Wheat Growers will build a first-class grain handling, fertilizer and agronomy facility in Lyman County, starting yet this fall. Wheat Growers’ Board of Directors has chosen a site in Lyman County, South Dakota, for a shuttle loader grain handling facility and agronomy center. The site will be in Kennebec, South Dakota, and will be located along the soon-to-be rehabilitated line that is part of the state of South Dakota’s expansion of heavy-rail service from Chamberlain to Presho.

“We selected this site after an extensive financial and structural review of several sites in the area,” Hal Clemensen, President of the Wheat Growers Board of Directors, said. “Our cooperative will move forward with dirt work and construction this fall with the goal of having the agronomy facility ready for business by the winter of 2015/2016 and the grain handling facility completed in time for harvest 2016.”

Wheat Growers had pledged to build a shuttle loader grain handling facility and agronomy center in Lyman County if the state of South Dakota rehabilitated the Chamberlain to Presho route. The South Dakota Department of Transportation recently announced that the state had been awarded a $12.68 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant. The grant money, along with $7 million approved by the South Dakota Legislature for the project, an additional $7 million committed by the state Railroad Board, and over $1 million in private funds raised by Rails to the Future will be used to rehabilitate approximately 40 miles of rail line between Chamberlain and Presho.

“This is great news for the state and for growers and agribusiness in central South Dakota,” Dale Locken, Wheat Growers CEO, said. “As promised, our farmer-owned cooperative will now move forward with our plans to build a first-class elevator and agronomy facility on the rehabilitated heavy rail line in Lyman County.”

“We want to thank Governor Daugaard, the state legislature, our Congressional delegation and the Rails to the Future group for their tremendous support of this project and the commitment of state and private funding in addition to the TIGER grant funds,” Clemensen added. “Now we’ll put our pledge into action as we build this state-of-the-art facility for growers in the area.”