Larned, KS: Grain Elevators and Alfalfa Dehydration Plant

Bob Summers posted two photos with the comment: (Satellite)

Pawnee County Co-op main location in Larned Kansas. Obviously expanded numerous times over the decades. A "full service" cooperative handling grain, feed, seed and fertilizer as well as fuel not shown in these photos. Fairly typical in services offered, if not physical layout, here in Kansas.

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Bob Summers posted
In the '70's when Garvey Grain bought an elevator in Larned Kansas the Pawnee County Co-op had the other elevators in town. This one, the small slip form complex, seemed dormant without activity at harvest. Likely they used it to store small quantities of "off season" grains to free up space in their larger elevator. The small slip form complex pictured was the elevator for a flour mill that had gone out of business and been torn down. After the rail roads discontinued the "transit" provision in their rate structure, the Pawnee County Co-op built the large jump form tanks pictured to be able to retain the grain here that was previously shipped by rail to terminal elevators using "transit."

Bob Summers posted two photos with the comment:  (Satellite)

We (Garvey Grain) purchased this little concrete elevator in Larned Kansas in the mid '70's. We had our 20 million bushel terminal elevator in Wichita, so our interest was in the potential to originate grain, not the storage capacity of the country elevator. We also had a sizable fleet of leased hopper cars to supplement what the AT&SF would furnish. The original little "short & fat" concrete elevator on the left was significant only in the ability to have space for a little grain in the "off season", i.e. wheat during fall harvest or milo during wheat harvest. We found that most of the older elevators had a "choke point" in the grain flow that when resolved could enhance the ability to handle grain faster with minimal investment. Also from the 2nd photo it is apparent that we doubled the railcar spotting capacity by being able to load on two tracks. The result is we could load multi-car (15 - 20) hoppers per set, which was significant for a country elevator at the time. We could hear aeration fans when we were there, so the Pawnee County Co-op is still using this facility, probably for small volume grains such as soybeans or milo during corn harvest.

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Bob Summers posted two photos with the comment:  (Satellite)

Sometime back I posted the remains of a couple of alfalfa dehy plants in central Kansas. This is Bert & Wetta's main location in Larned Kansas, still in operation. We did not detect the unique aroma of alfalfa being dehydrated so not sure if just not actually cooking when we were there, or if use a different process now. Alfalfa is still an important feed ingredient here in Kansas.

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