Facility Feature
Gold Star FS Inc. Builds Greenfield Elevator in Area Short on Grain Handling Facilities

Cambridge, IL — Since Gold Star FS Inc.’s most recent merger in 2006, the cooperative has operated a single grain elevator in the northern part of its territory, at Erie, IL.

Since then, however, cooperative members, both on and off the board, have identified a region to the east of the company’s headquarters in Cambridge, IL that was short on grain handling service for farmers.

“We needed to expand into that area,” says Grain Manager Mike Schaver, who has worked at the Cambridge location for his entire 40-year career. He noted that there is a strong demand for grain in the area, with ethanol plants located 10 miles to the north in Atkinson, IL and 10 miles to the south near Galva, IL.

A new elevator east of Cambridge also would eliminate the need for at least some producers to haul grain to terminals on the Mississippi River, nearly 30 miles away.

New all-steel elevator strictly truck operation

Gold Star selected a site for its second elevator about nine miles east of Cambridge, on a county blacktop about a quarter mile north of State Highway 81. The $14 million all-steel elevator was planned strictly as a truck operation, with no rail lines nearby.

The cooperative took several bids on the project. The numbers were close, Schaver reports, but Gold Star awarded the contract to Growmark Commercial Construction, Bloomington, IL (309-557-6336), as the most competitive.

“They did a great job,” Schaver says. “The project went very well. There didn’t have to be a lot of dirt brought in, and no pilings were needed.”

Also on the project:

• Illini FS Construction Services, Tuscola, IL (800-295-2348), served as millwright.
• SKS Engineers LLC, Decatur, IL (217-877-2100), performed structural engineering.
• KDJ Sales & Service Inc., Mackinaw, IL (309-359-3611), was the electrical contractor and installed automation systems.
• Cross Country Construction, Elbow Lake, MN (218-685-6410), erected the steel storage tanks.
• Craig’s Concrete Inc., Gilman, IL (815-265-7355), supplied concrete and poured the foundations.

Construction on the 2.1-million-bushel elevator began in August 2018. The elevator opened for business in August 2019.

Upright storage at the Cambridge East elevator consists of two large Brock 788,000-bushel corrugated steel tanks intended for corn at the north end of the elevator and two smaller Brock 240,000-bushel tanks to the south, one for wet grain and one for soybeans.

The large tanks stand 105 feet in diameter, 98 feet 10 inches tall at the eaves, and 126 feet 6 inches tall at the peaks. These tanks are equipped with outside stiffeners, Daay paddle sweeps, GSI AgriDry grain spreaders, 24-cable CMC grain temperature monitoring systems, and Vega radar-type level indicators.

A set of four 60-hp Chicago Blower centrifugal fans provide about 1/7 cfm per bushel of aeration. Air is delivered through a floor consisting of Sukup HD floor planks with SuperWave floor supports creating an air space underneath.

The two smaller tanks stand 60 feet in diameter, 104 feet 2 inches tall at the eaves, and 119 feet 7 inches tall at the peaks.

They are outfitted similarly to the large tanks, except the grain temperature system has only 11 cables each, and the wet tank does not have a grain spreader. A pair of 40-hp centrifugal fans provided roughly 1/7 cfm per bushel of aeration.

Receiving pits feed pair of 20,000 bhp GSI legs

To the west of the elevator structure, Gold Star built a two-story, metal-sided office and lab building. Incoming trucks are weighed on an 80-foot Fairbanks pitless truck scale immediately adjacent to the office building, which is under the control of a Vertical Software automation system. Trucks are sampled on the scale with a Gamet JaHam truck probe and the sample tested with a GAC 2500 moisture meter. The outbound scale also is an 80-foot Fairbanks model.

Trucks proceed to one of two 1,200-bushel mechanical receiving pits housed in a concrete shed. The pits feed a pair of 20,000-bph GSI receiving legs equipped with 20x8 Maxi-Lift buckets mounted on 22-inch belts.

The legs feed a Schlagel 20-inch, 6-duct, triple swing set distributor. This, in turn, sends grain out to storage via GSI 20,000-bph overhead drag conveyors and 30,000-bph GSI belt conveyors.

The storage tanks have no sidedraws but deposit grain directly onto GSI 20,000-bph enclosed belt conveyors running back to the receiving legs.

From the distributor, outbound grain travels via a 20,000-bph overhead GSI drag conveyor to the receiving shed. A pair of Schuld Bushnell 5,000-bushel surge tanks are used to load trucks.

The facility includes twin side-by-side Zimmerman 4,750-bph propane-fired tower dryers. Schaver notes that having two medium-sized dryers instead of one large dryer provides more flexibility for handling multiple crops, provides one working dryer should the other be offline for any reason, and uses less energy that a single large dryer. The dryers are filled via gravity spouts from the distributor, and a 15,000-bph GSI dry leg takes grain back up to the top of the elevator.