Harvest in Central Illinois

This fall I had the opportunity to work for Topflight Grain Coop as an operations intern during harvest season. Topflight has nineteen different grain elevator sites across Central Illinois and I primarily worked at their location in Cisco, Illinois. During my time there, I was able to learn a great deal of information about grain elevators and the agriculture industry, in general.

On a daily basis, I could be found on-site at Cisco or at any of the neighboring coop sites. In Cisco, my main responsibilities were to unload grain trucks for grain storage and assist in the process of loading grain for shipment. I was also responsible for various housekeeping tasks and measuring the storage depth of our grain bins. At our neighboring coop sites, I generally helped out with various grain storage tasks, such as pulling tarps over grain stored in unconstrained piles on the ground. Our two methods for grain shipment were trains and semi-trailer trucks. At the beginning of my internship, the traffic passing through our scale house was rather slow, but in just a few short weeks, harvest really kicked off. At the peak, we were unloading grain trucks non-stop from 7 in the morning until 7 at night. We were very busy!

My internship with the Topflight Grain Cooperative provided me a wealth of knowledge about the agriculture industry and it was an experience I will never forget. Coming into the position, I had never truly worked in the ag industry, so I brought limited knowledge with me on day one. In just a week’s time, I was able to learn all about grain, grain storage & shipment, grain elevators, and the many different components of an ag cooperative. In the weeks following, I was fortunate to interact with a variety of the areas I had been trained on, such as grain shipment and storage. Throughout my internship, I helped load several trains and I helped to load and unload hundreds of different grain trucks. Along the way, I was fortunate to meet a handful of farmers and grain truck drivers, which showed me just how friendly and laid back the ag industry can be.

The internship experience I had with Topflight Grain Cooperative prepared me for a career in the ag industry and it is something I will never forget. From the long hours to the numerous relationships I built, I developed a better understanding of just how much hard work goes into farming and I am very grateful for the experience.