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The first rail cars full of corn have departed from the new Archer Daniels Midland elevator south of Tulare.
The facility opened April 4 and since that time has been receiving grain.
"We have been pretty pleased with the start-up," said Jeff Gottman, general manager. "Things have been going smoothly so far."
Construction began on the 2.2 million-bushel-capacity elevator at the end of 2010.
The facility is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 281 and state Highway 23, seven miles south of Tulare and five miles west of Hitchcock.
At the center of the compound are huge, concrete silos with steel bins on the east and west sides. The design aids in the logistics for loading trains, Gottman said.
A 7,400-foot-long railroad track loops through the site. High-speed loading equipment can fill 110 to 120 railroad cars with grain in about 10 to 12 hours, he said.
The BNSF Railway requires that the trains be filled in a maximum of 16 hours, he said.
Eleven employees work at the elevator, and there is a possibility that one or two more will be added, he said.
The elevator draws farmers from a wide geographic area. Producers from Brown, Beadle, Clark, Faulk, Hand, Hyde and Spink counties are expected to use the facility, Gottman said.
