Central Region Cooperative needed more space for wet grain. So the company built nearly 1.6 million bushels of dry grain storage at its rail loading elevator in Buffalo Lake, MN (320-833-3000). That sounds like a contradiction. But in reality, having all that upright storage for dry bulk commodities freed up space in older storage for the wet grains.
Carly Johnson, grain department manager for the coop, explained some additional benefits Central Region derived from the large influx of new storage. Johnson had been with the former River Region Coop when it merged in 2017 with South Central Grain & Energy to form the present Central Region Cooperative.
“The main goal was adding space. From this project we were able to double our wet holding space capacity, load back-to-back trains, avoid a lot of extra handling lifts, and handle both corn and soybean shuttle loading without clean outs,” Johnson says. Central Region loads up to 125-car unit trains on the Twin Cities Western Railroad, a short-line with connections to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and Canadian Pacific in Minneapolis, MN.
The cooperative maintained a temporary storage pile across the road from the main elevator, he adds, but this was inefficient requiring the grain to be trucked back to the elevator for loadout.
To construct the new storage, Central Region hired CEEC Inc., Wabasso, MN (507-342-2383), as general contractor and millwright.
CHS Construction Division under the leadership of Jim Gales, performed design, procurement, and construction management during the project and was instrumental in selecting CEEC. “We selected the contractor based on timeline, quality, and reputation,” says Johnson. “CEEC kept on schedule. We had biweekly calls with the contractors on-site.”
Also, VAA, LLC, Plymouth, MN (763-577-9100), did structural engineering.
Groundbreaking on the roughly $11 million project took place in April 2021, and the tanks were ready for service in October.
The new storage addition consists of a pair of Chief 801,000-bushel corrugated steel tanks. They are 105 feet in diameter, 99 feet tall at the eaves, and 121 feet tall at the peaks, sitting atop 10-foot concrete stem walls.
Due to soil conditions, the tanks sit atop a total of 225 Berkel & Company Contractors Inc. grouted elements sunk 70 feet deep.
The flat-bottom tanks are equipped with outside stiffeners, BinGator paddle sweeps, 24-cable Rolfes@Boone grain temperature monitoring systems, and BinMaster radar-type level indicators.
A set of six Chicago Blower 50-hp centrifugal fans, supplied by Decatur Aeration, provides 1/7 cfm per bushel of aeration through in-floor ducting.
Grain is carried out to the new tanks via a set of 20,000-bph and 35,000-bph AGI Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyors equipped with two-way valves. Both conveyors can fill the first tank or feed into a second set of AGI Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyors that continue on to fill the second tank.
Those conveyors are mounted on a Warrior 14-foot-wide-x-120-foot-long handrail truss, with three 24-inch-wide walkways to service and support the conveyors.
The truss, in turn, is supported in the middle by a Warrior 14-foot-x-14-foot-x-144-foot tower. Warrior also supplied bin peak supports for the two tanks.
The tanks empty onto a 70,000-bph AGI Hi Roller enclosed belt conveyor. This conveyor feeds a second AGI Hi Roller conveyor, which conveys over to existing legs.
In addition to the new grain storage, Central Region hired Webster Scale to install a second truck scale for the Buffalo Lake facility. The coop expanded its Vertical Software automation system to service the new outbound Rice Lake 12-foot-x-80-foot pitless scale.
Ed Zdrojewski, editor
Sleepy Eye, MN • 507-794-3031
Founded: 2017
Storage capacity: 28 million bushels at seven locations
Annual volume: 36 million bushels
Annual revenues: $328 million
Number of members: 1,340
Number of employees: 150
Crops handled: Corn, soybeans
Services: Grain handling and merchandising, feed, energy, seed, agronomy
Key personnel at Buffalo Lake:
Aeration fans • Decatur Aeration
Bin sweeps • Prairie Land Millwright
Catwalks • Warrior Mfg., LLC
Concrete foundations • Anchor Concrete
Construction management • CHS Construction Division
Contractor/millwright • CEEC Inc.
Conveyors (belt) • AGI Hi Roller
Conveyors (drag) • Schlagel Inc.; S-M Enterprises, Inc.
Electrical contractor • Potter Electric
Engineering • VAA, LLC
Excavation • Mathiowetz Construction Co.
Foundation pilings • Berkel & Company Contractors Inc.
Grain temperature system • Rolfes@Boone
Level Indicators • BinMaster
Motors • Toshiba International
Scale automation • Vertical Software Inc.
Speed reducers • Dodge
Steel storage • Chief Agri
Steel tank erectors • Wieber Steel Construction
Tower support system • Warrior Mfg., LLC
Truck scale • Rice Lake Weighing Systems
Truck scale installation • Webster Scale
