GrainSense at Sunrise Agribusiness Solutions
The team at Sunrise Agribusiness Solutions is driven to serve farmers and ranchers with transparency and trusted relationships. That is why it was natural for Travis Kraft with Elevate Ag to introduce the business to GrainSense – a tool he knew would help them market a portion of the nearly 100 million bushels of grain they oversee for customers in Colo., Kan., Texas, and Neb.
Elevate Ag is the sole distributor of GrainSense technology in the United States. The easy to carry machine that puts decision-making power literally in the hands of farmers, ranchers, and business owners, is a tool that can track grain quality instantly and anywhere. The analyzer is a battery-powered grain quality meter that utilizes NIR (near infrared) technology. Users receive reliable protein, moisture, oil, and carbohydrate content in seconds from just a few kernels.
“We were optimistic, but cautiously optimistic,” admitted Brunner. “I told Travis if GrainSense was accurate even within a half of a point compared to my high-dollar protein machine in the office, that I would buy 10 and get them into farmers’ hands. I was surprised to see how accurate these handheld devices are.”
“We were messing with a GrainSense device just yesterday,” he went on. “A client was looking at a bin of wheat and we ran his sample through my high-dollar, state certified large machine and then the GrainSense Analyzer and we were within two-to-3/10 of a point difference.”
“I did not believe testing the wheat at 30-plus moisture would be as accurate, but it was,” Brunner added. “Last year, they were also paying a premium prior to harvest for protein. GrainSense allowed my customer base to participate in a pretty large premium basis because the machines gave us the confidence that we could get to the protein minimum at 12 percent. The machines more than paid for themselves getting that premium market sold.”
The team at Elevate Ag is honored to be associated with Sunrise Agribusiness Solutions and its genuine desire to help farmers and ranchers. Brunner explained more about the business, its services and where his passions arose from, “When I was a kid, I enjoyed going to my grandparents’ farm and my aunts’ and uncles’ farms too. It was rewarding seeing how hard they worked and the challenges and fruits of their hard work coming to fruition. There was something about livestock and plants growing, and I wanted to be part of that.”
“I also remember my grandparents focusing a lot on the news and listening to markets on the radio,” he recalled. “I knew the agricultural industry was diverse and complicated enough that if someone was passionate about something they could find their niche and mine happened to be on the grain merchandising side.”
“We started Sunrise Agribusiness Solutions on August 1, 2019. Prior to that, I was working under the local coop umbrella. I also got my start at Cargill right after college, but we had the family dream of keeping the family in small town U.S.A. So, I left the corporate world in 2014. That is when I started to envision the grain marketing service and was able to move my wife and family to Hayes, Kan. where she is from,” Brunner explained.
“At Sunrise Agribusiness Solutions we pride ourselves on a very relationship-based, transparent organization. The farmer knows up front how Sunrise is going to get paid and it’s our job to bring the market to the farmer and coach the farmer on how or when to sell. We are a fee-based company, and we get paid to provide information to the farmer on price discovery and what the grain is really worth,” he said. “We have an office presence in Kansas City, Salina, Hays (headquarters) and Winona. We have a tremendous group of folks who have left corporate America who have helped design the vision of the farmer merchandising relationship.”
“Now we are also helping farmers to transport their grain from their farm directly to the consumer,” he added, noting new trends, “Farm to Fork” and “Dirt to Dish,” are helping to inspire these efforts. “We are trying to help farmers extract as much value from their product that they worked so hard for – from bushels to flour to pounds of beef. We will help the farmer not only on timing when and where to sell, but also trucking logistics.”
Brunner said in closing, “I am thankful for the opportunities that allowed me to get into agriculture and I have not let it go – it’s in my blood.”
Thank you, Travis Brunner and team, for your business! “Elevating” stories like yours excites the team at Elevate Ag to no end. Learn all about tools, products and services determined to maximize your profitability and farm/ranch potential at:
Written by: Kerry Hoffschneider