A $27 million grain-handling facility was being worked on in Hamilton on Wednesday. The project will consist of three 80-foot diameter grain silos and one 60-foot silo. The large silos will each have a 560,000 bushel capacity, while the smallest will be able to hold 316,000 bushels.

MFA advancing grain complex

By Ray Scherer News-Press Now

HAMILTON, Mo. — A $27 million grain-handling facility, set to serve farmers across the region, is progressing toward a summer completion.

MFA Inc. officials said weather has not significantly altered the work schedule for the shuttle-loader facility going up in rural Caldwell County, on the south side of U.S. Highway 36 and 5 miles east of Hamilton, Missouri.

Construction of the 110-railroad car capacity complex began June 1. MFA, a grain marketing and farm supply cooperative, is partnering with MFA Oil to build the facility on Union Pacific Railroad track. The latter firm is a farmer-owned energy supply cooperative.

“Our goal is to provide products and services” to the co-op’s farmers, said Craig Childs, senior vice president for MFA’s Agri Services Division. “It was identified there was a need for a grain-handling facility in the area. ... It’s to serve farmers in Northwest Missouri. I anticipate it will have a 100-mile draw.”

Childs said the co-op works with 21 grain facilities in the region.

“We buy grain at those 21 other facilities,” he said, adding the complex will aid in the distribution of animal feed for the domestic market and also internationally.

Nathan Belstle, MFA’s project engineer, said about 60 workers — representing five companies — remain on site for the construction. Weather has made its presence known, with most parts of the buildings’ footprint mired in thick mud.

“We’re caught back up,” Belstle said. “We had a tremendous amount of rainfall this summer. That hindered some of the dirt work.”

The project will consist of three 80-foot diameter grain silos and one 60-foot silo. The large silos will each have a 560,000 bushel capacity, while the smallest will be able to hold 316,000 bushels.

The facility will be able to receive two separate lanes of grain shipments at a pace of 30,000 bushels an hour. A turn lane for trucks will be constructed off U.S. Highway 36.

Size and efficiency in the ever-growing world of agricultural production are the objectives.

“You have to have bigger facilities that can unload faster,” Childs said. “This facility is (being) built for speed.”

Railroads prefer to load grain via the shuttle method for ease of movement from a point of origin to a destination. Union Pacific will build mainline switches to the complex.

The co-op reviews its entire trade area in deciding where best to locate its facilities, according to Childs.

A grand opening will be held once the shuttle loader facilities are finished.

Ray Scherer can be reached at ray.scherer@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter: @SJNPScherer

The Caldwell County News

101 South Davis
P.O. Box 218
Hamilton, MO 64644
Phone: 816-583-2116
news@mycaldwellcounty.com

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