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Behlen Grain Systems

Behlen Grain Systems • 800-553-5520http://www.behlengrainsystems.com

Quality grain storage systems in 70 countries

Behlen Grain Systems, a business unit of Behlen Mfg. Co. located in Columbus, NE, is an international manufacturer of grain storage systems with customers in more than 70 countries worldwide.

During the 1940s, Behlen designed and built corn cribs that included galvanized steel rods after assembly welding, which became the primary form of corn storage in the United States, until they were replaced with bins and drying systems in the 1960s.

In 2008, Behlen became the first manufacturer to introduce a 1.5-million-bushel grain silo with a clear span roof.

Grain Journal spoke recently with Sales Manager Kirk Nelson to find out about the company’s custom grain storage systems and its position in the industry.

What’s New

We don’t have any major product changes planned for 2019. However, we recently added a new engineer, Cody Myers, who replaced Dennis Kouma after 50 years with Behlen.

What’s Hot

Much of the conversation lately has been about the new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulation for outside ladders. The change to the ladder requirements has been out for a while, but it went into effect in November 2018. This rule requires a fall restraint system, which mounts to a cable that you hook into. So, they’re no longer considering safety cages as a fall restraint.

There’s been a fair amount of pushback from customers on that requirement. Nobody seems to like this idea of having to tie into a cable, because they need to maintain both the cable and latch system that you tie to yourself to climb. And if it does fail, then you do fall to the ground, whereas at least the safety cage slows your descent. So, we’ll see how it all shakes out.

Keys to Success

We continue to have one of the best designed grain bins/silos in the industry. While others have taken steel out of their bins, Behlen continues to hold fast to not compromising our standards. While we understand that customers have become a lot more price conscious than they were in the past – especially in the last three or four years when elevators began seeing tighter margins – and they’re looking at every way they can to save a nickel.

But people need to consider that there is a point where you’ve taken out too much steel, and then you start having a lot of bin failures, and you have to ask: Have you really saved yourself money? It’s like the old adage: “Save a nickel; spend a dollar.” We feel it’s best to leave an adequate amount of steel in our bins to diminish the likelihood of failure.

We also pride ourselves on customer service. We do our best to take care of our customers, and we still remain very price competitive even though we haven’t given up on a quality-designed bin with all the steel left in. We have worked very hard to keep overhead low so that we remain price competitive without compromising quality.

Company Highlights

Our tag line has been: “Engineered to a higher standard.” When others continue to reduce the amount of steel used and how close they get to the minimum safety factor, we won’t sacrifice quality or safety for a lower cost.

Additionally, our grain storage buildings can be custom designed for many applications with rigorous demands. The entire line of Behlen equipment can be manufactured to handle high winds, seismic conditions, as well as high filling and unloading rates.

Finally, we are proud to be ISO 9001 certified since 1999. The ISO 9001 series of standards assures customers a consistent, high level of quality on every order. It means quality is a way of life and must be built into every step of our operation. Achieving ISO 9001 certification is a result of involved people working together to continually improve our systems and exceed customer expectations.

Reprinted from Grain Journal March/April 2019 Issue


About Behlen Grain Systems

Columbus, NE
800-553-5520
402-564-3111
http://www.behlengrainsystems.com

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