The Michigan morning is bitterly cold yet beautiful, with just a dusting of snow on the frozen ground. The large farm elevator complex at the Jorgensen Farm in Williamston is abuzz with activity. A three-member team from the Michigan Department of Agriculture is arriving to make the yearly audit of the Jorgensen Farm Elevator, Inc. 

(Click on the Pictures for a Closer Look)

 The Jorgensen Farm Elevator is one of 280-some licensed grain elevators around Michigan. Grain elevators receive, handle, store and ship bulk raw agricultural commodities including corn, wheat, oats, barley and soybeans. By checking all of Michigan's licensed grain elevators yearly, Jim Harrington, Ken Hribek and Mark Johnson, part of Producer Security Services, a section of the Marketing and Communications Division, Michigan Department of Agriculture, work hard to ensure that elevators are financially secure operations.

  "A grain elevator is like a bank for producers of grain," explains Jeff Haarer, program manager for Producer Security Services. "Farmers make deposits in the elevator. Sometimes the grain they bring represents the majority of the income they earn that year."  When the farmer brings in grain it is weighed. (The scales are checked for accuracy by the Michigan Department of Agriculture's Weights and Measures inspectors annually.) Once the grain is weighed, the farmer can take one of three options:

*They can sell the grain outright to the grain elevator. (Daily prices are posted right at the elevator.)  Or, they can put the produce on a "price later agreement," or other marketing transaction, which gives title to the grain dealer and allows dealers to move the grain as the market dictates. On a price later agreement, the farmer has the option of setting a price for the grain at a date later than when he delivered the grain.

*They can pay the grain elevator to store the grain and then withdraw it as needed or sell it at a later point.

*While their grain is held at the grain elevator, they can have it dried in massive dryers such as the one seen here on the left.

Jim, Ken and Mark carry the title auditor. They travel throughout Michigan and are part of a larger Producer Security Services team that includes Haarer and Jo VanNorman, grain license administrator.  They enforce the Michigan Grain Dealers Act (PA 141 of 1939 as amended), which provides producer security to producers who have their farm produce handled by a licensed Michigan elevator.  When a farm elevator fails the inspector's audit, it may be closed down and grain assets may be liquidated for the farmers who have grain in storage or are owed money by the grain elevator.

Here's a picture, left to right, of Jo, Jeff and Cinda Karlik.  Cinda, formerly a field auditor and audit supervisor for MDA and now a financial program coordinator for MDA's Fairs, Exhibitions and Racing Division, remembers fondly her days climbing the silos and doing audits. "The biggest change came when computers were introduced to the audit process. They saved us time and allowed the grain elevator operators to have a copy of the audit report detailing the day's findings the very same day."

The Jorgensen Farm Elevator is a relatively large operation. Often a Producer Security Services inspector may come and inspect smaller or similar-sized grain elevators all alone. The job involves a variety of tasks. A typical inspection might go like this.

An inspector or a team arrives. Typically, the operator of the grain elevator does not know they are being audited until the inspector arrives.  The inspector climbs the steep, winding steps that wrap around the outside of the silo. In some silos, the top is only accessible by a ladder enclosed in a cage.

"Our inspectors have to take extreme care and follow Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations …it's a risky job," says Haarer. 

In a few large, highly modernized operations, the inspector may be able to reach the top of the silo by elevator. Once they reach the top of the silo, the inspectors check the level of the grain by lifting the lid of a small opening and dropping in a "bobber."

The "bobber" is a tape measure with a brass weight attached. Once dropped in, the bobber hits the top level of the grain and an inspector can figure out the amount of grain left in the silo. When looking inside the silo, the inspectors also see if the grain is piled up or inverted.

The inspectors travel on a series of catwalks from silo to silo inspecting and measuring each.

An inspector will not only climb to the top of silos, but will spend considerable time in the office of the grain dealer going over records. By measuring how much grain the grain elevator operators have, the inspector can determine have enough grain to cover all their obligations. "We want to be sure that the grain operator is solvent so that farmers will be paid for their grain." The inspector checks over a dozen financial areas to assure that the grain elevator is operating in a fiscally sound manner.

The day is busy even though winter is a relatively calm time of the year. The inspectors leave. The Jorgensen grain elevator is, they determine, in compliance. Mike and LeAn Turner are the agents for the operation and will once again display the paperwork documenting that their business is a licensed grain operation in compliance with Act 141 PA, 1939, as amended. The inspectors are proud to be helping assure the security of the farmers and people of Michigan.

It is still bitterly cold and the climb up and down the silo is an arduous one.

At the same time, the audit in the office is a very different kind of challenge needing strict attention to numbers and detail.  The inspectors bring their own computer and can print out a final tally of their inspection and audit for the operation's agents. Each inspector has a part of the job they like best, though all enjoy working with farmers and the careful methodical scrutiny of records.

Even in the cold, all comment on the beautiful view from their perch at the top of a silo high above the bountiful farmland of Michigan.