside of the US. They do most of their business in Southeast Asia. So, these two guys must stay up late at night on US time to be able to communicate with buyers across the ocean. I asked them if they were fluent in Mandarin, and they were not close. These two guys also told me that relationships are key in their line of work. They must trust those they are working with in another country because there is risk involved. The final team member is the boss of the group, who oversees all the logistics and makes sure the team is working efficiently. Connor showed me the ports in Southeast Asia that they ship to from the major ports here in the United States. Some of the major ports in the United States are Tacoma, WA, and Long Beach, CA. They mostly ship 40ft containers that can hold around 900bu of grain. Connor and the rest of his team must ensure that the steamship and all the containers make it to the end destination. Containers are loaded on rail in Illinois and sent to one of the major ports to be unloaded and put onto a steamship. They can track it to the end and are responsible if something goes wrong. Connor also introduced me to several other CGB employees in the office. He introduced me to traders and grain merchandisers. There was an accounting wing as well, but I did not meet any of them.  It was great to talk with the grain merchandisers and learn what they do. I was also able to make a mutual connection that I made through another job shadow with them.