Vice President & General Manager, Grain Division
October 1, 2025
Communities across the U.S. come together around fall harvest, the busiest time of year for farmers. This year’s growing season indicates a large crop to be harvested in many places – a welcome sign for both farmers and Scoular. We have been working hard over the past several months preparing facilities and crews to handle this crop, and we’re excited to serve our farmers as they reap the benefits of the growing season.
During harvest, we continually look for ways to put the right people at the right place at the right time.
This year could be one of the largest crops in recent history across our facilities in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska. Our Human Resources team began planning to support the effort months earlier, in mid-June, and is taking additional steps to reinforce our elevator teams.
“We are hitting harvest from all directions,” said Nicole Goldsberry, senior HR generalist.
We hired more temporary seasonal employees than we typically would and are mobilizing employees from across Scoular. For example, leaders at our Montana and Idaho facilities have raised their hands to send some employees to temporarily assist in western Kansas and Nebraska.
As in past years, our Pathways Career Development employees are pitching in. These recent college graduates participate in safety and other training, work as truck scale attendants and assist with truck dumping. A high school internship program Scoular established last fall also will help with labor needs.
Facilities are great places to learn teamwork, which was on display in mid-September at our Waverly, Illinois, high-speed shuttle loader on the BNSF main line. When a 115-car train rolls in, the team has 15 hours to load it with 450,000 bushels of corn.
From the scale house operator to the crew opening lids on the tops of cars for loading, everyone works in sync.
On the September day, scale operator Sarah Campbell probed a semi-trailer of corn to check moisture levels and oversaw other steps to check grain quality. If the corn meets the right specs, it may go directly into a rail car.
“I have to do my job correctly,’ she said. “What I do affects everyone on the team.”
Building a safety-first culture is a continuous process at Scoular.
Our fall harvest safety campaign provides three in-depth trainings and 10 shorter toolbox talks, covering topics from truck traffic to fatigue management. Each region selects topics based on top risks, and many facilities opt to share all training
Superintendent Ryan Hiller recently encountered a slugged stacker at our Adrian, Missouri, shuttle loader. A stacker is a large, drive-over conveyor belt that unloads a semi-trailer into a bunker. When the stacker is over-filled or filled too rapidly, it shuts itself down. The full conveyor belt of corn must be shoveled off for the stacker to be started again.
It was a busy day, with the shuttle train on the tracks and harvest trucks coming in and out. But before he began the clean-out process, Ryan made sure to lock-out and tag the stacker panel to prevent the equipment’s unintentional start-up.
“I was proud of Ryan at that moment,” said Scoular Environmental, Health and Safety Business Partner Mitchell Persinger. “Even during the busiest of times, employees must follow our safety procedures. Ryan is doing an incredible job leading the team and setting the standard for safe and responsible work.”
Producers need to dump grain fast and get back to the field to keep the combines running. In recent years, we’ve made major investments in our facilities, such as expanding storage capacity and boosting unloading speed by 30 percent in Pratt and Coolidge, Kansas.
We also invested in a new 110-car shuttle loader in Grainton, Nebraska. The expansion increased unload capacity to 44,000 bushels per hour, almost twice the previous capacity.
Jeremy Hagan farms corn, soybeans and wheat with his dad in nearby Madrid. He said the expansion has made unload times “significantly faster.”
“The faster you get it out of the field, the less the moisture drops in the crop. Every time you lose moisture, you’re losing money,” Hagan said. “The sooner you get it out, the better.”
Scale house lines also move quickly because of Scoular’s greatest asset: our people.
“We’re local, we’re part of the community,” added Melissa Norem, a Scoular general manager who works with our originators. “We know who you are – we know your face or your driver’s face.”
Senior Originator Marie Thompson’s deep connections with producers save them time when dumping grain at our Hancock, Iowa, facility.
In early July, Marie’s conversations with farmers become more frequent as corn begins pollinating and the producers start estimating yields. When a farmer mentions he expects to harvest 100,000 bushels, Marie knows how many he’ll haul to Hancock because she knows the farm’s storage capacity.
She usually can identify the farmer account by the truck, like the producer who owns only grey Peterbilts. When Marie sees one down the line, she’s prepared.
“It’s all about relationships,” she said.
We streamline the transportation of grain and agricultural products through an extensive network of rail and trucking partnerships. By leveraging strong carrier relationships and infrastructure investments, originators deliver tailored, reliable and cost-effective logistics. Annually, Scoular executes 1.4 billion bushels a year.
During harvest, we customize logistics plans to meet farmers’ specific needs, managing risks and in some cases coordinating grain pick-up at the field, directly off the combine. With facilities in key agricultural regions, Scoular ensures farmers have convenient access to markets through Scoular-arranged freight pick-ups, facility delivery points and storage opportunities.
Scoular Origination Specialist Travis Thimesch recalls that early in his Scoular career, a farmer shared the history of our Pratt, Kansas, facility, originally named “Gateway Ethanol.” The farmer believed the name was perfectly suited, as the visionaries who constructed the rail loop and ethanol plant created a “gateway” to improved grain markets.
When Scoular acquired the plant in 2011, brought in a partner to run the ethanol plant, and subsequently invested in additional grain storage and unload capacity, we built on this vision, leveraging our relationships to enhance market access for Pratt County.
“This showcases how Scoular is not just a grain trading company but a logistics company specializing in grain movement and execution,” said Travis.
Harvest isn’t a 9-to-5 job for farmers. Some of the most productive times to finish accounting and marketing work are during a quiet early morning or evening.
ScoularView is our farmer-facing tool that helps to get that work done – whether it’s checking the moisture of the last few loads delivered that day or making an offer to sell bushels to Scoular after hours. Farmers use it year-round for efficient record-keeping and marketing.
Over the last several weeks, Scoular originators updated account information in ScoularView with farmers so ticket applications are efficient. In time for this harvest, we added eSign capabilities so farmers can sign their grain contracts in real time.
“These features provide better customer service and more time in the field for producers during their busiest times of year,” said Ellie Katzer, an originator in Coolidge, Kansas.
As harvest season gets fully underway, Scoular’s commitment to supporting farmers, investing in facilities, and fostering a safety-first culture remains stronger than ever. By leveraging teamwork, technology, and deep customer relationships, we’re helping producers make the most of this year’s abundant crops.
For more information: Producers can find important information for harvest, like receiving hours at their local elevator, at Scoularview.com.