Hello (again)!
This year, I was fortunate enough to have been selected as a GFAI Renewable Scholarship Recipient. This selection allowed me to have the opportunity to job shadow within the Illinois grain industry once again. A lot has changed since my last blog post in April. I started a GROWMARK Internship mid-May at the Main Office of FS Grain, which is in Morris, IL. This twelve-week internship allowed me to sit at the merchandising desk and learn more about the grain industry. I soon recognized that while classroom education provides a solid foundation, nothing compares to the knowledge learned by doing and seeing. I am appreciative for the willingness Bryan Rader and Justin Burke, both Merchandisers, had in answering questions I asked. By sitting with them each day, I was able to pick up some key terminology and concepts within the grain industry. This increased my confidence while talking about specifics within grain merchandising. Additionally, I was able to pursue some projects that added value. This included working on a project that overhauled the internal process of creating and posting bids each day. This project was created to save time and prevent errors. This summer affirmed to me that I want to start my career within the grain industry. I am grateful that, at the end of the summer, I was provided an offer to work full-time with FS Grain upon graduation. This offer was for a Grain Consultant position in Ransom, IL, which would essentially make me responsible for grain origination in that area. I accepted the offer and have continued to be excited for this opportunity, which is now just a few months away. This open position was due to the retirement of a long-time grain originator at the facility. This led me to request to job shadow for the GFAI Renewable Scholarship at this facility. I spent two days learning as much as I could about the ins and outs of the FS Grain Ransom facility. I focused a majority of my time with Pat Knapp, the retiring Grain Consultant. Through our conversations, I was able to see the application of building and maintaining strong relationships with the farmers. This included some morning talk with local farmers over a cup of coffee to start the day. It is actually impressive that with a significant customer list like she has, she has been able to maintain the strength of relationships with farmers for all these years. Furthermore, she shared great resources for learning more about the grain markets and where to seek out daily news updates. It gives me great confidence knowing that she is handing over the origination role in such a strong position. What took this job shadowing experience to the next level was the ability to meet people from all aspects of the facility. That included Kenny Kral, Facility Supervisor. He was able to share key information about the outside, physical assets of the facility, like the rail loop, bin set up, ground pile space, loading and unloading, and much more. This information and tour gave me great perspective on how the facility works and what its advantages and disadvantages are. I also got to sit with Abby Zeimetz, who shared a lot of information about the accounting and settlement pieces of FS Grain. I appreciated the opportunity to see how these day-to-day duties were carried out. I also got to meet other operations personnel and scale operators, who all play an integral role in making the facility run smoothly. This two-day experience has led me to be more prepared and more excited to start in May! All in all, I have a few takeaways. 1.) The grain industry, especially within the FS GROWMARK System, places and emphasis on people and the relationships with people. 2.) Asking questions will be key to my growth and success. 3.) Farmers are key to success—value, maintain, and, for me, build those relationships. Hello, my name is Justin Huff, and I am a senior at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign majoring in Animal Science with a concentration in Pre-Veterinary Medicine. My career goal is to become a large animal veterinarian and provide services to food animals in the underserved rural America. My experiences at the University of Illinois sparked my interest in animal nutrition, and I was excited to be paired with The Maschhoff’s for my fall immersion tour. I have a strong connection with the company having served as an animal care technician while obtaining my Associate of Science degree from Kaskaskia, so I was very excited to return to the company in a new area.
I shadowed Mark Nagel for both days of my experience, and I really appreciated his time and the opportunity to learn about their feed mill. He began by giving me a tour of the mill and discussed how the Maschhoff’s pellet nearly 90% of all diets fed to their commercial herds. He explained to me the process of diet formulation and the addition of ingredients to make the desired ration for the various facilities they maintain. My favorite part of the tour was taking the elevator to the top of the mill and seeing the Maschhoff’s “penthouse view.” In addition to the tour of the facitilty, he discussed the importance of safety at the mill. In the past, they had an explosion at the feed mill site which taught them a valuable lesson about grain safety and the importance of maintaining a clean and safe environment. He explained that the mill remains very conscious of safety and has not had any serious accidents in a considerable amount of time. Another aspect of the mill that I experienced was the control room, where all the “magic” happens. Connie Kujawa allowed me to observe her methods for mixing feeds, running the pellet machine, and loading trucks all with a click of a button. On some occasions she had to unload some ingredients by hand but most of the systems are automated. In addition to controlling the machinery, she is also responsible for collecting samples from all shipments of feed that leave the facility. This sampling allows them to track any feed that leaves the facility if an accident were to occur. Connie also discussed the importance of being cognoscente of medicated feeds that leave the facility, as it is vital that antibiotics are not given to market hogs to prevent antibiotics from making it into our food system. My experience at The Maschhoff’s feed mill was very valuable, and I enjoyed learning about the technical aspect of the most important expense in swine production, feed. My name is Carlie Mettler and I am a sophomore at the University of Illinois majoring in animal science with a minor in crop science. I grew up in Highland, Illinois just east of St. Louis. Both sides of my family farm, so I’ve been around agriculture and farming my whole life. I loved going to the elevator with my dad and was always interested in learning more about the grain industry. In the future, I hope to be an animal nutritionist, so although I am a non-typical applicant for the Grain and Feed Association Scholarship, I still think it's beneficial to know the whole process of the grain industry and how it works with the animal nutrition industry.
