FS Grain operates 18 grain facilities across northern Illinois, including three rail-loading sites, and moves millions of bushels of corn and soybeans each year. Despite that scale, one stubborn challenge cuts across every rail location: the heavy labor burden of opening and closing railcar lids.
General Manager Collin Graves explains the issue plainly:
“We struggle at each of our rail-loading sites with the amount of labor it takes to open and close lids. Finding people willing to do that for 10 to 15 hours at a time is a struggle.”
Like many rural grain companies, FS Grain faces:
The goal wasn’t to cut jobs. It was to protect employees, reduce fatigue, and make critical rail operations more reliable and consistent.
“When you're fatigued, you tend to make mistakes and are more prone to injuring yourself.”
FS Grain recognized that to support their teams and maintain high operational performance, something needed to change.
FS Grain handles corn and soybeans across a large regional footprint, with the St. Anne, Illinois facility now expanding from a 25-car loader into a full shuttle loader shipping 15 million bushels annually.
Innovation has long been part of the company’s identity.
“We pride ourselves on being a leader. We're no strangers to implementing new features in the agricultural sector.”
The combination of a major facility upgrade and long-term workforce needs made automation not just appealing, but strategically important.
FS Grain chose to implement RAYHAWK’s autonomous railcar lid-handling system, an investment that aligned perfectly with construction timelines and long-term operational goals.
“The timing of this RAYHAWK investment is perfect. It lines up with our construction and our desire to load units as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
Doing nothing would have meant hiring more people for a job that is difficult, repetitive, and hard to staff: especially in rural Illinois.
“Doing nothing would have meant hiring additional people, and being in a rural site makes that tough.”
Instead, FS Grain saw an opportunity to modernize operations, improve safety, and increase efficiency while positioning the company as a regional leader for top talent.
Railcar lid operations were among the most physically demanding tasks in the company, and among the most challenging to staff.
The company is known for adopting technologies that bring real improvements. RAYHAWK fit that mindset.
“We’ve had many initiatives where we try to be on the leading edge, though not always the bleeding edge.”
Automation makes FS Grain more attractive to younger workers who expect modern tools and safer work environments.
“We want to attract young talent and make sure we’re a company that can survive into the future.”
FS Grain aims to be the most dependable origin point for rail partners and buyers.
“We want to perform for the railroad… to be a trusted origin. That requires reliability in loading.”
Automation pulls employees out of long, repetitive shifts that lead to injuries and mistakes.
By shrinking the labor burden, FS Grain can confidently meet rail schedules without burning out teams.
Being one of the first adopters in Illinois comes with visibility and interest.
“We love being the first. We love having eyeballs on FS Grain.”
Local curiosity is already growing.
“Neighbors are interested in our investment and want to see it up and running.”
FS Grain’s leadership wanted proof, not promises. Collin and his operations director, Brian, got exactly that when they came to visit the live system installed at G3, near RAYHAWK’s headquarters in Saskatoon. It became clear that RAYHAWK wasn’t a prototype: it was a field-proven solution tackling the exact problem FS Grain needed solved. It just hadn’t been implemented in the US yet.
“For our board to have faith in the investment, we wanted to see it firsthand. Seeing is believing, and it wasn’t just a brand-new toy. It was actually effective in performing a task we struggle with on a weekly, monthly, daily basis.”
Seeing RAYHAWK perform exactly as described, paired with the professionalism and capability of the team behind it, closed the decision.
This mix of timing, validation, and vision convinced FS Grain that RAYHAWK was the right long-term partner.
“It’s always scary to enter the unknown. It’s important to challenge your status quo. Don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from giving something a swing.”
FS Grain’s confidence comes from firsthand experience:
“We’re really confident in RAYHAWK’s ability to deliver because we’ve already seen it firsthand. A lot more companies will benefit from this system moving forward.”
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