Rahr at Taft keep trucks rolling

The barley harvest this time of the year has trucks jockeying for position on a daily basis at the Rahr Malting Co. at Taft.
The semi-frenzied routine — customary at harvest — returns after the valley’s corn and bean leave the fields.
Kevin Grothmann, independent trucker out of Hillsboro, hauls on a regular basis from the Taft elevator to Rahr’s giant receiving station at Shakopee, Minn., just outside Minneapolis.
Rahr’s own truckers, in addition to the independent drivers, have been going out of their way to accommodate the highway construction currently underway in Hillsboro. The detour back north to the Mayville interchange on I-29 adds a few miles and minutes to the daily run south to Shakopee. 
The inconvenience will be well worth the wait, according to Rahr’s general manager at Taft: Darrel Miller.
Rahr’s trucks will return to the well-traveled route south through Hillsboro when the highway construction project on Hwy. 200 in town is completed, which should be inside a month’s time, Miller and his drivers are hoping.
To be exact, the road through Hillsboro is contracted to be completed by Sept. 10.
We can wait, hinted Grothmann.
“We’ll have to, I guess.”
Grothmann, who just got into the trucking business earlier this year, appreciates the loads he’s paid to deliver to Minneapolis.
Rahr at Taft, he said, is a “good outfit. They’ve treated me really good.”
Hillsboro farmer mark Steenson, who hauls his barley into Taft, is also appreciative of the local barley shipper.
“They’re a great bunch of guys. They play fair and they’ll work with you.”
Steenson was harvesting the first of his 300 barley acres Sunday in the shadows of the huge Rahr grain bins at Taft.
The Rahr Malting Co. handled around 12 million bushels last year, according to Darrel Miller. He would like to think the Taft elevator complex will handle a few more bushels this year.
Rahr at Taft has a storage capacity of 450,000 bushel. The Rahr Malting Company also has storage facilities at Amenia, N.D. and at Campbell, Minn.
While the barely harvest if over half completed in the Hillsboro area, statewide the harvest was at 20 to 25 percent done earlier in the week, Miller estimated.
Rahr at Taft, meanwhile, is wating to move the crop south.
“You bet,” said trucker Kevin Grothmann.