For my job shadowing, I was paired with the Highland Top Ag elevator. This elevator was just recently bought out by Top Ag and was originally Oberbeck Grain. I wasn’t sure what to expect out of the experience, but during my two days there I learned a lot. I spent some time talking to a former grain merchandiser and owner of Oberbeck grain, Bob Luitjohan. Knowing nothing about how the grain markets work, he answered a lot of my questions. I learned that there is a lot of risk in trading, a perfect timing for everything, and with experience you start to learn the best time to buy, sell, or keep. I also found that there are many aspects and factors to consider when trading: the weather, other countries' crops, inflation, the value of currency, and a good crop vs. bad crop year are all factors to consider when making decisions. In addition to talking with Bob, I also got the chance to talk to Angie Fears and Todd Luitjohan who work at the elevator as well. I watched and learned a little bit about how to insert tickets into the computer system and I helped sort all the tickets into a filing system. I also learned about how to create checks from tickets and put them in the office safe. Additionally, I learned a little bit about contracts, spotting, and taking phone calls from farmers. I witnessed farmers asking about their contracts, current prices, splitting tickets, and selling grain. With harvest coming to an end, the office wasn’t too busy but I was able to see a few trucks come in. I watched the grain be weighed, tested, and then driven into the elevator where they dump. One of the coolest things I did during my job shadowing was going up in the grain elevator. Everything was a gravity system and it was interesting to see how they measure the storage bins to see how much room is left. We stopped at every level of the elevator and I even got to go on the roof and could see the St. Louis Arch. On the elevator is the town's huge Christmas tree that lights up the town every year so it was neat to see the tree up close. Going up in the elevator was an amazing opportunity and I will never forget it. During my time job shadowing I also got to make some trips to other grain facilities. I went to the New Douglas elevator and got to see a bigger operation that has bigger grain bins and more storage. The dump pits were bigger and the scale system was a little more updated than the Highland location. I also got the chance to go to the river, which is where some of Top Ag’s grain goes, to see Bunge’s operation. It was so crazy and neat to see how a barge is loaded with grain. I never knew that basically an arm comes from the bins that is long enough to reach the river and just fills the barges. It takes about two hours to fill a barge, and at that operation they fill about five to nine barges a day. I also went to see Bunge’s competition in Cahokia which was Cargill, Oakley, and Consolidated Grain. It was neat to see other river operations as well. I am so thankful I got the experience I had with Top Ag, and for Angie, Todd, and Bob. I truly learned a lot and the people were so nice and informative. I enjoyed my experience so much, and I can’t wait to return in the spring and see what else I can learn. Hello All,
My name is Luke Lovgren and I am currently a senior at Illinois State University studying Agribusiness and Agronomy Management. I am pleased to have been given a great opportunity to learn more about the grain and feed industry through the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois and FS Grain. Both of these organizations have and are connected to very knowledgeable people that are able to share a great deal of information about the industry they are involved in each and every day. Having the chance to spend some time doing some job shadowing with FS Grain gave me a brand-new perspective on the grain industry as a whole and a company from my local area. During the two days I spent in the Morris office, I was able to meet and speak with a wide variety of professionals within the company from those in human resources and grain settlements to others that work with farmer customers to purchase grain and develop marketing strategies. On the first of my two days I was able to learn about different markets that the company participates in. The markets I was able to learn the most about were the rail and container markets. The container markets are especially difficult to take part in at this particular moment in time for not only FS Grain, but companies all across the country and the world. Issues related to supply lines and export shipping have tied up containers, therefore decreasing the number available for grain export. FS Grain also ships grain by rail to the southeastern and southwestern United States and the west coast. This variety gives them an array of opportunities to generate a profit. The second day, I was able to spend some time with the market strategy manager on the structure and process of grain origination within FS Grain. She was able to share with me some of the techniques and approaches she and her team take to develop good customer relationships and continue to build a larger book of business. In addition to that, I was able to learn about the platform the company uses to be able to determine what upcoming opportunities may be advantageous to