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CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

GRAIN HANDLER CONTROLS TRAFFIC TO THREE RECEIVING PITS AROUND TOWN

If your goal is to increase truck receiving throughput at your grain elevator, one way to do it is to run more trucks through your receiving system faster.

That was a challenge, however, at Finley Farmers Grain & Elevator Co. in Finley, ND  (701-524-1500).  The 300-member cooperative operates three separate elevators in the town of 445 – the “office elevator” at 503 Broadway, the so-called “dryer elevator” immediately south of the office elevator, and “north elevator” about a mile to the north on Broadway.

Each elevator had its own dump-through truck scale. With trucks going every which way through town and employees scrambling to keep up with weights, grades, and scale tickets at three locations, it was a recipe for near-chaos.

Order from Chaos

General Manager Todd Erickson came to Finley Farmers in 2015 and had some ideas on what it might take to improve the situation in town. Prior to that, Erickson worked as a certified public accountant for 30 years strictly with grain elevator clients, where he saw a lot of things that worked or didn’t work.

At Finley Farmers, he turned to CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), to plan a solution. “In my accounting practice, I saw a lot of what CompuWeigh was putting in. They had a card reader that could read cards clipped on a truck’s visor – I liked that a lot.”

Together, they designed a citywide truck routing system revolving around CompuWeigh’s SmartChoice software module.

Finley Farmers purchased land about a quarter mile south of the dryer elevator along State Highway 32 and hired Verwest Contracting, Argusville, ND (701-524-1500), to construct a two-story truck receiving building, with an adjacent InterSystems probe and 120-foot Rice Lake pitless truck scale.

All incoming trucks are routed to the new probe house, where a CompuWeigh SmartTruck RFID card reader, SmartTalk intercom, and SmartView message board begin the transaction.

 

After commodity weights and grades are determined, SmartChoice automatically compares the commodity and grade against current pit rules, and the SmartTruck system at the new inbound scale automatically routes the truck to one of the receiving pits or to a new temporary storage complex east of town. As each truck arrives at the assigned dump pit, the elevator attendant can view the commodity, grade factors on a CompuWeigh Dump Pit Workstation and route the grain to the correct bin.

After unloading the grain, the driver then proceeds to a new Rice Lake 120-foot pitless outbound scale located at the far north end of town. This scale also is equipped with a SmartTalk RFID card reader which automatically identifies the truck and prints a ticket on the OTP-4700 Outdoor Ticket Printer.

“We started up the new system with dry bean harvest and had everything fully integrated by Oct. 7,” Erickson says. “CompuWeigh had a team out here for two weeks to train our personnel. The farmers were very patient, while we got everything up to speed.”

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

 Site Before Truck Routing Automation

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 Site After CompuWeigh SmartTruck System

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

TENNESSEE RAIL TERMINAL HANDLES SKYROCKETING GRAIN PRODUCTION

In the last decade, grain production has increased gradually across the MidSouth, as cotton acres have been on the decline.

In 2012, The Andersons Inc. acquired a group of five grain elevators located across western Tennessee. A combination of larger, more efficient harvesting equipment and increasing production made it hard for The Andersons’ Trenton, TN facility (731-855-3971) to keep pace. The 2.5-million-bushel Trenton facility is landlocked in town sandwiched between the town and wetlands with minimal space for growth. The facility also needed a number of upgrades.

“After a lengthy evaluation process, we decided to go outside of town and start a new site that provides room for future growth,” says Alan Vanasdale, The Andersons Tennessee area manager. “We looked at approximately 10 different sites across the area and realized the best opportunity was to be centered near Trenton.”

The new facility at Humboldt, TN (731-784-3212) is located seven miles south of Trenton and four miles north of Humboldt. The Trenton facility will remain in operation and work in conjucntion with the new 2.9-million-bushel steel rail terminal at Humboldt, which went into operation in June 2016. Vanasdale comments that the new location was ideal for an elevator, with quick access to the four-lane U.S. Highway 45W.

This location also is served by the West Tennessee Railroad (WTNN), the same short-line that serves the Trenton facility.
Brock tower dryer is fired by natural gas and rated at 4,700 bph at five points of moisture removal.

The Andersons loads unit trains on the WTNN, with connections to the CSX, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern, and Canadian National Class I railroads.

To construct the facility, The Andersons hired Custom Agri Builders, LLC, Washington, IN (812-257-1115), as general contractor and millwright on the project. The contractor’s sister operation, Custom Agri Systems Inc., Napoleon, OH (419-599-5180), provided electrical and automation systems on the project. Both divisions are veterans of a variety of projects for The Andersons in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Site work was performed by Delta Contracting Co., LLC, Humboldt (731-784-3053).

In addition, ASM Engineering & Consultants LLC, Andover, KS (316260-5895), performed engineering work on the project.

Construction on the elevator began in August 2015. The project was budgeted at $20 million, but the final figure will not be known before September.

