Facility Feature
GRAINLAND Cooperative Reduces Truck Lines, Other Bottlenecks With New Grain Handling Equipment

Minier, IL — Prior to the 2018 harvest, a trucker typically had to wait around 30 minutes at the peak of harvest to deliver a load of grain to the GRAINLAND Cooperative elevator in Minier, IL (309-392-2424).

After extensive upgrades to the 5.2-million-bushel grain elevator in 2018, wait time has shrunk to five minutes on average, says General Manager Jeff Brooks. (He has been with GRAINLAND for 23 years.)

Speeding up the truck lines took nearly a year of construction and millwright work to boost both receiving and drying capacity at Minier.

Acting as general contractor and millwright on that project was Grain Flo Inc., Heyworth, IL (800-842-4875). Brooks notes that the cooperative has a long relationship with Grain Flo on other projects at Minier, as well as a 2015 project at Emden. “They did a really good job there,” he says.

Other contractors with portions of the job at Minier included KDJ Sales & Service Inc., Mackinaw, IL (309-359-3611), which served as electrical contractor. Also, SKS Engineers, LLC, Decatur, IL (217-877-2100), performed engineering work on the project.

Pits, legs, conveyors overhauled, replaced

Work began after the 2017 harvest in mid-November, and work was largely finished around mid-September 2018.

The Minier facility had three receiving pits and legs, and the project involved upgrading two of them. One of the pits was torn out and a new enclosed, 1,200-bushel mechanical pit installed, a job performed by Craig’s Concrete Inc., Gilman, IL (815-265-7355).

The two new GSI bucket elevators are rated at 20,000-bph. They are equipped with a single row of Tapco 20x9 heavy-duty buckets mounted on a 22-inch Continental belt.

The legs deposit grain into a 10-duct Schlagel SwingSet double-distributor. The operator has the option of running grain through an Intersystems 25,000-bph gravity screener mounted above the distributor.

The legs, distributor, and screener are enclosed in a Warrior 24-foot-x-20-foot support tower outfitted with a switchback staircase on the top half above the elevator roof.

The Grain Flo crew replaced five overhead fill conveyors with new GSI 20,000-bph drag conveyors. Four of the five drags are paired up to handle the full output of the two 20,000-bph receiving legs.

Another conveyor – and old open belt conveyor for reclaim in a below-ground tunnel – was replaced with a GSI 20,000-bph enclosed belt conveyor.

Zimmerman natural gas dryer added

In addition to the grain handling equipment, GRAINLAND added a new Zimmerman 7,000-bph tower dryer. The dryer is a dual-feed model able to operate on natural gas from a nearby main or on propane from a new 30,000-gallon tank installed nearby.

“There isn’t enough natural gas service to the town to support the larger dryer,” says Brooks, who notes that an older 4,000-bph dryer remains in service.

He adds that the new Zimmerman dryer has performed excellently during a relatively dry 2018 harvest. “We’ve maxed out on speed with the new dryer, and we only needed the old one two or three days.”

The new dryer is serviced by a 12,000-bph dry leg that had been brought over from a different construction project at GRAINLAND’s El Paso, IL elevator and a 15,000-bph wet leg, which was one of the legs replaced at Minier by a new receiving leg.

The 2017-18 project concludes Phase One of construction at Minier. Phases Two and Three will involve the replacement of additional conveyors.

Company Info, GRAINLAND Cooperative

• Eureka, IL • 309-467-2355
• Founded • 1903
• Storage capacity • 23.5 million bushels at six locations
• Annual volume • 22 million bushels
• Annual revenues • $120 million
• Number of members • 1,500
• Number of employees • 21
• Crops handled • Corn, soybeans, soft red winter wheat
• Services • Grain handling and merchandising, brokerage

Key personnel at Minier:

• Jeff Brooks, general manager
• John Hood, southern grain operations manager
• Jeff Kaeb, merchandiser
• John Hoerbert, asst. merchandiser
• Amy Boesdorfer, customer relations
• Mike Rettke, operations
• Ben Schneider, operations

Suppliers

• Bearing sensors • CMC Industrial Electronics
• Bucket elevators • GSI
• Building erection • Peterson Structures LLC
• Catwalk • Grain Flo Inc.
• Cleaner • InterSystems
• Concrete • Craig’s Concrete Inc.
• Contractor/millwright • Grain Flo Inc.
• Control system • KDJ Sales & Service Inc.
• Conveyors • GSI
• Distributor • Schlagel Inc.
• Dust collection system • MAC
• Electrical contractor • KDJ Sales & Service Inc.
• Elevator buckets • Tapco Inc.
• Engineering • SKS Engineers, LLC
• Gates • Premier Components Inc.
• Grain dryer • Zimmerman Grain Dryers
• Insurance • Triangle Insurance Co.
• Leg belting • Continental
• Liner • General Rubber/Tandem Products, Inc.
• Motion sensors • CMC Industrial Electronics
• Motors • Siemens Industry Inc.
• Receiving building • Redisetbuild
• Speed reducers • Dodge
• Tower support system • Warrior Mfg. LLC

Ed Zdrojewski, Editor

Reprinted from GRAIN JOURNAL March/April 2019 Issue