participate in for the business and its customers. To conclude my fall job shadowing, I was able to see several containers being loaded for export at one of the larger facilities. This was one of the pieces of the puzzle that helped bring everything full circle within the organization. All in all, these two days were great experiences and very educational and I look forward to continue to learn more about FS Grain and the grain and feed industry in the spring. My name is Olivia Kepner, and I grew up in NW Illinois on my family’s farrow to finish hog farm. I attended Highland Community College where I graduated in 2018 with my Associate of Science degree. Directly after graduation, I transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville where I majored in Animal Science with a double minor in English and Strategic Marketing & Visual Communications. Since graduation from there in December 2020, I’ve been working at our local cooperative, Pearl City Elevator, Inc. While here, I have been working within their Marketing & Communications department. Quite a few of my projects involve highlighting our Employee Anniversaries on our social media platforms, welcoming new employees, assisting in video filming & editing, photographing our employees and landscapes, as well as interviewing and writing our Women in Agriculture series that is on our webpage. A number of these projects have allowed me to work hand in hand with our grain team. I’ve participated in numerous filming opportunities to capture grain updates, share our average price contract options with our producers, and give large market reports. I led our participation in Grain Safety Week and spread awareness through our social media platforms. At the beginning of the year, I was also an integral part in filming a video series that highlighted a feed salesman and her expertise in diary nutrition on farm. Through these experiences, I have been able to work closely with our grain team this year and am looking forward to continuing my education this fall at UW-Madison in my graduate program where I will be studying Environment & Resources.
Hello All!
My name is Taylor Hartke and I recently completed my junior year at Southern Illinois University majoring in Agricultural Communications and minoring in Agribusiness Economics. I was blessed to be named as a 2020 Grain and Feed Association of Illinois scholarship recipient. I have greatly appreciated the investment GFAI has made to provide myself as well as my fellow scholarship recipients to learn about the diversity of the industry. It started this summer on the immersion tour and it has expanded throughout their convention and the job shadow experiences. Throughout my experience, I have been paired with Total Grain Marketing at their corporate headquarters in Effingham, Illinois. This semester, I interned on Friday, May 14th, as well as Wednesday, May 19th. TGM is a full-service grain company that offers grain marketing options to meet the demands of agriculturalists and consumers. It was established in 2006 between Effingham-Clay Service Company, Growmark, Inc., and Wabash Service Company. TGM operates a total of 41 elevators; 9 of which are MID-CO branch offices with a total of 11 licensed brokers to provide market insights to agriculturalists. 8 of their 41 locations are operating on rail facilities on the CN, CSX, WATCO, INRD, and UP railroads. They combined have the ability to hold 375 cars with the potential to load out over 1.3 million bushels per day. These rail facilities help ship grain to the southern poultry market, Gulf region, and to Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, and New York. Collectively, TGM’s facilities have been buying grain since the mid 1940’s, and is now one of the largest non-multinational grain companies. During my two days, I helped complete a variety of tasks which needed to be done. Throughout these two days there were a few staff meetings as well as trainings, therefore, I served as a receptionist answering phone calls to transfer to the respective individuals or I took a message. I also utilized my time to add in hundreds of orders into the Midco Order Report spreadsheet for part of the month of March, all of April, and until the current date in May. This task included recording the order sheet number, account number, whether it was a buy or sell order, the description of what was being traded, the price, and the date. This was the largest project due to the high volume of orders which run throughout Total Grain Marketing and their branches. Part of my time was also spent ensuring all tickets in certain groups were accounted for and filed correctly. Another task which I completed was cutting thousands of railroad tickets apart. Overall, I had a great two days at TGM’s Corporate Headquarters. I appreciated the chance to work with Kim, Austin, and Maddie over my final two days. I truly tried to absorb as much information as I could. Thank you to the Grain and Feed of Illinois as well as the entire Total Grain Marketing team for assisting me in my educational pursuits and for providing me with valuable experiences in the grain and feed industry. It is an honor to have been named a Grain and Feed Scholar and I genuinely look forward to what’s in store for me as I find my role in the agricultural industry! Hello again!