Extra Sturdy Storage

The terminal consists of seven Brock corrugated steel tanks – four large 690,000-bushel long-term tanks, a 100,000-bushel wet tank, and two 20,000-bushel hopper tanks, one for screenings and one for general blending. Vanasdale notes that the big tanks had to be designed for seismic events due to western Tennessee’s proximity to the potentially volatile New Madrid fault directly across the Mississippi River. “We were limited to 32 rings tall, although we would have preferred to go up 35 rings,” he says.

As it is, the four big tanks are plenty large enough standing 105 feet in diameter, 86-1/2 feet tall at the eaves, and 114 feet tall the the peaks. They have flat concrete floors, outside stiffeners, 10-foot-x-10-foot Bobcat doors to admit skid steer loaders for unloading, and 24-cable OPI-Integris digital temperature monitoring systems.

A set of four Brock 50-hp centrifugal fans provide aeration through in-floor ducting in a quad-F pattern.

The wet tank stands 48 feet in diameter and 64 feet tall at the eaves. It is outfitted with outside stiffeners, an OPI-Integris digital grain temperature monitoring system, a Daay bin paddle sweep, and a pair of Brock 15-hp centrifugal fans providing aeration.

Grain Routing

Incoming grain arriving by truck is routed onto a single Rice Lake 70-foot inbound/outbound pitless scale adjacent to a single-story office building containing a grain laboratory. An InterSystems probe adjacent to the scale samples trucks.

From there, trucks are routed to one of two enclosed 900-bushel mechanical pits. A third pit handles trucks or railcars.

The pits feed a pair of InterSystems 20,000-bph legs equipped with 20×8 Tapco CC-HD buckets mounted on 22-inch belts.

The legs empty into six-duct Hayes & Stolz rotary distributors, which in turn, send grain via 20,000-bph overhead InterSystems drag conveyors out to storage.

The big tanks empty onto a series of Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyors in below-ground tunnels. These run back to the receiving legs.

The wet tanks empty into an InterSystems reclaim drag conveyor that feeds multiple InterSystems legs to take the grain to the desired location. The wet bins also can feed a 4,700-bph, natural gas-fired Brock tower dryer.

The dryer, in turn, empties into an InterSystems reclaim drag conveyor and feeds into an InterSystems dry leg. Other than some test firings, the dryer has not yet seen use.

The two receiving legs and the dry leg also can be used simultaneously to send grain out to rail loadout via an overhead Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyor.

Automation equipment for the PLC system is by Allen-Bradley

Railcars are loaded with a bulk weigh loadout scale and automation system. Workers atop railcars during train loading operations attach harnesses to a Fall Protection Systems trolley unit running the length of three to four railcars.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

CASE STUDY – COURTESY OF GRAIN JOURNAL

ILLINOIS RAIL LOADER TAKES THE GUESSWORK OUT OF ORIGIN WEIGHTS

Farmers Grain Co. of Central Illinois in the village of Chestnut isn’t the largest rail loader on the Canadian National (CN/formerly Illinois Central) system. The 3.9-million-bushel elevator situated between State Highway 54 and a CN branch line has enough rail siding available to load up to 25 covered hopper cars at a time.

Nevertheless, improvements could be made, even at a relatively small rail operation. The biggest improvement sought at Chestnut was accurate weights on railcars headed for major livestock feeders in the southwestern states.

“It was all guesswork,” says General Manager Ryan Edwards. “We had some idea of the weight we were putting on railcars headed south, but just in the first half of 2015, we were hit twice with penalties for overloads at the CN pull-over in Centreville (IL). We didn’t have any underloads, but you get penalized for those, too. We didn’t want to do that again.”

The solution was to install a bulk weigh loadout scale capable of providing origin weights. Farmers Grain looked at two different bulkweighers popular in the industry before settling on a 30,000-bph model manufactured by CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), under the control of the company’s GMS-4000 bulk weigh scale control system.

The bulkweigher was installed in July 2015 and empties onto an existing 30,000-bph overhead belt conveyor running out to a two-story, trackside loadout tower. The upper story houses the CompuWeigh controls through which the operator can load railcars using a two-way spout. Grain inspectors can use the lower level to determine origin grades.

All in the Software Edwards says Farmers Grain made its selection based on the GMS automation system. “The physical bulkweigher isn’t all that much different from one brand to another,” he comments. “The CompuWeigh software had a few more features that we liked.”

In particular, Edwards was impressed with the CompuWeigh SmartLoad system. This software module allows the bulkweigher to run while the next railcar is brought into position by preloading the weigh hopper and the lower garner. “That allows us to fill the bulkweigher on the fly and speeds up the loading processh” he says.

The company opted not to install an RF tag reader. Edwards says he didn’t think it was necessary loading only 25 cars at a time.

