Farmers Co-op Elevator Company announces major grain facility expansion

By News Team
ads@fillmorecountyjournal.com

Mon, Jun 4th, 2012
Posted in Rushford All

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The Farmers Cooperative Elevator Company has announced a major grain facility update at their South Fork location in the Village of Rushford. Board Chairman Steve Oian says the addition of a 514,000 bushel storage bin, 4,700 bushel/hour Zimmerman dryer and 85,000 bushel wet holding bin will take pressure off their feed and grain facility on the north side of the Root River in the City of Rushford. Construction began this spring. (See pictures at www.farmersco-opelevator.coop.)

Oian goes on, “In the past, the lines of farmer customers waiting to deliver grain to the elevator caused traffic congestion through Rushford on Highway 43. Adding drying and storage capability to South Fork will divert much of that traffic. Farmers will be able to weigh and dump their grain without leaving the scale, and the time to empty a semi-load of corn will drop from 15 minutes to less than four.”

“I remember the board discussing adding grain storage at board meetings many years ago,” says Director Greg Smith.

“In retrospect, we should have added storage then. This facility expansion is long overdue. In fact, we discussed about ten years ago adding a scale and dryer, but updated our dryer at the Rushford Feed mill instead. I’m glad we’re moving forward in serving our farmer members.”

Grain Division Manager Greg Boldt says it’s been a challenge to keep up with growth in the co-op’s grain volume the last few years. “We’re adding more options to members for grain price risk protection and are now offering Delayed Price Contracts, but an important part of continuing to grow in our grain business is increasing capacity in drying, handling and storage. This project will help all of these areas and speed things up tremendously for our customers hauling grain to us in the fall.”

General Manager Todd Rosvold says the goal is to have the project fully completed by the start of harvest this fall. Lodermeier’s of Goodhue, a company with many years experience in building large grain facilities, is the general contractor for the project.

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