Three weeks ahead of the 2025 harvest season, Ken Meinhart, grain division manager of Total Grain Marketing FS (TGM), walked the perimeter of the company’s newly renovated Neoga, Illinois, grain storage and rail loadout facility.
“Right now, it’s not a 100% complete project; it’s probably 98% there,” he said.
The timing of the project’s completion is crucial. The corn, soybean and wheat facility is a major transfer hub for several neighboring locations in TGM’s 25-facility network. Situated on 20 acres and connected to the Canadian National (CN) main rail line, Neoga ships out roughly 85 million bushels of grain annually.
“It’ll be 100% by the time harvest starts rolling in for corn,” Meinhart said.
Expanding capacity for farmers
The $18.5 million investment includes a new high-speed rail loadout system, a 50,000-bushel/hour bucket elevator, a 25,000-bushel/hour bucket elevator, and two new 750,000-bushel steel bins.
The expansion was driven by two primary needs. First, growing business in central Illinois created long wait times for producers.
“We needed more road staging area for the customers in line and also wanted to significantly increase dumping and receiving capacity to get them in and out as fast as possible,” Meinhart said.
To solve this challenge, TGM tripled dumping capacity to 75,000 bushels/hour by replacing its dump pits with two new 1,000-bushel pits and adding 1.5 million bushels of storage. The location’s total grain capacity now stands at 4.5 million bushels.
Second, Neoga’s previous rail system was undersized for its shipping volume.
“The significance of this facility within our network is that it’s an internal transfer point for rail,” Meinhart said. “We operate 35 trucks that haul a lot of transfers from our truck houses into Neoga, primarily to load out for Gulf export and poultry feed mills in Mississippi.”
The upgraded rail system now runs at 50,000 bushels/hour and pulls directly from the new bins, enabling crews to unload a 105-car train in just 10 to 12 hours.
“Our goal was for our customers to win with better service, for the community to win because we’re better neighbors and, ultimately, for TGM to win with increased volume through here,” Meinhart added.
Building for the future
TGM’s leadership began exploring the Neoga expansion in spring 2023 as part of a broader infrastructure improvement initiative aimed at strengthening the company’s position as a key supplier for Gulf export and poultry feed markets.
The poultry market’s expansion and projected growth drove management to renovate and acquire several facilities throughout the state to meet or exceed TGM customers’ future needs.
“We’re doing an even larger expansion in Lis, Illinois, that will be finished at this time next year,” Meinhart said. “We operate a former The Andersons facility in Champaign, and we have a large facility in Casey, Illinois, that is a major rail hub, too. We’re building a lot of infrastructure so we can set ourselves up for long-term success with our customers in various places.”
Growmark Commercial Construction designed the Neoga project, but TGM acted as its own general contractor. Ground was broken in May 2024, and the location continued receiving grain throughout the 16-month build. Much of the equipment was purchased directly from suppliers and installed by TGM’s 10-person millwright team and in-house electricians.
The project encompassed a two-lane loop road, receiving building, new dump pits, bucket elevators, a bulk weigh system, a 40-car rail spur, storage bins, catwalks, dust collection and hazard monitoring equipment. A new control room equipped with PLC systems and CCTV cameras now allows operators to monitor every aspect of facility operations in real time.
Training and safety
The Neoga facility employs seven people, five of whom are dedicated to operations. With the new rail system expected to at least double throughput, operator training has been a priority.
“The volume we move will double — if not triple — what we’re moving presently, so there’s going to be some training and knowledge that needs to be obtained over the next few months,” Meinhart said. “Grain moving fast is great, but if we have a breakdown, do you have a bigger problem? Yeah.”
To minimize those risks, hazard monitoring systems, shaft sensors and temperature sensors were installed to alert operators of overloaded elevator legs, plugged switches or other mechanical issues.
Community impact
Neighborly courtesy is also a priority for TGM. For years, loading a train in Neoga took two and a half to three days, often blocking rail crossings and creating headaches for the community.
“It’s a hindrance to the traffic flow in the community, so we bought an additional 20 acres of property, added a 40-car rail spur, and now all of the cars will be loaded on TGM property with our 50,000-bushel/hour bulk weigh system in 12 hours or less,” Meinhart said. “More importantly, we’ll be blocking very minimal railroad crossings on the street side.”
Dust and noise were also addressed in the upgrades.
“Our neighbors have to bear with dust and noise — locomotives traveling through and blowing their horns,” Meinhart said. “So, we’ve tried to pull a lot of that noise away from the community and further to the southeast of our facility, so it’s a little quieter and cleaner-looking for our neighbors.”
Looking ahead
The new Neoga site was designed with the potential to add another 2.5 million bushels of storage. Market conditions will determine whether that expansion moves forward. For now, the focus is on efficiency and service.
“It’s all about operational excellence,” Meinhart said. “We’re able to take it in as fast as we can and ship it out on rail as fast as we can to keep inventory turning and have enough space available for our farmers.”
Meinhart hopes the modernized facility also helps with future labor recruitment.
“This is a testament to how we work smarter, not harder,” he said. “And we have been for the last 10 years. We’re getting more efficient with our grain movements, making life easier for our employees, and I hope that spreads by word of mouth.”
Just in time for the most critical stretch of the year, TGM’s Neoga renovation represents a major milestone for the company. By combining greater efficiency, enhanced safety and improved community relations, the project positions TGM for long-term growth while delivering immediate value to farmers in central Illinois.
For Meinhart and his team, the expansion is more than an investment in infrastructure — it’s an investment in the future of their customers, community and cooperative network.
