Farmers in west central Illinois will have nearby facilities to store and process grain this harvest season and beyond after a small but established elevator company purchased eight closing facilities from Viterra USA.
Hillsdale Elevator Company acquired eight facilities — including ones in Galesburg and Abingdon — on Aug. 23 from Viterra USA Grain, formerly known as Gavilon Grain LLC.
In addition to the facilities at 75 Maple Ave. in Galesburg and in Abingdon, Hillsdale purchased properties in Ophiem, Alpha, New Windsor, Viola, Alexis and Henderson. All eight facilities were scheduled to close for business this summer before being acquired by Hillsdale.
Based in Hillsdale northeast of the Quad Cities, Hillsdale Elevator Company also operates in Orion, Geneseo, Annawan and Fenton.
Hillsdale Elevator Company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021.
“They were going to close those eight facilities, and would have left farmers there with nowhere to go. Guys were panicking.” — Doug DeBuysere, general manager of Hillsdale Elevator Company
Doug DeBuysere, general manager of Hillsdale Elevator Company, tells WGIL, “We’re excited, and really looking forward to the takeover. The phone has been ringing off the wall.
“They were going to close those eight facilities, and would have left farmers there with nowhere to go. Guys were panicking.”
DeBuysere said Hillsdale has had an access agreement with Viterra for about a month “so we could get in there and keep things going before the sale.”
According to Knox County property transfers, Hillsdale Elevator Company purchased the Galesburg property from Viterra Grain USA for $2,623,957.
The acquisition of the eight sites will more than double the storage capacity for Hillsdale Elevator Company.
“Normally, we’d buy a site or two at a time, but this opportunity came up and we bought all eight,” DeBuysere said. “We have a little work to do, but we’re excited and ready to get going.
“The countryside seems to be pretty excited we’re coming in there.”
Hillsdale offers a variety of services to farmers, according to DeBuysere.
“Farmers can sell their corn and soybeans through us,” he said. “They can market through us, sell direct or sell through us. We can store it. They can bring us wet grain and we can dry it.
“A lot of our facilities are older, but if you drive by them now, you’d think they were brand new. That’s kind of our specialty.”
He added, “We have a three to five year plan to get these facilities up and going full bore, or as farmers around here joke, the Hillsdale way. We’re always in the process of revamping so we can speed up the process, because we know a farmer’s time is money.”
