The Sinai Cooperative Grain Elevator sells gasoline and diesel fuel at pumps. The fuel is sold on credit but no credit cards are accepted. Patrons establish an account with the elevator. When purchasing fuel the buyer enters his/her ID #. At the end of the month the Elevator sends a bill for the fuel purchased. It's a helpful system allowing me to fuel tractor, truck or car 24/7.
The December bill arrived and with it some news about the Elevator. In 2025 it handled 1,060,422 bushels of corn and 163,017 bushels of soybeans. This latter figure is interesting becasue a soybean processing plant is in Volga, 10 miles away. The soybean plant pays the best price so, why did beans come to Sinai? One guess is that the sometimes hours it took to unload at the soybean plant made Sinai attractive. There wait times were minimal. Also, farmers south and west of Sinai would save ten miles of hauling.
This statement was included in the Elevator's report. "We tried something new this year and bagged corn to ship out later. There are ten bags filled with 135,000 bushels of corn." The local corn crop was so huge that many terminals stopped buying before harvest ended. With this storage option Sinai kept buying until the end of harvest. Perhaps some of those sellers may become regular patrons. Hopefully, management did the calculations so that all this corn can be marketed at a profit.
Sinai Cooperative Elevator is a bit of an anomaly as it is locally owned and free standing.. Most local elevators have forgone independence and joined large amalgamations. Why has Sinai Elevator been able to remain independent. Perhaps there are two reasons. It's has had years of good management. Elevator management is extremely complex. Second, the local farmers are loyal patrons.
Takk for alt,
Al
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