Its conventional yellow coat disguises a traveling spirit. Whisked away from the field in the chill fall air and dropped into a waiting trailer, a solitary corn kernel could reach a final destination halfway around the world — or in front of hungry gobblers just across the county line. By Peg Zenk C orn has become a well-traveled com-modity. Even with more ethanol plants cropping up to devour thousands of bushels locally, most corn still travels by rail, road or waterway for hundreds and thou-sands of miles to reach its final destination. If you live in southern Minnesota, for example, your corn could be headed almost anywhere in the world, says Gary Anderson, CHS vice president, grain marketing. "There are enough different transportation options that corn grown there could be trucked to a barge on the Mississippi, then it could head south to the Gulf of Mexico and on to South America, northern Africa or the Pacific Rim. "The Minnesota corn also could be loaded on a unit train headed for the Pacific North-west, then put on a vessel bound for a Pacific Rim country," he continues. "It could be trucked to a major food processor in the Midwest; it could be hauled to a nearby ethanol plant or feed mill, or the corn could travel by rail to the western United States or Canada. “In short, a bushel of corn could be used 10 miles away from the field where it was produced or 10,000 miles away." Grain-Handling Investment Gearing up to efficiently send the golden commodity on its way has been a growing challenge for many cooperatives, including New Horizons Ag Services, based in Your CHS Connection 7