However, he likes the GMS-4000 access to a national railcar database maintained by the Association of American Railroads, which is updated coninually with load capacity information on each railcar.

Edwards says that with the new bulkweigher, it takes about four hours to load a 25-car train. The CN allows 24 hours starting from the midnight after placement to load a train before applying demurrage.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

New Terminal for New Markets

Growmark affiliate builds a loop track shuttle loader in Western Illinois

As with many very large projects, Western Grain Marketing LLC’s new 4.6-million-bushel rail loading terminal near Adair, IL (309-653-2650), was the result of a business study.

The study was initiated by several GROW­MARK-affiliated member cooperatives in western Illinois. Their trade territory includes a productive agricultural area between the Illi­nois and Mississippi rivers, with their primary market being the Illinois River for export.

“We were seeing a lot of changes coming to our markets,” says Gordon Miller, then grain department manager for Two Rivers FS, now general manager of Western Grain Marketing. “We had a number of proposed ethanol plants being talked about at Beard­stown, Griggsville, Quincy, and one actually under construction at Canton, IL that pos­sibly would source a lot of grain from our customers. Most of those markets failed to materialize, but we continued to pursue a proactive strategy in finding new markets for our customers’ grain to make them less dependent on any one market.”

Under the circumstances, the best strategy appeared to be finding additional markets for member producers. Rail, particularly the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) could provide access to feed markets in the South­ west, as well as the Pacific Northwest, southern California, and Mexico.

In 2008, the grain operation of Two Rivers FS joined with its parent, GROWMARK, and the grain depart­ments of two other affiliated coopera­tives – Riverland FS and West Central FS – to form Western Grain Marketing. The goal was to build a rail terminal with a loop track for loading shuttle trains, plus handling all merchandis­ing from a central office in Rushville (217-322-3306).

The addition of a rail terminal allows the new operation access to river, rail, and truck-to-processor markets, what­ever works out the best for member producers.

The New Terminal

Western Grain Marketing pur­chased a 150-acre site near the center of its grain origination territory, at the intersection of U.S Highway 136 and State Highway 41, two miles north of Adair. The site offers access to a BNSF main line, and Miller notes that the proposed extension of the State High­way 336 four-lane between Quincy, IL and Peoria, IL will have an interchange 2-1/2 miles north of the facility.

GROWMARK’s own engineering and construction operation in Bloom-ington (309-557-6334) served as gen­eral contractor on the project. Other major firms taking part:

• Laverdiere Construction Inc., Ma­comb, IL (309-837-1258), prepared the railbed and Ameritrack Railroad Con­tractors Inc., Frankfort, IN (765-659-2111), constructed the 7,690-foot loop track from 132-lb. rail and wood ties.
• TCR Systems Inc., Decatur, IL (217-877-5622), served as the project’s millwright.
• KDJ Sales & Service Inc., Macki­naw, IL (309-359-3611), served as electrical contractor and installed the facility’s PLC-based control system.
• Hoffmann Inc., Muscatine, IA (563-263-4733), constructed the ter­minal’s ter­minal’s two 500,000-bushel jumpform concrete tanks.
• Cross Country Construction, Elbow Lake, MN (218-770-2290), constructed the facility’s steel stor­age, including three huge Chief Titan 1.1-million-bushel tanks.
• Mulford Concrete, Hampton, IA (641-456-5200), constructed concrete foundations.

Construction began in the summer of 2008. The facility was expected to begin loading trains in September 2009.

Storage Mix

Shuttle Location Manager Terry Rouse explains that Western Grain Marketing deliberately chose a mix of concrete and steel storage. With the projected loading of 90 trains per year, concrete was the choice for short-term storage, since it would have the strength to stand up to that many turns. For long-term storage with fewer turns, cost per bushel became the determining factor, so the company went with the largest steel tanks that were practical for the site.

The two 500,000-bushel Hoff-mann jumpform concrete tanks are 74 feet in diameter and 154 feet tall. These tanks have no sweep augers but are equipped with Bobcat doors for cleanout. Grain temperature is not monitored, but the tanks are aerated at 1/10 cfm per bushel with a pair of 40-hp Chicago Blower centrifugal fans per tank.

The Chief Titan corrugated steel tanks, holding 1.1 million bushels each, stand 155 feet in diameter, 53 feet tall at the eaves, and 95 feet tall at the peaks. These flat-bottom tanks are outfitted with outside stiffeners and 16-inch Springland sweep augers. These also are aer­ated at 1/10 cfm per bushel, with six 20-hp Caldwell centrifugal fans per tank.

Grain Handling

Incoming truckers stop at a kiosk about 300 feet ahead of the scale to untarp and enter their truck information using an RFID tag reader. Following that, truckloads are sampled with a Gamet Apollo truck probe. While the sample is tested, the truck is weighed on an inbound 70-foot pitless Rice Lake scale from Walz Scale located adjacent to the office building.

