Seed business gets Gage County Planning Commission backing
Warehouse would be built, west of Adams, Nebraska
BEATRICE – The Gage County Planning Commission has recommended approval of a special use permit for an agriculture business in the northern part of the county.
The permit application submitted by Graves Enterprises Inc. was the subject of a Thursday night public hearing. The seed distribution business for corn, soybeans and some alfalfa…would involve construction of a warehouse along Nebraska Highway 41 about three miles west of Adams.
"This works really, really well for us, because we'll ship to Missouri, straight through Tecumseh and Auburn...and, a lot of our product goes to Kansas....straight over to (HW) 77 and down through. It's a good fit."
Bob Graves, of Lincoln says his company, working with Iowa-based Axis Seed does some retailing, but primarily delivering products to farm locations in Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.
"This is kind of a hub...and it's pretty important to us, for a couple of reasons. By building this, we'll have a fine warehouse...it will be fully heated, we can work in the wintertime....and get stuff done. We treat seed, we treat our own seed. We always have to wait til the spring, when it gets warm. We won't have to do that, and it will be really nice."
Graves says the business will operate with seasonal hours.
"I'm just estimating traffic...40 to 50 loads, in and out of the warehouse, per year...could be a few less, could be a few more. I don't see a large amount of truck traffic."
Gage County Planning Administrator Lisa Wiegand says the business has received approval from the N-D-O-T for access off Nebraska Highway 41. The commission recommendation now sends the permit application to the Gage County Board, for a hearing, March 18th.