SALINE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — For the John Marion Grain Elevator Co., success has come about through a combination of good luck, hard work and proactive management.

It all started in 1961 when the company’s namesake, John Marion, along with his wife, Margaret, bought a house and 40 acres of land in Saline Township, just west of the town of Saline and 45 miles west of Detroit. At that time he was a milk hauler, explained his daughter, JoAnne Roehm, who is now the president of the company.

“He picked up the milk in cans from local farmers – yes, the kind you see in antique stores now – put them on a truck, took them to a dairy in Detroit where it was processed and he then delivered the milk. He was one of the first ones to buy a bulk truck,” she said.

Roehm added there was no grain elevator nearby at that time. Farmers had to take their grain all the way to Toledo where they delivered it to Archer Daniels Midland, The Andersons and, at that time, Cargill. Doing that cost money and valuable time.

Marion saw the need for a local grain elevator. For a small fee, Roehm said, the company was able to take a farmer’s grain, which allowed them to get back into the field faster to finish the harvest.

“We always say he purchased the first grain dryer in 1965,” she said. “There was a need for drying in this area. He put in the leg and the pit right around (19)66, ‘67. The business grew. Soybeans came in the ‘70s. We never grew soybeans around here earlier. He got into the fertilizer business in the ‘70s. We even had a feed business.

“We sold off the feed and fertilizer businesses in the ‘80s. It just got to be too much. We wanted to stick to our core business. We put in a bigger leg and pit in the ‘80s.”

In 1997 her father retired and Roehm became president of the company. Her husband, Ron, became vice president. The company now has two other elevators, one in Britton, which Ron manages; the other is in Dundee.

“My husband, Ron, grew up on a farm, too, and he loved farming,” Roehm said.

Roehm said ethanol has really changed the business, and for the better. But in the 1980s and 1990s it was “really a struggle” for grain elevators.

“The farmers were really struggling. But the last few years have been really good for farmers and they’ve been really good for us,” she said. “But we feel like we have to keep getting bigger, plus yields have increased, so they keep getting a bigger harvest. Demand has increased, and that’s good.”

The average farm in the area is also much bigger. She said it used to be 500 acres; now it’s more like 1,500-3,000 acres.

Roehm added there are only two grain elevators left in Washtenaw County: hers and Chelsea Grain. She said there are more in Lenawee County to the south, which has a bigger farm base. She explained customers expect faster service and better price, but some of the grain elevators didn’t adapt.

“We try to keep up and we’re always trying to do things better,” she said. “We’ve worked on our merchandising skills.”

She said the company joined in a membership with a merchandising firm called White Commercial Corp. in 1991, which specializes in helping grain elevators do a better job. “They’ve really helped us and are one of the reasons why we’re still around.”

(This is the second in a short series about older grain elevators in the Midwest, and how – or if – they are still doing business today.)