There is a lot that goes into bringing grain from the field to the consumer. An important part of that process is the role that local grain elevators play. They are the ones that take in the grain before shipping it to other facilities that will further process it.
In recent years, there have been more challenges with not only storing grain, but also moving that grain from the elevators. With a shortage of rail employees and other supply chain issues, grain isn’t always able to leave facilities when they are scheduled to.
Dylan Beaver is no stranger to these challenges. Beaver is the Grain Merchandising and origination manager for Alcivia. He says that they are entirely dependent on the trains schedule.
“If the train shows up at midnight, you have to start loading the train at midnight,” said Beaver. “They’re definitely short crew members…it kind of slows down their process of when they deliver.”
What happens when an elevator is running out of storage space and the trains don’t arrive when they are supposed to? According to Beaver, that all depends on the scenario. Sometimes they will have to transport grain by truck and sell it for a loss. Other times they will have to find
“That’s where we have to know how to pivot,” said Beaver about running into a situation like that. “That’s the biggest thing is we want to keep the space and we want to keep the lights on because we want them to continue to get their crop out of the field and into our elevator.”