After weighing, the driver pro­ceeds to one of two side-by-side enclosed 1,000-bushel mechani­cal receiving pits. After dumping the load, the driver pulls onto an outbound scale and receives a scale ticket from a cab-high printer lo­cated next to the scale.

The pits feed a pair of 20,000-bph Union Iron legs, which are outfitted with 20×8 Tapco CCHD heavy-duty buckets mounted on 22-inch belts from All-States In­dustries.

Each leg feeds a Union Iron eight-hole, 360-degree, double-inlet rotary distributor, which provides flexibility for each leg to deliver grain to either concrete storage, steel storage, loadout, or the drying com­plex. The operator has the option of running grain through a 40,000-bph Intersystems gravity cleaner. Then, overhead 35,000-bph Union Iron drag conveyors carry grain to its destina­tion around the facility.

The steel tanks empty onto be­low-ground 20,000-bph Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyors, which in turn, feed another 20,000-bph Hi Roller belt running back to the re­ceiving pit area. From there, grain can be routed back into one of the receiving legs or a 50,000-bph Union Iron loadout leg.

The concrete tanks empty onto 50,000-bph Hi Roller belt convey­ors that provide the same options for routing grain.

The loadout leg is outfitted with three rows of 18×8 Tapco CCHD heavy-duty buckets on a 60-inch belt. This leg also has twin 200-hp WEG motors with Dodge drives, allowing the leg to continue operat­ing at reduced speed, if one of the motors is down for maintenance or repair.

Train loading is accomplished with a 50,000-bph CompuWeigh bulk weigh loadout scale under the control of that company’s fully-automated GMS-SMART controls and RFID railcar system. The bulk­weigher also has a Gamet sampler for origin grades.

The operator can run grain through a Baasch & Sons scalper prior to loadout to meet end user specifica­tions.

When completed, the loadout area will have a TCR Systems trolley-type lanyard system running approximately five railcar lengths.

Dryer Complex

Wet grain can be routed to a 55-foot-diameter, 170,000-bushel Chief wet tank adjacent to an LP-fired 5,000-bph Zimmerman tower dryer. One of the two concrete tanks also can double as a wet tank.  The dryer is served by 20,000-bph Union Iron wet and dry legs, which provides enough capacity to add a second dryer, if needed.  Rouse says one person can oper­ate the entire elevator from one of three locations – adjacent to the receiving pits, the loadout shed, and the main office.

Grain Journal:  Ed Zdrojewski, editor

Putting Milmine on the Map

Topflight Grain adds 850,000 bushel rail loading annex on Norfork Southern

Tiny Milmine, IL, a collection of not much more than a dozen houses about 25 miles east of Decatur, IL, is so small that it doesn’t even show up on some Illinois road maps.

TopFlight Grain Co.’s latest addition to its grain elevator there, however, may be enough to make it a destination of choice, at least for producers in much of central Illinois.

“We did a survey of the volumes at all of our 15 grain locations,” says General Manager Scott Docherty. “We looked at where we were short on space and at places where we could build without being landlocked by in-town locations.

It turned out we could purchase enough land for a major expansion at Milmine and route trucks in and out without having to go through town.”

In addition, he says, the Milmine elevator was located along a Norfolk Southern main line, with enough space to build extra siding track to handle trains up to 75 cars, for shipping grain to the big processors in Decatur or to the southeastern feed markets.

Annex Project

In 2011, TopFlight built a large steel annex at Milmine consisting of about 850,000 bushels of upright storage, two receiving pits, four legs, a 40,000-bph bulk weigh loadout system, two gravity screeners, and a 5,000-bph grain dryer.

After taking bids on the huge project, the cooperative selected GROWMARK Grain Systems, Bloomington, IL (309-557-6000), as general contractor.

“It was our first project with GROWMARK,” says Operations Manager Eric Clements. “They had the time and the expertise for a large project like this. They were able to complete everything in 12 months. Also, they were willing to have a project manager (Matthew Johnson) on site full-time.”

Groundbreaking took place in September 2010, with the project finishing up in September 2011 for a confidential cost.

Other major contractors on the project:

• Springfield Electric Supply Co., Springfield, IL (217-788-2100), supplied electrical systems for the project.
• VAA LLC, Plymouth, MN (763-559-9100), performed engineering work.
• Mulford Concrete Inc., Hampton, IA (641-456-5200), supplied 4,000 yards of concrete and poured it on-site.
• Stokes Excavating, Shirley, IL (309-275-9400), did site excavation and road building.
• Ameritrack Railroad Contractors Inc., Frankfort, IN (765-659-2111), performed rail construction.
• TCR Systems, Decatur, IL (217- 877-5622), served as millwright.

