Getting Crops and Livestock to Market – Marketing Our Crops

Finding New Markets for Grain

When World War II ended, so too did European need for U.S. grain. But with surplus to sell, representatives traveled to Europe in the hopes of finding markets for Illinois grain.

Illinois Agricultural Association (IAA) leader Dwight Davis of Bloomington met with a group in Italy. The manager of an Italian supermarket told him, “U.S. trade is the greatest protection we have in Europe against Communism.”

World grain markets became more open to U.S. imports in the 1970s.

During his 1965 trip to Europe, Dwight Davis spoke with A.W. Kline, an Italian grocery manager, about the importance of agricultural trade between their two countries.

In 1972 the U.S. government sold $750 million worth of U.S. grain to the Soviet Union—to be purchased over a three-year period. At the time it was the largest agricultural commodities transaction ever made between the two nations.
Bloomington Pantagraph July 7, 1972

Gaining Customer Loyalty

In the 1980s McLean County farmers did their part to ensure that international buyers were familiar with U.S. grain operations and quality to gain customer loyalty.

In 1986 representatives from the Soviet Union, Turkey, Mexico, Germany, Spain, Great Britain, Korea, the Netherlands, and Hungary visited the Mecherle farm to gain a better understanding of Illinois marketing and production processes.

“We know how to produce corn, but we need to find better ways of marketing it. Greater demand for U.S. ag product needs to be created abroad.”
— Mike Walden, Shirley farmer
Bloomington Pantagraph, September, 1982

Gary Pitts explained the farm operations he managed on the Mecherle farm to a group of international representatives who visited the farm in 1986.

Market Fluctuations

The number of corn and soybean acres planted, the density at which they were planted, as well as their yields, all increased as the last half of the 20th century passed. Market fluctuations of as little as a penny had a dramatic impact on McLean County profits.

In 1997, a year in which 47,087,376 bushels of corn were produced in McLean County, each penny gained in price per bushel meant a rise in McLean County corn income of $470,873. In 2015 McLean County farmers produced 63,148,000 bushels of corn.

How much would McLean County’s corn income increase if the price went up by a penny, 50 cents, or a dollar?

Crops delivered to the local elevator came in much faster than they could be shipped to processors. The result was that many elevators, like the one pictured here, stored excess grain on the ground or in temporary enclosures until enough rail cars were available.

Grain Storage

During the 1990s McLean County’s corn crop typically left the field to be taken to on-farm storage, or to the local grain elevator.

From the local elevator some grain was transported by rail to Illinois processors, like Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Decatur, or to livestock growing regions elsewhere in the US.

Grain was also trucked to Pekin or Peoria where it was loaded on barges, then shipped down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, then on to global markets.

An 80-car train, loaded with corn at AgRail’s west Bloomington terminal, headed to western U.S. markets.

Tom Sage inspected a rail car loaded with corn at the AgRail’s west Bloomington terminal.

A worker monitored the chute as a river barge was loaded with soybeans.

Grains Sold Worldwide

By the 1990s the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) handled all U.S. foreign grain markets and McLean County’s corn and soybeans were sold worldwide.

Export destinations for U.S. corn in 2014

Export destinations for U.S. soybeans in 2014.

Previous: Marketing Crops and Livestock Next: Grain Elevators