For more than a century, The Equity has served farmers across southeastern Illinois with one clear focus: doing what’s right for their owners and the communities they serve. Founded in 1919, The Equity now supports producers across 23 counties through a full suite of services including agronomy, grain, feed and livestock, energy, and farm and home retail.
Grain, in particular, has been a major growth area. With more than 40 million bushels handled in the past year, The Equity continues to invest in infrastructure that supports modern production agriculture: faster, safer, and more efficient than ever before.
That commitment was tested in late 2024.
A Call No One Wants to Get
On December 28, 2024, Mark Tarter, Vice President of Grain for The Equity, received a phone call from local police: a grain bin had collapsed at the cooperative’s newly acquired Westfield, Illinois location.
More than 1M bushels were spilled, damaging the site and creating a massive cleanup and operational challenge. Westfield had been part of a June 2024 acquisition, and suddenly, the team was faced with a decision that would define their relationship with the local farming community.
“It took about a minute to decide,” Tarter said. “We were going to rebuild for Clark County.”
Seeing Opportunity Through the Damage
While the collapse was disruptive, it also revealed an opportunity.
Much of the existing infrastructure at Westfield was slow, dated, and inefficient. Rather than patching together old systems, The Equity made the decision to remove the damaged structures entirely and rebuild with the future in mind.
“We wanted to build it for modern production agriculture,” Tarter explained. “Speed, space, and efficiency were the priorities.”
The goal was clear: create a grain facility that could serve growers better, not just immediately, but for decades to come.
Choosing the Right Partner
When it came time to rebuild, the decision on who to partner with came just as quickly.
Valley View Agri-Systems was the first call.
Tarter cited a long-standing relationship with Matt Nesbitt and immediate trust in the Valley View team. That trust was reinforced earlier in 2024, when Valley View helped The Equity implement a quick efficiency project. Shortly after acquisition, The Equity deployed VVA to add a dry leg that increased dumping capacity by 11% in the first year at the Martinsville Rt 40 Shuttle Loader location.
“They know what a country elevator needs,” Tarter said. “I trusted them enough to call before the insurance company even arrived for the Westfield collapse.”
While the project was bid competitively, confidence in the Valley View team, along with their ability to see the full picture, set them apart. In this case, the partnership was built on trust, not paperwork.
“It was a handshake,” Tarter noted. “We didn’t need the contract to know what mattered.”
Executing Under Pressure and on Purpose
From the outset, Valley View took a hands-on, transparent approach. Weekly coordination calls kept everyone aligned on timelines, deliveries, and next steps. Even while demolition was underway, Valley View had crews lined up and geotechnical work completed in advance, ensuring no time was wasted once the site was cleared.
The timeline was aggressive. Harvest was non-negotiable.
And the result was nothing short of remarkable. Just 272 days after the bin collapse, the Westfield location was dumping its first truck. “We pulled off a miracle,” Tarter said. “From day one, everyone knew we had to be ready for harvest, and we were.”
VVA was able to deploy twin 20k bushel dump pits and 20K bushel material handling equipment, a new 4700-bushel tower dryer, along with 850,000 bushels + plus of new storage and a 500,000-bushel ground pile, automated to be filled from the new dump pit.
Safety as a Shared Value
Throughout the project, safety remained paramount.
Valley View conducted daily toolbox talks, maintained strict jobsite controls, and ensured subcontractors followed the same standards. For The Equity, where safety has become a core principle over the past several decades, this alignment mattered.
“Safety starts at the top,” Tarter said. “And Valley View made it part of everything they did. We appreciated that greatly.”
Serving the Community, Then and Now
For The Equity, the Westfield rebuild wasn’t just about replacing steel and concrete. It was about proving something to the community.
At 106 years old, reputation matters. The speed and scale of the rebuild demonstrated The Equity’s long-term commitment to Clark County farmers, showing that the cooperative doesn’t hesitate when its owners need support.
“We picked up new business this year because of the speed and space we added,” Tarter shared. “The community sees that we don’t mess around. We’re going to do what farmers need us to do.”
A Recommendation Without Hesitation
When asked whether he would recommend Valley View Agri-Systems to others, Tarter didn’t pause.
“They’d be my first call.”
That endorsement speaks not just to a successful project, but to a partnership built on trust, accountability, and shared values: serving agriculture with purpose.
