Grain Elevator - Usage and Definitions

Usage and Definitions

In Australian English, the term "grain elevator" is reserved for elevator towers, while a receival and storage building or complex is distinguished by the formal term receival point or, more commonly, as a "wheat bin". Large-scale grain receival, storage and logistics operations are known in Australia as bulk handling.

In Canada, the term "grain elevator" is used to refer to a place where farmers sell grain into the global grain distribution system, and/or a place where the grain is moved into rail cars or ocean-going ships for transport. Specifically there are several types of grain elevators under Canadian law, defined in the Canadian Grain Act, Section 2.

• Primary elevators (called "country elevators" before 1971) receive grain directly from producers for storage, or forwarding, or both.
• Process elevators (called "mill elevators" before 1971) receive and store grain for direct manufacture or processing into other products.
• Terminal elevators receive grain on or after official inspection and weighing and clean, store, and treat grain before moving it forward.
• Transfer elevators (including "Eastern elevators" from the pre-1971 classification) transfer grain that has been officially inspected and weighed at another elevator. In the Eastern Division, transfer elevators also receive, clean, and store eastern or foreign grain.