McNabb Grain Co. celebrates 100 years

MCNABB — It was 100 years ago, on March 22, 1913, when nine local men were elected to serve as directors of the board of the new McNabb Grain Co.

The men were part of a group of farmers who worked together to have an elevator in McNabb where farmers could store their grain and borrow money against that grain for their farming and living expenses.

On Friday, the elevator will celebrate 100 years of serving the McNabb farming community.

There have been a lot of changes in those hundred years.

“In 1913, they moved 273,000 bushels of grain and had no patronage refunds,” said Gregg Carr, one of seven men who now make up the board of directors. “Last year, we moved 4.7 million bushels, and we gave patronage back to the customers of $543,000.”

Carr said the business has had to grow to meet customers’ needs due to increasing corn yields and more planted acres.

Carr gave much of the credit to the good managers the elevator has had throughout the years, including current manager Bart Ericson.

Ericson said the elevator has had to learn to be more efficient.

“Back in the day, there were always long lines, and now people don’t have time to sit and wait,” he said. “Therefore we’ve had to adapt as the farmers adapted, becoming more efficient and faster at what they do.”

Carr said farmers used to come to the elevator with 200 bushels of corn in a wagon.

“Today they’re bringing in 950-bushel semis or more, or wagons that are holding 1,100 bushels,” he said. “Everything is bigger.”

Like other grain elevators, the McNabb Grain Co. takes grain in and stores it on behalf of the farmer.

The farmer pulls onto the scales with a loaded semi or wagon. The grain is tested for moisture or damage, and then is dumped into a pit. The truck is then weighed again empty, and the farmer heads back to the fields.

“We condition that grain — basically we dry it at harvest, so it stays in good quality,” Ericson said. “We monitor that quality until the farmer decides to sell it, so we can move that grain out to the destination.”

The farmer can sell the grain to the elevator immediately, or he can store it.

“We buy it from him eventually, but the fact that we offer storage gives him that flexibility that he can sell it at anytime he wants,” Ericson said.

Another important aspect for farmers is time.

“As the farms get bigger, time is of the essence for a lot of farmers,” Carr said. “They want to come in, weigh, dump, and get out of here in five,10 minutes.”

While most farmers are loyal to one elevator, that loyalty can be tested if the wait is too long.

“If we have a line, they might drive by, and if we’re shut down, they might drive by and go to another elevator,” Carr said. “We don’t want that. We want them to stay local and keep the business here.”

In addition to handling more grain, the elevator has changed in other ways. One hundred years ago, the elevator also handled coal, lumber, feed and other items, but now it’s strictly a grain elevator.

Those changes haven’t always been easy.

Board President Ben Day has been on the board since 1971. He grew up in the area, and the McNabb Grain Co. has been a part of his life for a long time.

Day said the board has made a few decisions over the years that were pretty unpopular at the time, but they needed to be made.

One of those was the closing of the feed mill after John Gorman started auditing the business.

“One of the first things he told us, he says, ‘You guys are losing $20,000 per year on that feed-mill,’” Day said. “It was definitely unpopular, but it was one of those things that needed to be done.”

Carr said doing what needs to be done is important to the board.

“When we look at a decision that has to be made for this company, we’re looking at the company’s bottom-line,” he said. “It may affect us — negatively or positively — but we’re looking at what’s best for the company.”

Another change the elevator has had to deal with are the high commodity prices of the last few years.

“What it does is increase everybody’s financial needs, both the customers’ and the elevator itself,” Ericson said. “Prices have gone up, but so have inputs. So have cash rents. So has the cost of equipment. It kind of runs together, and it just puts a bigger need for a strong working capital and balance sheet.”

Day said when he got on the board, they would talk in terms of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Now we talk about millions,” he said.

At this 100-year celebration, the McNabb Grain Co. is not done growing.

“We’re looking to expand,” Carr said. “We’re looking at the possibility of another leg, another pit, another holding facility, so we can accommodate more farmers at once. When the grain’s ready to haul, there’s a time window, and we want to keep farmers here and keep them happy.”