How Western Grain Marketing Reduced Harvest Internal Transfers by 50%

Unlocking $100k in Freight Savings

Western Grain Marketing (WGM), a GROWMARK member cooperative serving Western Illinois, became a Contango partner in early 2025. Since then, WGM has worked with the Contango team to implement technology that helps them achieve their long-term business goals. In practice, this means identifying ways to use Contango to increase revenue each quarter, then measuring the impact to the business.

Ahead of the 2025 harvest, WGM set a goal to reduce internal transfers, increasing margin through eliminating double elevation and unnecessary trucking costs. Additionally, this meant freeing up their own trucks to pick up more farmer grain from the field.

“If we're transferring, we're tying up trucks. We lose out on other opportunities we can have with those trucks to originate bushels off the farm." - Ryan Miller, Merchandising Manager

What began as a data analysis project grew into a new tool that allows users to view the origin of farmer deliveries and identify which deliveries could be redirected. By identifying the right farmers, understanding the freight math, and making the right calls, WGM was able to redirect grain before it ever arrived at a location that would require a transfer, saving trucking costs and reducing the operational strain that typically comes with a busy harvest.

By the end of harvest, the coordinated, team-wide effort reduced internal transfers by 50% and saving more than $100,000 in freight costs.

From Data to Strategy

It’s worth noting that before tackling the internal transfer reduction project, WGM used Contango to shift from grouped truck house bids to location-specific bids. This made it possible to adjust basis at the locations that typically fill up, incentivizing farmers to deliver to the optimal locations. 

“Contango's helped us with our bid process; we used to do group bidding, where all of our locations had the same bid. Contango helped us move to location-by-location bidding, and that helped drive the focus to the locations we wanted to go by allowing us to bid properly, to push bushels to locations where we want them to go rather than just having one bid. Contango's really opened up some doors for us." - Ryan Miller

Once bids were location-specific, Ryan Miller, WGM's merchandising manager, took the next step to reduce internal transfers. He identified which locations historically plugged during harvest, and then the team pulled historical contract and scale ticket data to find which farmers consistently delivered to those high-volume locations, but could easily deliver to a preferred location. Then, the analysis compared freight and basis differentials for each farmer to deliver to the preferred location.

"Contango helps us identify areas where those bushels might be, where there might be some overlap. It's really good to visualize that through Contango, where you're overlapping with another location you want to transfer to. That's helpful as far as identifying where those bushels are at and where you need to redirect them. It's also good to have those pre-harvest planning meetings so you can get out in front of it. If a customer is prepared going into it, they know what's coming, and that makes it a lot easier to manage through. It helps to have the history, you kind of know what you need to do and where you need to move the bushels," said Ryan.

In many cases, the analysis revealed a win-win path for both farmers and WGM. The freight differential between a farmer's typical delivery location and one of WGM's preferred facilities was close enough that a modest bid adjustment made the alternative delivery more attractive for the farmer, and still saved WGM the cost of trucking that grain a second time.

Redirecting Deliveries

With the analysis in hand, Cole Stock, WGM's grain marketing manager and origination leader, worked with his team of market advisors to put the strategy into action. The team worked through the list of target farmers, calling to ask if they'd be willing to deliver to a different location than they had in previous years. When needed, they adjusted the bid to make sure the deal worked for the customer. But, in many cases, the bid at the preferred location was strong enough to outweigh the freight differential.

"There were certain instances where we'd have to increase our price by three to five cents; however that's still cheaper than the 10 to 12 cents, plus the trucking cost and labor it would have cost us to transfer that grain ourselves later. Ultimately, that still shakes out to a win for the customer and a better end result for us." - Cole Stock, Grain Marketing Manager

Cole’s team made it a point to call farmers well before harvest to propose the alternative delivery location. “A few of our team members did a really good job of getting in front of the customer and communicating, which made the conversation a lot easier when you give them heads up and notice,” he said.

While calling farmers ahead of harvest to direct them to the ideal delivery location was the main objective, these conversations also served as opportunities for additional pre-harvest touch points with key customers, helping the team build out a book going into the fall season.

Results and Impact

At the end of harvest, WGM's efforts culminated in a 50% reduction in internal harvest transfers. Internal corn transfers came in at 681,000 bushels, down from approximately 1,300,000 bushels the prior year, after accounting for changes in storage capacity at one location and old crop bushels transferred early in the season. The reduction in transfers also created some unexpected operational flexibility that came in handy.

"It gave us a little more flexibility. Maybe this bin we had previously used for corn, we can handle beans here instead, because we're moving those corn bushels to this other location," said Cole.

The project demonstrated how an idea, paired with data analysis and action, can evolve into a repeatable process. What started as a one-time analysis project has since been built into the Contango platform, giving WGM and other Contango partners a structured way to reduce internal transfers heading into future harvests.

"As long as nothing has changed, we're probably going to have the same issues year in and year out. It's not just a one-year thing. We need to work every year to make those moves happen and move those bushels where we need them to go before they’re delivered," said Ryan.