USA: Great Western Malting Co. is closing its grain elevators in Carter and Brady and getting out of the grain handling business, a spokesman for the Vancouver, Wash., company says. "We are focusing our resources on our value-added malt business," said Bob McKeon. Malt is made from barley and used to make beer and flavor other foods. The closures mean the loss of five jobs, three in Brady and two in Carter. McKeon said employees will receive a severance package and resources designed to help them find other jobs. The move leaves Columbia Grain as the sole grain elevator in Carter. Brady no longer has a grain elevator that buys grain from farmers.

Great Western, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Canada Malting Co. Ltd., the world's second-largest producer of malted barley used by brewers, distillers and food manufacturers, has malting operations in Vancouver, Wash.; Pocatello, Idaho; and Los Angeles.

"We hate to see this happen; we need all the grain elevators we can get," said Chouteau County Commissioner Ken Evans, who farms north of Fort Benton. Montana Farmers Union President Brooks Dailey said he's not surprised at the announcement. "We saw General Mills exit the grain trade in Montana last year," he said. "Farmers have seen this on the horizon already."

In August, Great Western Malting leased its Shelby grain elevator to the only other grain company in town, Harvest States Cooperative.

The company recently extended its lease on property at the Port of Vancouver until 2017. Great Western Malting acquired the elevator in Brady in 1983. In 1999 it took over the elevators in Carter and Shelby from Peavey Co.

13 February, 2004