SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Farmers who are owed money by a former Clinton County grain company can expect to receive payment soon.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced today it has started mailing checks totaling $2.1 million to 100 claimants, compensating them for grain they either had stored in one of The Grain Exchange's elevators or had sold to the company but not been paid for when it went out of business.

The checks are drawn on the Illinois Grain Indemnity Trust Account, a state fund that protects farmers in the event of a grain elevator failure, and are being sent on the first business day after the close of a required 30-day appeals period.

"We're processing claims and sending checks to producers as quickly as state statute permits us to," Acting Agriculture Director Tom Jennings said. "The majority of claimants should receive their money by the end of the week. The rest will be paid by the end of the month."

The Grain Exchange operated elevators in Carlyle, Bartelso, Sandoval and Germantown. The company closed Feb. 18, 2008, when warehouse examiners from the department suspended its grain dealers and warehouse licenses.

Two weeks later, after an attempt to sell the business failed, an administrative law judge revoked the licenses and the department began liquidating its grain assets to pay producers with insured losses.

The sale of assets raised nearly $1.2 million. The balance of the amount owed to farmers, about $900,000, required a withdrawal from the Grain Insurance Fund, a state fund supported by assessments on the grain industry, including producers, farm lenders and grain elevators.