HELENA, Ark. -- Grain producers in the northwest Mississippi/east central Arkansas areas now have a new market for their crops with the reopening of the ADM Grain facility on the Mississippi River at Helena.

“We’re really excited to be in this market,” David Glidewell, manager of ADM Grain’s Memphis territory, told area growers at a get-acquainted meeting recently. “ADM has invested a sizable amount of capital to serve this market. We’re making a serious commitment to be here for the long run.”

They will buy soybeans, wheat, corn, milo, and post-harvest dry rice.

Gene Hosey and Chris Kale, partners in Farmers Supply at Marvell, Ark., expressed an interest in loading barges at the facility and contacted ADM.

“We at ADM Grain saw this as an opportunity,” Glidewell says, “and with Farmers Supply, we started loading barges here. Business growth was excellent, and we reached the point we felt we needed to expand and provide more services.

“We’ve been loading directly onto barges since January. In May, we’ll have two more loading pits in operation, which will allow us to access some of the concrete storage bins and to receive more than one commodity at a time. The three loading pits will be able to handle 25,000 bushels per hour, which will be by far the largest capacity operation in this area. We now have about 770,000 bushels of storage capacity.

“We have a very efficient operation here, with state-of-the-art equipment, and we have a good team in place, headed by Vince Horton, our elevator manager.

“We feel these facilities are unsurpassed in the area, and we’re committed to doing everything possible to meet our customer’s needs — getting their trucks unloaded and back in the field as quickly as possible. The prices we pay for grain will be competitive, and payment will be quick; we issue checks the next day unless the grower specifies otherwise.”

Customers will have E-ADM Web-based personalized accounts, which can include market prices, weather, daily market commentary, futures/options/charting, market calendars, loan deficiency payment information, and grain market intelligence. They can also check their truck deliveries daily, including weights, contract and settlement information, etc.

“Our grain marketers are experienced in various strategies,” Glidewell says. “We can help farmers find the best tools for their business, work with them to identify the most appropriate strategy, and then put the right mix of marketing alternatives to work for them.

“This means personalized attention to helping growers combine a variety of tactics to best market their grain. We’ll provide as much or as little assistance as a grower wants.”

Farms are getting bigger, yields are increasing, and markets are getting more complicated, Glidewell notes. “With ADM’s vast resources and a knowledgeable staff of marketers, we can help our customers sort through the challenges of marketing grains in today’s global arena.”