After a few months, I was fortunate to get back to FS Grain and complete the job shadowing opportunity I was provided through the Grain & Feed Association of Illinois. As we know, the grain markets are much different this spring than last fall. That meant I got to see a shift in business operations. This spring, I spent both days at the FS Grain Main Office in Morris, IL. These two days were a deep dive into the operations of FS Grain. These specific conversations were able to tie things together and give me more confidence as I head into a grain merchandising internship with FS Grain this summer. On the first day, I started off by speaking with Mark Trainor, the Safety & Regulation Manager. While I was aware of the risks that accompany the grain industry, I was able to learn how FS Grain not only meets industry regulations but exceeds them. This ambitious mindset has led Mark to implement safety procedures based on behavior. This allows the employees to take a proactive approach by understanding their behavior to prevent many unsafe situations from even occurring in the first place. I then met with CSR Manager Lisa Scribner and Sales Settlement Manager Molly Fanning. Their presentation and discussion were thorough. I learned about FS Grain’s processes that occur from when the grain leaves the field to when it is no longer in possession by FS Grain. This “behind-the-scenes” aspect of the business is extremely important, and it was able to tie together things I learned during the fall job shadow days. As the child of a FS Grain customer, I am now extremely appreciative of the accurate and efficient work Lisa and Molly do each day. After lunch, I wrapped up the day with Collin Graves, Controller at FS Grain. He was able to explain his role in evaluating and planning within the cooperative. Our discussion made me aware of how he interacts with a variety of people, such as the General Manager, board, and employees. I had a great first day and became more aware of integral business operations. When I came back a couple days later, I started with Dale Vigna, who works with the trucking side of FS Grain. Based on the amount of phone calls and messages he received during the time talking with him, I was shown the busyness of his position. The many truck drivers and destinations definitely requires organization and effective communication, both of which Dale showed he is an expert in. I then had the opportunity to go back to the merchandising desk and meet with Justin Burke. He was able to explain the merchandising process based on each market, which includes truck, container, and rail. This breakdown was helpful in understanding how FS Grain operates in a variety of markets. After I came back from lunch, I spoke with Logistics Specialist Jeff Anderson, who showed me the details of the container markets. I was amazed by how variable the container market can be. While it can be a successful market, the drayage companies and railyards determine much of their ability to take part in that market. Overall, I learned more in the GFAI Job Shadow experience than I ever imagined. Thanks to the welcoming and kind people at FS Grain, I was able to further learn about the grain industry. I am grateful that this experience has prepared me well for my summer internship at FS Grain. Hi All,
My name is Jacy Castlebury and I am currently a junior at Western Illinois University, studying Agriculture with a minor in Economics. I am also a recipient of the 2020 GFAI Scholarship. One of the things that this scholarship has given me was pairing with a GFAI member facility to spend some time job shadowing at, and I was assigned to Western Grain Marketing. Last semester, I spent two days with Scott Sims at the Adair location and learned about the rail markets. Last week, I spent two days with Ryan in Rushville for the second half of the job shadow program. During one of my days spent at WGM in Rushville, Ryan allowed me to listen in on WGM’s merchandiser/originator meeting, which was very interesting. One thing that I caught onto during this meeting was their concern with the supply of grain. I learned that it is nearly impossible to tell how much grain supply there is, even just locally. However, it is important for merchandisers to have a good idea of supply because it will directly affect the elevator’s position. Ryan taught me that there are five main categories of risk management as a grain merchandiser. These categories are futures risk, basis risk, spread risk, quality risk, and counter party risk. The futures market holds the largest amount of risk, because the futures markets are always changing. Basis is not quite as risky as those will determine local bids, so most contracts will be hedged on the futures market, leaving the basis open. Spread risk is the risk associated with the changes of prices from month to month. Grain is perishable, so there is risk as the quality decreases. County party risk was the last category of risk that we discussed. He told me that for every sale, there is a buyer and a seller, and there will always be a risk that the counter party for some reason cannot follow through with their agreement. Overall, I had a great two days job shadowing at WGM in Rushville. Ryan was a great host and I am so appreciative that he took time out of his workdays to teach me some of the basics of grain merchandising. Thank you to Ryan and his team at WGM as well as the GFAI for providing me with this wonderful experience! Hello all!
