Northside Elevator celebrates 75 years of agricultural innovation

Steve Brussow founded Northside Elevator in 1948. Shown are members of the Brussow family currently involved in the business (from l-r): Jordan, Ted, Cameron and Tim.

By Valorie Brecht, The Tribune Phonograph

From a local feed mill to a regional hub for dairy nutrition, agronomy services and grain handling services, Northside Elevator has contributed much to the Wisconsin agriculture industry since its inception in 1948.

History

The Brussow family owns Northside Elevator, based in Loyal. Ted Brussow, CEO, is part of the third generation of the Brussow family to work at Northside. Tim Brussow, also third generation, serves as a senior dairy specialist. Jordan Brussow, fourth generation, serves as chief financial officer. Cameron Brussow, also fourth generation, serves in customer service.

Steve Brussow, the founder of Northside Elevator, began working for August Witt and Sons feed mill during his high school years. In 1948, Steve purchased August Witt and Sons and started Northside Elevator. The original mill was on Loyal’s Main Street in the space that is currently Citizens State Bank. Steve raised his family, including his son Tom, in lodging above the mill. Tom worked in the mill as a child and through high school.

In 1964, Tom became the mill operator and managed five employees. Northside was a successful business offering a multi-species product line – including feed for cows, chickens, hogs and horses – to serve the needs of the customers. The feed business has been the backbone of Northside Elevator.

A fertilizer plant was added in 1968, capitalizing on another market. In 1978, the fertilizer division added crop spraying to its services.

In November 1970, a fire destroyed the mill. One of Northside’s wholesale vendors, OW Trindal, made an offer to service Northside customers in the evening hours. Tom worked with OW Trindal during the day and then serviced Northside customers by night alongside OW Trindal staff. In 1971, Steve and Tom rebuilt on the land in the present location. In 1985, Northside constructed the first of many grain bins.

In 1990, Northside internalized the trucking and logistics by purchasing their trucking provider. Internalizing the trucking business helped Northside grow its direct-to-farm commodity business. In 1992, dairy nutrition consulting was added to Northside’s services. Also that year, Ted began working in the mill. Over the next few years, he began to run the business, eventually becoming president and CEO.

In 2009, the current feed mill was built, modernizing and increasing the manufacturing capacity. The business is Safe Feed Safe Food certified. To guarantee quality of outgoing products, Northside samples all incoming ingredients on a percentage use basis.

In 2017, Northside acquired the Golden Grain business south of Loyal and had more grain bins constructed, increasing the total storage capacity to 4.4 million bushels.

The calf feed mill, with a 2-ton ribbon mixer, was completed in 2020. This addition has separate receiving and unloading, preventing contamination and reducing fines. The company’s corn, oats and pellets utilized for calf grains are double screened.

Today, Northside has almost 140 employees, the majority of whom are at the Loyal location.

“We’ve tripled in size over the last handful of years. It’s been exciting for the Brussows,” said Bryan Mergen, Northside Elevator’s director of growth.

Services

Northside has three locations: Loyal, Stanley and Arcadia. The Loyal location offers three main services: feed manufacturing, agronomy services and products, and the buying and selling of grain. The company manufactures feed for dairy cows and calves, and delivers it to the farm if the farmer desires. Northside started out offering feed for multiple species, but gradually specialized to just dairy. However, there are a lot of options within Northside’s dairy nutrition services.

“We offer mineral mixes all the way up to complete feed for dairy cows,” said Mergen.

They also offer custom vitamins and minerals if a farmer is looking to address a specific issue with their animals’ nutrition. There are several delivery options as well, including bulk feed delivery, bagged feed delivery and direct semi-loads of various commodities or custom mixes. Northside has a pelleting mill and also recently built a calf feed production facility. They offer milk replacers for feeding young stock.

For agronomy services, Northside offers nutrient management planning, field-by-field nutrient recommendations, crop protection recommendations, crop scouting, and fertilizer delivery and application.

“We work with the farmers, so if you want more potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen or whatever it may be, we can do that. We create custom fertilizers,” said Mergen. “And we are full service, so I know there are many, many acres where we go and custom apply fertilizers or crop protection products.”

Northside also buys corn and soybeans from farmers, and is a federally licensed grain dealer.

With purchasing commodities from farmers, delivering feed and fertilizers, Northside trucks are constantly on the move. The Northside fleet of trucks puts on more than 30,000 miles a week. Growth In May 2022, Northside announced its intention to construct a new $20 million agronomy facility in Stanley. That location opened this past April.

“We had customers that way and requests from people in that region. We found a site that suited us there,” said Mergen. “Being along Highway 29 is convenient because it’s a major corridor.

“The Stanley location allows us to serve customers in a bigger region,” he added. “We’re dealing with bulky, heavy, difficult-to-handle products. If farmers have to ship the product farther, it’s going to cost them more. So this is more cost effective for producers, large and small.”

The Stanley location includes a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and office right next to Highway 29. It offers complete agronomy services, the buying and selling of seed, and crop protection products. Agronomists sell a variety of seed, including corn, soybean, alfalfa, clover, grass and small grains (oats, rye, etc.).

Off the highway, there is a dry fertilizer plant, in which workers do custom blending and storing of fertilizer products. In the Loyal facility, a 24-ton batch of fertilizer can be blended and loaded in around 25 minutes, while in the new Stanley facility this can be accomplished in less than six minutes.

The site plans allow room for future expansion if the need arises.

“We got to draw the designs completely from scratch. The whole process took about 18 months. We worked with Boson Construction out of Marshfield and they did an excellent job, along with our director of operations, Dean Schiller,” said Mergen.

“Why we went to Stanley is that it’s a good proximity to the highway and rail infrastructure. This allowed us to build a rail spur to bring large quantities of product by railroad.”

Northside hopes to have the rail spur operational by late this summer. The facility will be used for transloading, the process of transferring cargo from one mode of transportation to another. Companies will have the ability to ship their products to that location and pick them up there.

“There’s been a lot of interest in that, in talking to other businesses in the area,” said Mergen.

Northside also receives products by rail at a leased facility in Marshfield.

Also last year, in July, the company purchased Buck Country Grain in Arcadia. This site provides another option for procuring locally grown commodities.

“We made that facility up-to-date. We also put in an automated grain probe,” said Mergen.

Over its history, Northside has continued to evolve and add more services to greater meet the needs of the agricultural community. The business received the Distinguished Organization Award from the Wisconsin Agri-Business Association.

“It’s exciting to see the company grow and expand,” said Mergen.

There will be an open house Sept. 12 at the Stanley location, 7602 345th St., Stanley, WI 54768.

[caption id="attachment_188203" align="alignnone" width="300"] Northside Elevator is an independent, family-owned business in Loyal that has been in operation since 1948.[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_188204" align="alignnone" width="300"] Shown is Northside Elevator’s Stanley facility mid-construction. The entire design and construction process took about 18 months, with the facility opening in mid-April.[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_188206" align="alignnone" width="300"] Shown is an aerial view of Northside Elevator’s Loyal facilities, including the feed mill, added warehouse and newly built fertilizer plant at the top of picture.[/caption]