Van Horne grain elevator scheduled to open Friday

A grain elevator in Van Horne will open to the public Friday after being acquired by a different company.

Benton Grain Co., 98 Railroad St. in Keystone, acquired the Van Horne grain elevator on July 1 from the Shellsburg Elevator.

Owner Rick Nolan said the elevator in Van Horne will be treated as an additional branch of Benton Grain. Nolan said the facility was purchased because of its close proximity to the Keystone company.

Van Horne is roughly seven miles from Keystone.

Nolan said the elevator will be open for new contracts with local farmers. It has the capability to store 700,000 bushels of corn and soybeans.

'Whatever people want to bring in, we will take care of it until we get full,” Nolan said.

The elevator will open just in time for the fast approaching fall harvest. During the harvest season, Nolan said the elevator will be open seven days a week with extended hours.

Nolan said he plans to update the elevator in the near future, but has done some work on the structure for this fall. Equipment has been updated, including a larger grain receiving leg.

'We're going to do what we can to maximize what we have for equipment there at this time,” Nolan said.

Nolan said more updates will come as harvest season slows down.

'We're just going to do some renovations and modernize it a little bit so we can adequately dump trucks a lot quicker than what it is,” Nolan said. 'It's an older elevator. We're just running out of time before fall.”

Nolan has owned Benton Grain since 2000.