Golden Grain Hums Along

Golden Grain Energy, LLC, has been processing ethanol for more than 20 years at Mason City, IA.

The plant, which produces more than 120 million gallons of ethanol a year, has utilized Vertical Software since 2005, when it began using Vertical’s ScaleTrac and GrainTrac software packages. It has since added CenterPoint financial software from Red Wing Software of Red Wing, MN supplied by Vertical. Vertical also supplies hardware used by Golden Grain, including Vertical kiosks, remote printers, RFID tags, and intercoms.

Golden Grain is one of 27 ethanol plants that use Vertical Software for their operations, according to Sean Schaffer of Vertical Software, a Valstone Company.

Brooke Peters, Golden Grain chief financial officer (CFO), was part of the group that evaluated software options when the ethanol plant’s managers decided to change software. “Our commodity manager at the time had used Vertical Software at his previous job and recommended the company,” recalls Peters, who has worked at Golden Grain for 19 years.

Programs Used

ScaleTrac: The scale ticket software is used to track all of the more than 40 million bushels of corn that Golden Grain processes annually and its outgoing ethanol and co-products, including dried distillers grain (DDG), modified distillers grains with solubles, and oil from the corn kernel. “The scale automation with ScaleTrac has improved our efficiency and ability to better serve our customers delivering to the plant,” Peters says. “The entire package with the kiosk, remote printers, RFID tags, and intercoms has kept us current with technology and the ability to continue to grow. Adding the technology has helped us better serve our customers and shortened our lines and wait time.” 

GrainTrac: 

Vertical’s grain accounting software allows the ethanol plant to settle all its daily corn positions. “We also import our outgoing ethanol sales directly into the system,” Peters notes. Vertical created an import system for Golden Grain, she adds, so the company did not have to hand key every ethanol load into its system. CenterPoint: “All of our information from Graintrac imports directly into CenterPoint,” Peters states. “This saves errors by not having to handle manual entries and makes our team more efficient as manual entry is a timely process. It is great to have all the systems integrated together for reporting and tracking purposes.” Vertical’s customer service is “always ready to help,” Peters adds. “Their customer service is top notch, and they are always willing to try and mold reports and how our system runs to our specific needs.”