New grain elevator opens to benefit local farmers

HUMBOLDT, Tenn. — A new facility just opened in Humboldt to benefit the local farmers of West Tennessee.

“Not every farmer has grain bins where they can handle this by himself, so the biggest goal is customer service,” said Danny Kitzman, the elevator account representative.

Trucks dropped off the winter wheat harvest Monday at the new Humboldt elevator. The new facility has been open about a week and already has seen a surge in business.

“During peak time, we typically see about 250 [trucks] just depending on the season and rainfall, but the best time of day we reached right around 250,” said Jed Garber, the elevator operations manager.

The main focus for this facility is to be more convenient for our local farmers. The next closest grain elevator is in Trenton and Dyer. It allows farmers to travel less and get back to the fields faster.

“As crop sits in the field, yield can go down and things like that. So for him to make the maximum about of money, he needs to get it from the field and into the elevator,” Kitzman said.

Facility operators say the Humboldt elevator will also help take some of the overload from the Trenton location and be a shorter trip for farmers bringing their harvest from the south.

“It’s a 40-bushel-an-hour facility, so grain can be taken very quickly,” Kitzman said. “From there, it’s sold to the end user, be it a dog food plant, the chicken house, or it may go for export at the gulf or something like that.”

“We’ll be shipping out through rail and through trucks,” Garber said.

The elevator will also store corn and soybeans when those become ready to harvest.