Sarah Story
Grain Merchandiser
The Grain Story
Sarah works as a Grain Merchandiser at our Alliance Commodities location. She joined the grain merchandising team in the fall of 2019 and has enjoyed her time at PCE. Sarah grew up in Monticello, WI, on her family’s small dairy farm that is still in operation today. As a kid, she and her siblings were expected to help with chores and be around each summer to work on the farm. All hands were on deck at their family farm. Sarah’s favorite memories on the farm as a kid are feeding calves and goofing around outside with her siblings. She is not quite sure how their parents let them get into as much trouble as they did, but they made for fond memories.
The 4-H & FFA Experience
Sarah was involved with 4-H from a young age and joined FFA when she entered high school. Through her time in these organizations, Sarah focused her time on photography, clothing, crafts, and crops projects. She and her siblings were never able to show livestock, but Sarah still notes what a great experience her 4-H & FFA years yielded her.
College Life
After high school, Sarah attended UW-Platteville where she majored in Agricultural Business. During her Freshman year, she took a commodities class and really found an interest in grain and grain marketing. During her time at UWP, Sarah spent a semester studying abroad in the Netherlands. She learned a multitude of life lessons while in Europe and had the opportunity to travel to many other countries during her semester there. She would not trade the experience for anything and even labeled it as the best part of her collegiate experience.
Beginning a Career
After graduation, Sarah began her career as a grain merchandiser with Gavilon. There, she learned even more about her career path and realized she had chosen the right field for herself. After some time with Gavilon, Sarah was presented with a Grain Merchandising opportunity with PCE. She made the jump, welcomed the change, and grew to be a great addition to our PCE team.
Free Time & Life Lessons
During her free time, Sarah enjoys crafting and exercising, specifically running. She can often be found trying out a new project with her Cricut whether that be making decorative signs, creating a t-shirt design, or just testing out something new. Sarah loves to get creative and share her designs with her loved ones.
Throughout life, Sarah learned to stand up for herself and work hard for what she wants. This is what she advises younger women in ag to do. She encourages them to ask their managers about opportunities to grow within a company. Sarah believes that by being a mentor and advising young women just entering agriculture, she will be able to make improvements for women in the industry. She encourages her teammates to advise interns and younger team members and offer to be a reference to build young professionals’ networking opportunities.
When asked to describe herself, Sarah notes that she is creative, outgoing (though not super outgoing), hardworking, willing to go with the flow, and analytical. Sarah owes a few of her hardworking qualities to her most appreciated mentors: her parents. Sarah’s parents were able to provide her with countless opportunities growing up, have kept her grounded throughout her life, and offer her an unwavering amount of support. Because of this strong foundation built by her parents, Sarah has no regrets in life and wishes to be nobody but herself.
A Day in the Life of Sarah
As a grain merchandiser, a day in the life of Sarah looks like a lot of phone calls! She spends most of her days in her office on the phone speaking to producers, answering their questions, purchasing corn, working on marketing plans, and providing advice to producers regarding the grain markets. On occasion, Sarah can be found on-farm with producers to complete marketing plans and grain purchases. Watch grain updates from her here!
The PCE Community would like to thank Sarah for all her hard work and for being such a positive and strong role model for young women in agriculture. You are appreciated!
Learn more about our grain department here!
