New grain facility reshapes the skyline

Drivers in the Worthing area watched as a new grain facility grew up in a matter of six days.

CHS Brandon broke ground on the new grain elevator last August. They started moving dirt Sept. 14. From September until June, all of the work on the site was below ground.

Michael Van Otterloo, senior director of operations, CHS Brandon, said the main supporting structure underground has 450-plus auger cast piles. Once all of the underground infrastructure was completed, they were able to start work on the slip.

The first concrete truck from Tri-State Ready Mix and Van Zee Enterprises out of Beresford came the morning of Aug. 16 at 7:30 a.m. They had six drivers during the day and six drivers at night continually bringing concrete to the site. 

As they poured the concrete, crews from Vigen Construction spent 12-hour shifts working around the clock, pouring 34-36 yards of concrete an hour. At any given time during the six days of pouring, a crew of 90-95 workers were on top. Once a crew went up for their shift, they stayed there until the end of the shift. On top of the worksite, they had bathrooms, cooking stations and break areas.

“I’ve been really happy to see how many of our patrons and our customers are out here to see this. It really is a once in a lifetime event. It’s amazing to see it go up as it does every day,” said Jonathan Hagena, CHS Brandon co-op board member.

The concrete slip went up about a foot an hour and finished with concrete at about 10 p.m. last Wednesday.

Besides the concrete facility, they are also building a receiving building and adding another scale. Next up for work, they need to strip off the forms, reform the roof, put in all of the grain legs, conveyors, electrical and network.

“This is going to be a very high technology facility so we can control it from anywhere around the facility to cut down on labor,” Van Otterloo said.

In addition to the 4 million bushels of storage in the bunkers, they added 1.1 million bushels in upright storage.

Having this type of facility located along I-29 and Highway 44 gives farmers easy access to quickly deliver grain.

“It provides better market opportunity for farmers along the I-29, Highway 44 access. We have not had a year-round facility for them. We closed the Worthing elevator years back. We’ve had the bunker facility but you fire up the bunkers and take grain and then you shut down,” Van Otterloo said. “This is a year-round opportunity for farmers to market and then obviously it gives us the opportunity to put their grain on wheels by truck or export their grain by rail to Texas or California or exports overseas.”

The Worthing location was an ideal location for CHS to invest in this kind of facility because of how much land was available at the site, along with the railroad tracks and interstate system.

“It’s pretty central in our business area,” Hagena said. “It’s adjacent to I-29 so there’s a lot of traffic. It’s easy for guys who are farming a ways away here.”

Hagena sees the future potential for farmers in the region.

“When I see a structure built like this, I really think about my sons and if they want to have the opportunity to farm, this will be able to serve them throughout their careers as well,” Hagena said. “Something like this is an investment that lasts generations and benefits generations because a facility like this will be able to handle the grain really efficiently, will keep our bid competitive and that competitiveness will go in the farmers pocket as better prices.”

While the construction project is about two months behind, Van Otterloo hoped they will be able to dump their first load of corn or soybeans between Nov. 1 and Christmas.

In addition to adding grain capacity, CHS also built this facility with safety in mind. These bins have a canal system so it’s zero entry for employees. They have a canal system where aeration blows the grain out so employees do not need to enter them.

“We don’t want to put employees at risk,” Van Otterloo said.

As the project moves along, Hagena and Van Otterloo are thankful for a great construction crew.

“The people who build things like this, there’s not very many of them and the ones who do, they’re professionals. They really know what they’re doing. It’s a complicated project and I’m confident that the people working on it have done everything they can to work with the weather,” Hagena said. “I’m just really thankful for all the partners, the local concrete companies who coordinated this to make it happen.”