by
Kent Miller
The construction time at the Glen Elder train load out facility has definitely been long … a lot longer than Farmway Co-op’s Vice-president of Operations Mark Paul would have liked it to have been.

            The project, which started in February of this year with the ordering of equipment, is finally completed except for approximately 1,600 feet of track to be built, which will not effect the loading of cars. This is scheduled to start the end of November.

            Although there is track yet to build, the load out facility has already loaded several unit trains in the middle and toward the end of the construction project.

            “Yes, there have been delays with the project,” Paul said. “The delays were with the equipment manufacturers and the contractors. We had planned on the construction going a lot smoother and faster. We are very glad we did the project now that it is completed.”

            Paul said the delay resulted from the demand for manufactured goods for ethanol plants and more grain storage due to increased grain prices.

            “I don’t look for this demand to decrease soon,” he said. “Heavy duty equipment if ordered now can’t be guaranteed for delivery for 20 weeks and in most cases manufacturers won’t guarantee delivery.

            “Due to this fact, it is imperative we take care of and maintain the equipment we do have,” he said. “The problem would be getting new equipment.”

            As the project was nearing completion, the Glen Elder train load out crew was glad they finally were able to load a unit train without numerous delays. A lot of the problems were sensor related problems, resulting in grain loading, drag cleanout, conveyors and leg shutdown problems.

            “You’ll always have startup problems with a new facility,” Paul said, “but here it was more recognizable due to the fact we are still a ‘country elevator’ and also a unit train load out facility.”

            To date (Nov. 27^th) the Glen Elder unit train load out facility has loaded 498 rail cars for a total of 1,725,586 bushels of grain made up of 297 cars of wheat totaling 1,009,258 bushels and 201 cars of milo totaling 716,327 bushels.

            “The Glen Elder crew has been very patient,” Paul said. “This is a learning curve on this type of facility, a heck of a learning curve.”

            Another 75 cars to be loaded with 230,000 bushels of wheat is scheduled to arrive November 27^th  at Glen Elder. Several Farmway facilities are hauling wheat to Glen Elder to make room in their own elevators for their milo that they have in ground piles.

            According to Paul, Farmway’s management and board of directors are looking at additional storage construction to begin in the next 30 days.

            “We will be building a 300,000 bushel concrete bin at Glen Elder,” he said. “The contracts have been signed and we will start this project in February. We anticipate it will be ready for the 2008 wheat harvest.”

            The new storage will be located east of the east elevator at Glen Elder. It will not have aeration and will be utilized for storage to load rail cars. This storage will allow Farmway to stage the grain for loading two trains simultaneously.

 Great Harvest

            “The fall harvest is over,” Mark Paul said. “We had a wonderful harvest. Farmway took in 124% of a normal fall harvest including all crops. We couldn’t have asked for a better crop plus we have good prices. It’s nice having both in the same year.”

            The 2008 wheat crop growing in the fields throughout Farmway Co-op’s trade territory looks pretty good, but could use some moisture. The Kansas Crop Reporting Service said recently that 70-80 per cent of the wheat in Kansas is good to excellent (early November report).

            “Farmway is carrying over a lot of wheat this year,” Paul said, “more than normal. This has allowed us to take advantage of the carries in the wheat market.

            “Our elevators have had the ability to hold grain until the last minute and then to get the grain shipped when it needed to be shipped,” he said. “This has been a real challenge though; trucks and rail cars were and are harder to get with the market saturated with grain.”

            Paul also said grain storage will be more critical in the future.

            “New storage must be constructed at the right time and at the right locations to take advantage of the marketing opportunities,” he said.
            “We want to thank our patrons for their business and cooperation during this challenging fall harvest,” he said. “It was a long and difficult harvest and we appreciate our patron’s loyalty and patronage.”

Mark Paul (l) Farmway Co-op's V.P. of Operations and Glen Elder Operations Manager Clay Henningsen (r) on one of the train locomotives at the Glen Elder operation. The Glen Elder unit train loadout facility is in operation and has already loaded out a total of 1.7 million bushels of grain as of November. 30th.

Joe Senger, Glen Elder Elevator Superintendent, reads the computer printouts as anothe rtrain is loaded at the Glen Elder unit train loadout acility. To date, Nov. 20, they have loaded out a total of 1,009,258 bushels of wheat.