Development News From Southwest Indiana

Cargill expanding-Mount Vernon grain facility is in midst of $4.5 million improvement project
By BILL MEDLEY Courier & Press staff writer, June 28, 2005

A multimillion dollar expansion of a Cargill grain facility in Mount Vernon, Ind., is under way to process increasing grain yields from Southern Indiana farmers, a company official said Monday.

Cargill AgHorizons is in the midst of a $4.5 million project that will boost the facility's storage capacity and improve its overall processing operations, said general manager Kyle Kuepker.

As part of the expansion project, the company is expecting delivery this week of a large truck pit. The pit, which Kuepker describes as a "significant piece of equipment," measures 17 feet by 24 feet and will require a police escort similar to that of a "superload" that traveled through the Mount Vernon area earlier this month.

On June 15, Indiana State Police had to escort a refinery vessel from BWX Technologies in Mount Vernon to the Illinois state line. That load measured 188-feet long and 20-feet high and took about five hours to travel 30 miles.

In addition to the new truck pit, the Cargill facility will add about 2.8 million bushels of storage capacity and an up-to-date drying system.

"It will be an improvement in our overall grain handling operations," said Kuepker. Cargill also has similar facilities in Evansville, Vincennes, Princeton and Cynthiana, Ind.

The expansion is needed to increase capacity to handle higher yields produced by Southern Indiana farmers, Kuepker said. He declined to reveal how much grain the Cargill facility handles.

"The wheat harvest has been very good," Kuepker said. "Yields have been decent and the quality has been good. It's much better than was first anticipated when it was planted."

Other grains are also faring well and those markets are expected to continue to improve.

"This past corn harvest was the largest in U.S. history," Kuepker said. "With that in mind, that's one reason why we're doing this expansion."