Steel Storage

GROWMARK brought in Cross Country Consruction, Elbow Lake, MN (218-685-6410), to erect two new GSI corrugated steel tanks. The larger of the two, intended for dry grain storage, stands 90 feet in diameter, 88 feet tall at the eaves, and 113 feet tall at the peak, holding 515,000 bushels. The smaller tank, intended as a wet bin, holds 315,000 bushels standing 72 feet in diameter, 85-1/2 feet tall at the eaves, and 105 feet tall at the peak.

These flat bottom tanks have outside stiffeners, 16-inch Sudenga sweep augers, and 4B BinBob level indicators. For now, there is no grain temperature monitoring system, but it can be installed later.

A set of four 30-hp Caldwell centrifugal fans on the dry tank provide an estimated 1/10 cfm per bushel of aeration to the dry tank through infloor ducting, while two 40-hp GSI centrifugal fans provide an estimated 1/7 cfm per bushel of aeration.

In addition, the project included construction of 6,000-bushel and 10,000-bushel overhead hopper tanks for storage of fines and a 4,000-bushel overhead hopper tank for loading trucks, as well as a 30-foot diameter, 30,900-bushel hopper tank for holding off-grade grains.

Grain Handling Equipment

On the south side of the annex, GROWMARK installed a pair of 1,000-bushel enclosed mechanical receiving pits.

Through a series of valves, these pits can send three of four new GSI legs – a 20,000-bph receiving leg, a 20,000-bph dryer wet leg, and a 20,000-bph dry leg, both of which can double as receiving legs. The fourth leg is the rail shipping leg rated at 40,000 bph.) The 20,000-bph legs are outfitted with 20×8 Maxi-Lift heavy-duty low-profile buckets mounted on 22-inch (brand name) belts. The 40,000-bph leg has two rows of buckets on a 44-inch belt.

The receiving and dryer legs empty grain into a Union Iron Works eighthole rotary double distributor. The operator has the option of routing grain through a 20,000-bph Intersystems gravity screener below the distributor.

From there, grain runs out an overhead 40,000-bph GSI belt conveyors to the wet tank or via either of two 20,000-bph drag conveyors to the dry tank. The wet tank empties onto an aboveground 20,000-bph GSI drag conveyor running to the wet leg. This leg, in turn, feeds into a natural-gas fired Zimmerman 5,000-bph tower dryer. Clements notes that TopFlight operates Zimmerman dryers at most of its locations and likes their performance.

The shipping leg delivers grain to a 40,000-bph Intersystems screener, which in turn, deposits it into a CompuWeigh 40,000-bph bulk weigh loadout scale equipped with a Gamet sampler.

Loadout operations are under the control of CompuWeigh’s GMS-4000 Grain Management System, which includes the optional SmartRead railcar RF tag reader, as well as SmartLoad and Super SmartLoad, which allow the bulkweigher to run, while the next car is brought into position by preloading the weigh hopper and lower garner. Workers atop railcars are protected by a four-railcar-length Fall Protection Systems trolley unit.

Grain Journal: Ed Zdrojewski, editor

Loadout Capacity Doubled

The Andersons replaces a bulkweigher in Michigan for longer unit trains

Back when Jake Drake started as operations supervisor at The Andersons Inc.’s 2.5-million-bushel grain elevator in Reading, MI (517-283-2156) in 2009, a unit train consisted or 50 covered hopper cars, and they were loaded a few at a time out of an old 20,000-bph bulkweigher.

Today, a unit train has 75 railcars, and the railroad allows less than a 12-hour loading time, before applying demurrage charges on top of the regular per-car freight rate. The Reading elevator loads trains on the Indiana Northern Railroad, short-line with connections to the Norfolk Southern at Montpelier, OH, a few miles to the south. The elevator lacked the capacity to keep up.

In July 2013, The Andersons remedied the situation by replacing the old loadout scale with a brand new CompuWeigh 60,000-bph bulk weigh loadout scale, equipped with a complete package of GMS control software.

Preferred Supplier

Drake notes that CompuWeigh Corp., Woodbury, CT (203-262-9400), is a preferred supplier to The Andersons, so the grain handler had a certain amount of experience with the supplier at other locations. Also, he adds, the CompuWeigh product was easy to integrate with the facility’s grain accounting software, the supplier offered plenty of support, and the price was competitive.

In addition to the automated controls, the system at Reading includes several of CompuWeigh’s “Smart” options:

• SmartRead, which includes a trackside RF tag reader that “reads” the ID mounted on North American railcars. The system accesses CompuWeigh’s SmartCar database, which includes dimensions and capacities of all the railcars in service in North America. Wheel sensors can alert the system to any cars missing RF tags, so no car is ever unaccounted for.
• SmartLoad, which preloads the weigh hopper allowing the bulkweigher to continue filling, while thenext railcar is brought into position. As of mid-October, Drake says, the new scale had been used to load only a few cars at a time. However, he anticipates that it will cut 2-1/2 hours off the loading time of a full 75-car train.

