$13M building to help flow of traffic at Sheffield grain cooperative

The River Valley Cooperative at the intersection of U.S. 6/34 and Route 40 in Bureau County is looking forward to more efficiency this fall, following a more than $13 million addition to its facility between Sheffield and Wyanet.

The company added a 3 million bushel capacity hoop building, that is 153 feet longer than the one already on the property. The new hoop building will house corn, while the existing hoop building will hold soybeans.

The location will be able to handle more than 200 trucks a day during harvest. The facility’s proximity to Interstate 80 and its corner spot among three major highways were instrumental in moving forward with the expansion.

“We’re going to be moving more efficiently,” said Ryan Kerber, regional operations manager of River Valley Cooperative. “We want to get more trucks through, faster.”

A new outbound scale has been added to increase the flow of traffic.

Construction of the new hoop building took about 2 1/2 years to complete – with more than 5,000 yards of concrete poured and 75,000 yards of dirt moved. More than 75 people worked on the site and Macon Construction of Bradford was the contracting company.

“It was a plus we were able to work with a local contractor on the building,” Kerber said. “Macon is the best in the industry at these kinds of build and they are right down the road from us.”

The original grain bins on the site were built in 1978 by the Barker family. A shed was added in the early 1980s and the first hoop building was built in 2018. And the facility still has space to grow, Kerber said.