As I finish up my last semester at Murray State University, I was also able to finish up my shadows with Tosh Farms in Tennessee. My spring visits provided a slightly different experience from the fall ones, yet both provided me with invaluable experience. The Elevator Operations Manager whom I shadowed last semester, accepted a new position so I shadowed with his replacement. Mr. Wayne Casey is now serving in this role and is bring a fresh perspective to both the grain side as well as the whole company. In the past, Mr. Casey worked in Manufacturing as well as served our country in the Army, so doesn’t have an agriculture background – but is not letting that stop him. He walked me through how some aspects of his job are more difficult because of that, mainly due to our language that we use when describing items, or the acronyms, things like that. Hearing that opened my eyes, and my ears, to understanding how we could better make an impact on others if we broke some of that down. We talked about how the busy seasons change for him depending on the time of the year and how his new perspective was both good and bad for the customer base meaning the consumers and those he does merchandising with. Overall, it was very insightful and I am glad that Mr. Casey is taking on this challenge and I think he will be a great asset to the agriculture industry. For the second part of my spring visit, I spoke to the HR Department of Tosh Farms. This was fitting for me as I will be working as an HR Generalist upon Graduation in May. Tosh Farm’s business structure is different than the company I will be working for, but the values held in farming and this industry we love were the same. Tosh Farms works a lot with H2A workers, which I found intriguing and was really able to learn from them in this area of how workers are really needed for this industry and how they work to fill that role. While there, I was able to learn about their efforts in including veterans and giving back to the organizations that serve their community. You could really see the family values within their company and how that impacted employee performance, and overall company performance as a result of that. My spring visits at Tosh Farms weren’t what I expected, but I think they were what I needed: a fresh perspective on an industry I at times, “get used” to, and another application of the career path I am going in to within another faucet of the agriculture industry. I am very thankful for Tosh Farms as well as the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois for providing me with these experiences. It truly is an honor to be a GFAI Scholar! Post #2: Collaboration between animal health and feed industries
One of my favorite aspects of serving as a National FFA Officer this year is the time my teammates and I get to spend in meetings with agriculture industry leaders, most often as part of our virtual corporate sponsor visits. These visits give me a chance to take knowledge I've gained about the industry, whether through personal experience on my family's farm, my FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience where I raised and sold purebred dairy cattle, or college experiences such as the GFAI Industry Immersion Tour, and understand how it applies in the broader context of the industry and the influential players in it. One such visit, with leadership from Merck Animal Health, was heavily focused on systems thinking and how different sectors of the agriculture industry interact with one another. Some of Merck Animal Health's recent acquisitions--from customizable animal monitoring technology to environmental impact measurement tools--are indicative of the increasing collaboration and interconnectedness of the animal agriculture industry. One of the members of their leadership team shared how the animal health industry is no longer just focused on treatment, but also on the holistic process of raising and caring for animals. This idea manifests itself in areas like feed additives, but also points to stronger future ties between the feed industry itself and animal health companies like Merck. These shifts in mindset from influential agricultural players appear to be coming along parallel to shifts in consumer preferences, where buyers are increasingly interested in the environmental and social impacts of their food production processes. For animal health companies like Merck, it's an opportunity to collaborate with companies farther upstream, like those that process animal feed, to develop stronger lines of communication and ultimately provide more transparency and traceability in the supply chain. For many consumers, it's not enough to know where the animal product itself came from, but they also want to know what that animal's diet was, too. This is apparent with value-added products such as grass-fed beef, or vegetarian-fed chicken; it seems likely that forward-thinking feed companies will have an opportunity to reap more benefits while providing value that consumers desire in even more areas. One example is to identity preserve feed ingredients that came from farms with a focus on soil health, carbon sequestration, or biodiversity. Another is to utilize cover crops or more specialty grains that provide ancillary benefits to ecosystem service markets. Successful innovation requires meaningful relationships and strong networks; this is exactly what groups like GFAI provide for their members, as do organizations like the FFA. As an FFA member and a beneficiary of GFAI's student programs, I'm excited to stay connected and watch as the industry continues to progress, through increased collaboration between feed and animal health companies and beyond. |
Grain & Feed Association of Illinois3521 Hollis Dr. Archives
January 2024
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