Grain Journal: Ed Zdrojewski, editor

Flexible Grain Handler

Eastern Grain Marketing ships grain both by railcar and by container

As construction began early in 2012 on the new Eastern Grain Marketing LLC rail terminal seven miles west of Kankakee, IL (815-802-2789), the presence of a rock quarry right next door hinted at a challenge early in the construction process.

“Bedrock was only five feet deep,” says Facility Manager Dan Martinek, who joined Eastern Grain at the beginning of 2012, after working with Gateway FS in Red Bud, IL. “We had to blast the boot pits. We borrowed the demolition contractor used by the quarry (Ludwig Explosives, Lemont, IL, 630-257-7628).”

When Grain Journal visited the new terminal in September 2013, crews were putting the finishing touches on the facility.

Tapping Grain Supply

Eastern Grain Marketing was formed in 2011 as a joint venture between GROWMARK and Heritage FS specifically to develop a rail terminal near Kankakee, after GROWMARK commissioned a study from Pro Exporter that suggested that a large supply of grain in the area was insufficiently tapped.

The venture selected the site due to access to the Norfolk Southern Railroad and State Highway 17, as well as access to a Nicor natural gas main line and Com Ed electric power. With Heritage already affiliated with GROWMARK, the Bloomington, IL-based company assigned its construction division (309-557-6334) to design and build the terminal. Engineers designed a 2.4-million-bushel steel elevator for maximum flexibility to handle corn and soybeans simulataneously and to load both covered hopper railcars on an 8,000-foot loop track and containers for shipment to a Burlington Northern Santa Fe container yard 25 miles away in Joliet, IL. Cost of the facility is confidential.

GROWMARK brought in a variety of subcontractors for the project:

• TCR Systems LLC, Decatur, IL (217-877-5622), served as millwright.
• VAA, LLC, Plymouth, MN (888-583-3527), performed structural engineering services.
• Cross Country Construction, Elbow Lake, MN (218-685-6410), erected the steel grain storage tanks.
• KDJ Sales & Service Inc., Mackinaw, IL (309-359-3611), served as electrical contractor and installed automation systems.
• Hamann Wagner Excavating Inc., Chebanse, IL (815-790-8248), did excavation work.
• Greg Lambert Construction, Bourbonnais, IL (815-468-7361), along with Eastern Grain employees, built the container loading equipment.

Storage

The Eastern Grain terminal includes four GSI upright corrugated steel tanks:

• Two 105-foot-diameter tanks for dry corn holding 750,000 bushels each. These flat-bottom tanks stand 93-1/2 feet tall at the eaves and 122-1/2 feet tall at the peaks. They have outside stiffeners, 16-inch Sudenga sweep augers, and 24-cable Safe-Grain grain temperature monitoring systems. A set of four 60-hp Caldwell centrifugal fans with 14 roof exhausters provide 1/10 cfm per bushel of aeration. (The entire storage complex is designed for 1/10 cfm.)
• A 90-foot-diameter tank holding 515,000 bushels of soybeans standing 88 feet tall at the eaves and 113 feet at the peak. Similarly equipped to the 105s, this tank includes a 16-cable temperature monitoring system, four 30-hp centrifugal fans, and 10 roof exhausters.
• A 72-foot-diameter wet tank holding 315,000 bushels of corn. It stands 85-1/2 feet tall at the eave and 105-1/2 feet tall at the peak and is equipped with a 12-cable temperature monitoring system, two 40-hp aeration fans, and seven roof exhausters. In addition, the facility has a 30,000-bushel hopper tank for off-grade grain and a 12,000-bushel screenings tank.

Grain Flow

Inbound grain trucks utilize a 70- foot Fairbanks pit-type scale adjacent to the facility’s 1-1/2-story office building, which is under the control of a CompuWeigh SmartTruck system. A SmartTruck card reader scans the driver’s RF tag, and the system provides data on the truck and contents to interface with the cooperative’s accounting system. A Gamet Apollo probe takes a sample for grading. A separate Fairbanks outbound scale also is part of the SmartTruck system.

Trucks proceed as directed by Smart-Read screens to one of two 1,000-bushel mechanical receiving pits. These pits can feed any of three GSI legs – two 20,000-bph receiving legs equipped with Maxi-Lift 20×8 CC-MAX buckets on a 22-inch Goodyear belt and on a 30,000-bph shipping leg with two rows of 16×8 CC-MAX buckets on a 34-inch belt.

The receiving legs deposit grain into a Union Iron/HSI rotary double distributor. From there, grain travels via 40,000-bph GSI enclosed belt conveyors to the 105-foot tanks, 30,000-bph GSI belt to the wet tank, or 20,000-bph GSI drag conveyor to the soybean tank.

Wet grain can be sent via wet leg to one of two natural gas-fired Zimmerman 4,700-bph tower dryers. Having two dryers allows for flexibility during slow times at the beginning and end of the harvest season, says Martinek.

