Unlike many cooperatives that have branched out into multiple areas, including crop scouting, seed sales and convenience stores, Farmers Elevator Company of Manteno, IL, specializes in just one thing — grain.

According to Tom Taden, general manager, Farmers Elevator Company has been in the business of buying and selling corn, soybeans and wheat since 1913. “We're very specialized at what we do and we do it well,” he says.

One important measure of the cooperative's success is the amount of patronage refunds it pays its customers. Owners of First Preferred Stock received $0.04/bu. of grain purchased and 10% of the drying and storage fees they paid in each of the last two years.

Although Farmers Elevator Company's grain business has been going strong for more than 90 years, its Web site is less than one year old.

“I'd been wanting to do a Web site for several years, but it really wasn't feasible until wireless Internet service became available in our community last summer,” Taden says.

Judging from the positive feedback he receives, the most popular feature on the Web site is Taden's comments on the grain markets. The Web site also features cash and futures grain markets, company history, weather information and a page dedicated to grain drying and storage costs.

“The Web site provides basic information for our customers and absentee landlords,” Taden says. “One of our absentee landlords is located in Switzerland and regularly visits the site.”

Web site features requested by customers are added if they're in the interests of the cooperative and the customer. For instance, new crop grain bids for 2004 were added to the Web site during the 2003 harvest at the request of a customer.

Taden estimates that he spends 30 to 45 minutes a day writing commentary and updating the cash grain bids. “Anyone in our company could update the grain bids,” he laughs, “but no one else will stick their neck out to write the commentary.”

Web Foot Designs of Manteno designed and hosts the Farmers Elevator Web site. The company, owned by Taden's wife Barbara, designs and hosts sites for a variety of business and community interests in the Chicago-land area and beyond.

One of the biggest challenges for the Farmers Elevator Company is its proximity to Chicago — just 50 miles from downtown. “Our grain facility started out on the edge of Manteno, but today we're right in the middle of a growing bedroom community,” Taden says. “We strive to do everything we can to keep our neighbors happy.” However, the resulting community growth has resulted in more stringent rules for the elevator's operations and any possible expansion.

Farmers Elevator Company covers a trade area that runs approximately 25 by 12 miles to the north of Manteno with grain facilities at Manteno and Whitaker, IL. Six permanent employees handled close to 4 million bushels of corn, soybeans and soft red winter wheat in 2003 for approximately 300 grain customers in Will and Kankakee Counties.

The proximity to Chicago allows Farmers Elevator Company to offer more competitive grain bids because it sells to more locations both by rail and by truck. The cooperative currently has the capacity to load 10 railcars at a time.

Economic development and land speculation continue to be challenges for the cooperative. “Direct farmer ownership has fallen to 30 to 40%,” Taden notes, “and that's a definite decrease over the past 15 years.” He reports that, following a national trend, the average farm size has increased to the current 1,000- to 1,500-acre range.

According to Taden, speculative purchases of land often give the farmer a big price for his land along with a multiyear farming lease. Community development also takes a big share of farmland. “If it keeps going, so much land will be used up in development we'll cease to exist,” Taden says.

Another threat on the horizon is the prediction that a third Chicago-land airport will be constructed. “That would take a sizeable chunk from our grain base,” Taden admits.

Still, he isn't giving up hope. “In the next five years we'll probably get larger either through a merger or consolidation,” he predicts, “allowing us to increase our volume and business to spread out our costs.”

Visit Farmers Elevator Company of Manteno at www.fecmanteno.com.

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