T-R PHOTO BY CHUCK FRIEND Construction is progressing at the new Mill Junction grain elevator site on Highway 14 north of Grundy Center being constructed by Mid States Millwright for Mid Iowa Cooperative based in Conrad. The new elevator will have a capacity of 5 million bushels when it opens in September, with another 1.5 million bushel capacity to be added during Phase II.

By CHUCK FRIEND

TIMES-REPUBLICAN

CONRAD – Mid-Iowa Cooperative , based in Conrad, has always prided itself as being a progressive company that tries to focus on things that truly matter to its producer members in order to bring the most value back to them. Its nine locations have continued to serve those members very well throughout the years, but soon that number will grow to 10 with the addition to a new site north of Grundy Center to be known as Mill Junction.

According to CEO Mike Kinley, he has done business around the world and has come to know that Grundy County lies in one of the top three production areas in the world because of its soils.

“We have world class production here, because of world class soils and world class producers,” Kinley said. “The only thing that was missing in that equation was world class grain elevators.”

“As producers have more and more technology and larger operations, they get things harvested faster and need partners that can provide elevators that can maintain the quality of the grain to the upmost and receive grain just as fast,” he said. “That is why we chose to build a new site in this area.”

Dirt moving started at the new location just a short way south of the junction of Highways 20 and 14 north of Grundy Center in September of 2017, with construction on Phase I scheduled to be completed Sept. 1.

Kinley said that the new facility would be able to receive 55,000 bushels of grain per hour, amounting to 50 grain semis. Phase I will see the construction of four 750,000 bushel bins, plus a 565,000 bushel wet holding bin and three dump pits with the total capacity when opened at 5 million bushels.

Phase II will add two additional large bins, and increase the total capacity of the Mill Junction site to 6.5 million bushels.

“It is really concerning to me that with all of the investment that the producers put in to their crops, that grain elevators do not provide the kind of facilities that these producers deserve. At Mid-Iowa we are committed to do all that we can to insure that the quality of grain that is harvested is preserved,” he said.

Construction is on schedule thanks to the general contractors Mid-States Millwright, who have caught the progress up after the colder and wetter than normal April the project experienced.

Along with this new site, Mid-Iowa has grain sites in Conrad, Beaman, Gladbrook, Liscomb, Haverhill, Green Mountain, Midway (Toledo), Garwin and a seasonal agronomy site near Whitten.

Kinley said the local coop works extensively with the people that they sell grain to and with ethanol plants by trucking grain to them.

The mew location was named Mill Junction due to its proximity to The Mill gas and convenience store at the highway junction, and due to the fact that the Germans who settled in the area came over form Friesland where mills were popular.

“This location will serve all of Grundy County, Hardin County, Butler County and Black Hawk County very well, and where it is not in town will not create and congestion with traffic,” Kinley said. “We like to be good neighbors.”