The storage tanks empty onto aboveground GSI conveyors – 57,000-bph belts from the 105s, a 30,000-bph belt from the 90, and a 20,000-bph drag from the 72 – all running back to the central legs.

An overhead 57,000-bph GSI enclosed belt conveyor carries grain overhead to a 50,000-bph CompuWeigh bulk weigh loadout scale under the control of the supplier’s GMS 4000 automation system.

The operator can run grain through an overhead 40,000-bph Intersystems gravity screener prior to loadout. During loadout, workers atop railcars are protected by a 280-foot Fall Protection Systems trolley unit running the length of three railcars.

Martinek says he expects that the system will be able to load a 75-car NS unit train in five to six hours. The facility also can load 20-foot containers in a shed adjacent to the bulkweigher equipped with a Batco belt loader.

Grain Journal:  Ed Zdrojewski, editor

Move for More Space

Minnesota coop’s new rail terminal draws praise from patrons

The new 1.8-million-bushel Coop Country Farmers Elevator rail terminal east of Danube, MN (320-826-2161), has been drawing rave reviews from grain producers in that part of southwest Minnesota.

“We’ve had nothing but compliments from our patrons. They love to dump there,” says Joe Hennen, assistant grain division manager. Hennen is a 30-year veteran of the grain industry and joined Coop Country in 1990, when his original employer, Olivia Farmers Cooperative, merged into the larger coop.

Coop Country still operates a smaller 727,000-bushel elevator in downtown Danube primarily for hard red spring wheat and soybeans. However, Hennen explains, that location was difficult for truckers to navigate, and the in-town location left no room for expansion. The coop had the opportunity to purchase 56 acres east of town along U.S. Highway 212 and the Twin City & Western short-line railroad, which became the site for the new elevator.

The coop hired J&D Construction Inc., Montevideo, MN (800-279-6447), as contractor and millwright on the project, which cost between $8 and $9 million over a two-year period. J&D built the bulk of the new facility in 2010, including three corrugated steel tanks, receiving, and loadout equipment. The facility was able to take grain, primarily corn with some soybeans, during the 2010 harvest. In 2011, J&D added a fourth, larger steel tank and a grain dryer.

Steel Storage

The four GSI storage tanks come in three sizes:

• Two of the four tanks hold 400,000 bushels standing 90 feet in diameter, 66-2/3 feet tall at the eaves, and 98 feet tall at the peaks. In common with the other two tanks, they have inside stiffeners, 12-inch Sudenga bin sweeps, and no grain temperature monitoring. A set of four 20-hp GSI centrifugal fans provide 1/7 cfm per bushel of aeration.
• The big tank built in 2011 stands 105 feet in diameter, 93-1/2 feet tall at the eave, and 122-1/2 feet tall at the peak holding 750,000 bushels. This tank, strictly for dry corn, has four 40-hp centrifugal fans providing 1/9.5 cfm per bushel.
• The smallest tank, intended for wet corn, holds 270,000 bushels standing 72 feet in diameter, 72 feet tall at the eave, and 92 feet tall at the peak. Two 30-hp centrifugal fans provide 1/7 cfm per bushel. In addition to these tanks, a pair of 3,500-bushel Meridian overhead hopper tanks hold grain or screenings for loading onto trucks.

 Grain Handling

The entire grain flow through the facility is under a control system developed for Coop Country by Automated Environments (AEI), Renville, MN (320-329-4340). The system gives the operator a choice of using traditional distributive-type control switches or a touch screen to operate the elevator.   The facility receives grain by truck only. Truckers are directed to a pair of enclosed 80-foot inbound and outbound Webster pit-type scales. The inbound scale is serviced by an Intersystems truck probe, which delivers samples to the scale room. Testing equipment there includes a Steinlite moisture meter.

From there, trucks are sent on to a pair of mechanical receiving pits feeding a pair of 15,000-bph Schlagel receiving legs. The legs are equipped with 20×8 Tapco CC-HD heavy-duty buckets mounted on a 22-inch Goodyear belt.   The legs deposit grain into a six-hole Schlagel electronic Swingset double distributor, although the operator has the option of running grain first through a 16,000-bph Intersystems gravity screener. The distributor can send grain on to storage or the grain dryer, via 15,000-bph overhead Schlagel drag conveyors or to the surge tanks or the bulk weigh loadout scale via gravity spout.

Storage tanks empty grain onto another series of 15,000-bph drag conveyors in above-ground tunnels, which run back to the receiving legs’ boot pits.   The 7,000-bph Zimmerman grain dryer is fired by natural gas from a 6-inch main the local utility ran out from town. Hennen says the dryer, installed this year, had not yet been used, when Grain Journal visited the site at the beginning of September. Dry grain exits the dryer onto a 10,000-bph drag conveyor running back to a 10,000-bph Schlagel dry leg.

