Improvements keep grain moving
By Steve Fairchild

MFA invests capital to modernize and expand key grain locations.

In the grain trade, like much of the rest of agriculture, things get bigger. That is why MFA has allocated some $6 million to expand and improve grain handling and shipping capacity at several strategic locations.

The improvements come at a time when railroads have shifted to their own economies of scale. Gone are the days when a few rail cars worth of freight would garner attention. These days, to get favorable rates and the railroad’s attention in general, grain facilities need to load out larger units—trains of 25 or more cars.

Meanwhile, end-users of grain like Missouri’s poultry complex have increased in scale and want similarly sized units delivered to mills.

To meet these demands, MFA has focused on improving load out and storage facilities throughout the cooperative’s trade region.

“As a group, we looked at a number of projects and narrowed it down to a strategic base that helps us compete in the grain market,” said Roger Caffrey, director of grain operations.

Caffrey explained that consolidation in buyers for the grain market coupled with more difficult rail situations were driving factors for the upgrades.

“Our buyers are becoming fewer. And more buyers now require large rail unit sizes, specifically units from 25 cars up to 50 or more.

“We already had a few locations able to load 25s. And in places like Laredo and Glasgow we’ve expanded our ability to load out 25 units and in some cases 50s,” said Caffrey.

“We are making these improvements because we need to have access to markets. In these cases, corn markets. Poultry buyers want 25 or 50 cars or larger units. Single cars are hard to find buyers for, often requiring a discount. Largely, single cars are just a fill-in market. We want to be in the mainstay,” he said.

Other improvements, like the new rail load out at Vandalia were made necessary by aging facilities.

“If you look at Vandalia, it wasn’t a project to increase our market, but rather to stay in a market. The old facility was obsolete and had to come down. As a result, if we didn’t make changes to accommodate rail, we would become a truck market there,” said Caffrey. “It’s a very difficult market with the addition of ethanol plants to a river market to the east and soybean processing plant to the west.”

In some cases, MFA has added capabilities for more temporary grain storage. To serve its customers and compete in today’s grain market MFA must be prepared to store grain at the peak of harvest. There is still demand for local storage and especially in bountiful crop years.

“We have to either be able to provide an outlet to the grain system and become the market or gather grain at harvest time when it is most available,” said Caffrey.



Grain improvements quick facts

Vandalia—replaced rail load out, which was obsolete. Built grain accumulation bins to accompany loading facility.

Glasgow—Upgraded rail siding to handle 25-car units. Added new bin and load out point.

Higginsville—Increased storage capacity with new bin and added a truck load out; built improvements for temporary storage.

Lexington—Added new drier and support bins; built improvements for temporary storage.

Laredo—Added bin space; improved siding to handle 25-care units.

Trenton—Increased drying capacity and added new support bin.

Adrian—Building 700,000 bushel bin.