Another rural elevator is in danger of disappearing from the prairie horizon.

The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool's Lang elevator will be shut down as of Aug. 1, 2000 - the beginning of the new crop year.

SWP area manager Dan Sanders says the Pool will consider offers to buy the elevator from producer groups, but so far none have come forward.

Phone calls to several farmers in the Lang area revealed many didn't even know the elevator, which was built in the mid-1960s, was slated for closure.

But the news didn't come as much of a surprise.

"When they switched it over to a designated barley point three years ago, it basically eliminated everybody around here because nobody grows barley around here anyway," said farmer Brian Dreger.

"It was probably a pre-planned move," he added.

Sanders says for the last couple of years the Lang elevator has been run as a satellite facility out of Milestone, but that arrangement was causing the Milestone elevator to suffer.

Milestone has a facility that was built in the early 1980s. It's a 5,500-tonne plant with a large composite annex and two steel bins, along with a chemical storage shed and fertilizer on site. It is considered a full local service outlet.

However, as of Aug. 1 Milestone will now be limited to accepting deliveries of malt barley only.

"We made the decision that it makes more sense to take the malt barley from Lang and move it to Milestone," said Sanders, adding Milestone has a larger train run.

"It ensures we have a larger vision of the Milestone location. We want to be there for the long term. In that move it is detrimental to the Lang facility," he said.

"It's definitely going to hurt," says Lang farmer Daryl Schmidt. "Anytime anything closes down it's not going to do the town any good."

Schmidt points out Lang will lose its elevator agent and tax revenue from the Wheat Pool.

And he's not optimistic about the change to malt barley only for Milestone.

"It's not good," he said. "The more competition the better."

Sanders says producers in the Lang area still have the option to haul to the Soo Line Terminal in Weyburn or the Buffalo Plains Terminal in Indian Head, and that grain has already begun to move in those directions.

"We did have a meeting last week with our local committee along with customers in the area. The general consensus was they do see it coming, they see the completion of the larger facilities and the options they do have. It isn't a real positive in their minds, but in terms of the grain gathering system we do need to move that way," said Sanders.

The Wheat Pool will move into a tendering process to sell the Lang elevator, and will also put the Griffin elevator up for sale, which has been closed for the last three years.