Rail loading is accomplished with a 30,000-bph bulkweigher fabricated by J&D Construction and under the control of CompuWeigh GMS software. Hennen says the facility can load up to 25 railcars at a time, and the bulkweigher typically takes five to seven minutes to load a covered hopper car. Workers atop railcars are protected by a trolley unit from Fall Protection Systems running the length of five railcars.

Grain Journal:  Ed Zdrojewski, editor

Northern Outpost

Auburn Bean & Grain Adds Rail Terminal to Serve Northern Half of Michigan

When you fly over the northern half of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, it’s easy to get the impression of an unbroken expanse of forest. But tucked away among all the trees is a surprising amount of agriculture.

“We’ve taken loads of corn from as far north as the (Mackinac) Bridge,” says Cliff Vennix, CEO of Auburn Bean & Grain Co., who purchased the Auburn, MI-based company in 1970.  “We’ve thought about building an elevator up north for about 10 years. I’ve had numerous producers tell me they’d plant more corn and less soybeans, if they had a home for all those bushels.”

In 2012 and 2013, the company built them a $13 million, 1.75-million-bushel home on the southern edge of Standish, MI (989-846-9114). The site has access to the Lake States Railroad, a short-line connecting to the CSX, and several major highways including Interstate 75, U.S. Highway 23, and State Highways 61 and 65.

To construct the all-steel facility, Auburn Bean & Grain hired Elevator Services & Storage, Inc.  (ESSI), Beaverdam, OH (419-643-5111), after looking at several other contractors. It was ESSI’s first time working with the grain handler, but Vennix reports the contractor provided quality work and on-time performance.

Nuechterlein Electric, Frankenmuth, MI (989-652-2431), served as electrical contractor.  RDF Concepts, Hastings, MI (269-998-6825), designed and installed the automation systems.

Construction began in October 2012 and the facility was operational in time for wheat harvest at the end of July 2013.

Terminal Specifications

Dry storage at the Standish terminal includes a pair of 730,000-bushel GSI corrugated steel tanks standing 105 feet in diameter, 91 feet tall at the eave, and 119 feet tall at the peak. These tanks are outfitted with flat floors, outside stiffeners, 16-inch GSI X-Series bin sweeps, and Monitor level indicators. A set of four 40-hp Rolfes@Boone centrifugal fans per tank provide 1/9 cfm per bushel of aeration, with the assistance of 11 roof exhausts, under the control of an OPI automation system.   In addition, storage includes a set of five 53,600-bushel, 36-foot-diameter GSI hopper tanks or wet grains standing 84 feet tall at the peak, with 45-degree steel hoppers. These tanks are not aerated.   Another 12,300-bushel GSI hopper tanks holds screenings.

Incoming grain trucks are routed to a 90-foot (brand name) pitless scale adjacent to a wood-frame office building, where they are sampled with a Gamet truck probe.   From there, trucks are routed to one of two adjacent enclosed 700-bushel mechanical receiving pits. The pits feed a 20,000-bph GSI leg equipped with Maxi-Lift 20×8 low-profile Tiger-Tuff buckets mounted on a 22-inch Goodyear belt or a 40,000-bph receiving/shipping leg with two rows of 20×8 low-profileTiger-Tuff buckets on a 44-inch Goodyear belt. The legs are housed inside a 16-foot-x-16-foot LeMar support tower with a switchback staircase.

The legs empty grain into a five-hole Schlagel rotary double distributor. This sends grain via overhead 20,000-bph Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyors out to the two big tanks, via 20,000-bph overhead GSI drag conveyors to the wet tanks, or to one of two GSI grain dryers.   The dry tanks empty onto 30,000-bph Hi Roller belts in above-ground tunnels, while the wet tanks empty onto aboveground 20,000-bph GSI drag conveyors.  All reclaim conveyors can reach the receiving/shipping leg, and the conveyors from the wet tanks also can reach 8,000-bph GSI wet legs to the dryers.

Plant Manager Kyle Arnold says the company opted for two GSI natural gasfired tower dryers, one rated at 6,000 bph at five points of moisture removal and the other at 3,500 bph, in order to dry corn and soybeans simultaneously.  As of Grain Journal’s visit in August, the dryers had not yet been used. The dryers empty into 8,000-bph GSI dry legs.   All of the legs in the facility can be put into shipping service, placing grain onto a 50,000-bph overhead Hi Roller belt conveyor running out to a 40,000-bph CompuWeigh bulk weigh loadout scale directly over the facility’s loading track.  The operator may route grain through a pair of Magik Kleener gravity screeners, rated at 20,000 and 40,000 bph, respectively, prior to loadout.   The loadout system includes Smart Load, Super SmartLoad bulkweigher speed controls, and SmartCar/Smart-Read II RF railcar identification system and a Gamet sampler.

Grain Journal:  Ed Zdrojewski, editor