Riverland Ag pledges improvements, crop contract varietyMore acres in the Powell area may be planted to oats over the next few summers as Riverland Ag takes over the barley facilities operated by Anheuser Busch at Ralston and Powell. “We are very interested in expanding this crop,” said Don Grambsch, president of Riverland Ag, which already has contracts in other areas of the United States with companies such as Quaker Oats and General Mills.

Earlier this month, Riverland Ag announced it had bought the Busch Agricultural Resources facilities at Ralston and Powell.

Grambsch said last week that when Busch Ag representatives asked if Riverland Ag was interested, they didn't hesitate.

Grambsch told nearly 150 growers at a meeting Thursday that Riverland Ag is well-financed across a diversified spectrum of grain storage distribution facilities from across the Midwest and into Canada.

“I know that's your first concern,” he said, that growers will wonder if the company can pay for its grain contracts. “We're prepared to go through the necessary examination” and company officials met last week with local banks and ag lenders.

He wants to expand the barley receiving station at Ralston. He told the Tribune that it can easily handle 3 million bushels of barley during an average harvest, but its potential is unlimited.

“We will invest in the elevator,” Grambsch said. “Certainly we need an outbound scale. We are going to spend some money on the elevator. We'd like to see this facility handle 5 or 6 million bushels rather than 3.”

He couldn't speculate on barley contract prices, he said. Those prices are generally set according to how much Anheuser Busch InBev and Coors will pay, he said.

“Everybody waits every year” for those prices, he said.

Current Anheuser Busch employees, including Ralston manager Richard Redd and the seed plant workers, will stay on, Grambsch said.

Andy Zenor of Anheuser-Busch said declining beer sales and using less barley in light beer varieties prompted the company to sell.

“It's not a supply issue,” he said. “We've gotten great quality malting barley. This is really a demand situation for us.”

Grambsch said adding contracts for oats or other crops — peas, spring wheat or even possibly corn — would supplement barley, not replace it.

Barley “is our first love,” Grambsch said, “but our favorite girlfriend is still oats.”

Grambsch and other company representatives met last week with University of Wyoming Research and Extension Center researchers, asking about oat varieties that could do well here.

Powell farmer Lyle Bjornestad, a former UW research center farm manager, said years of UW test plots showed oats can thrive here: Commercial fields here already boast the Powell variety, named for this town.

Heart Mountain grower Mike Forman, who grows oats and barley, asked Grambsch about Quaker Oats quality specifications.

“Milling quality is not always a set of numbers,” Grambsch said. Companies are setting stricter limits because they have to meet nutritional claims they make on their labels, he said.

“There's all sorts of claims being made in the aisle,” including glycemic indexes, he said.

Grambsch said he hoped to bring Quaker Oats representatives to the area within the next few months.

Asked whether Riverland Ag might start handling spring wheat within the next few years, Grambsch said, “I'd like to handle it sooner than that.”