Facility Feature
MaxYield Cooperative Upgrades, Adds Storage, and Integrates Automation With Three Projects

Klemme, IA — In September 2019 as MaxYield Cooperative was starting construction projects in Britt, IA and Belmond, IA, a major windstorm hit its grain facility at Klemme, IA.

Grain Team Leader Ben Buie, who came to MaxYield two years ago from East Central Iowa Cooperative in Cedar Falls, says straight line winds knocked down a conveyor and damaged a tower dryer and two 700,000-bushel bunkers at the Klemme site (712-454-1081).

Repairs were needed, and the cooperative decided to go ahead with plans to add a 105-foot-diameter corrugated steel tank, convert two existing dry storage tanks to wet tanks, and add a new 4,000-bph tower dryer and a 6,000-bushel truck loadout tank.

That project was just getting underway when Grain Journal visited late in June 2020 and was expected to be completed by late September.

In the meantime, MaxYield was just completing the Britt and Belmond construction projects, both involving a new 105-foot tank, at locations in Britt, IA (641-843-3878), and Belmond, IA (515-200-5140).

“At Belmond, it was an upgrade to aging facilities,” says Buie. “At Britt, we needed more storage. And at all three locations, we wanted to tie in everything with our automation system to create new efficiencies.”

For the three locations, MaxYield selected Buresh Building Systems, Hampton, IA (641-456-5242), as tank erector and B & E Construction, Eagle Grove, IA (515-448-5344), as millwright.

Also working on the project:

• Curry Wille & Associates, Ames, IA (515-232-9078), served as the engineering firm at Klemme, and KC Engineering, Sioux City, IA (712-252-2100).did engineering at Britt and Belmond.
• RBF Electric, Union, IA (641-858-6281); Reding Electric, Wesley, IA (515-679-4529); and Packard Electric, Belmond (641-444-3514); all performed portions of the electrical contractor work at the three sites.
• Charlson Excavating Co. Inc., Clear Lake, IA (641-357-5601), did excavation work at all three sites.
• K & K Construction & Concrete Inc., Eagle Grove (515-448-5135), and Clayton Leiker Custom Concrete, Russell, KS (785-483-8361), did concrete work.
• Buresh Building Systems jacked all three tanks – two Sukup and one GSI.

Britt and Belmond, IA add 105-foot-diameter steel tanks

At Britt, Buresh constructed a 763,000-bushel Sukup tank standing 105 feet in diameter, 96 feet tall at the eave, and 127 feet tall at the peak. An 11-foot-tall tower sits atop the tank that supports a 20,000-bph Schlagel fill conveyor running out from existing concrete.

The flat-bottom tank has outside stiffeners, a Prairie Land BinGator paddle-type sweep auger, Bindicator bin-full-type level indicator, and a 24-cable AGI CMC grain temperature monitoring system.

The tank is outfitted with six Sukup 50-hp centrifugal fans capable of delivering 1/7 cfm per bushel of aeration through in-floor ducting.

The tank empties onto a Schlagel 10,000-bph drag conveyor in an above-ground tunnel running back to existing grain handling equipment. The tank has no sidedraw.

The new 105-foot-diameter tank at Belmond is identical to the one constructed at Britt. At the time Grain Journal visited, the project at Belmond was running about two weeks behind Britt but was nearly complete. Both new tanks are expected to be in use during the 2020 fall harvest.

Wind damage repairs prompt project at Klemme, IA

While construction was just getting underway at Klemme, Operations Leader Jeff Marsh, a 22-year veteran at the cooperative, was able to provide a detailed description of the project.

Work has begun on a 750,000-bushel GSI steel tank standing 105 feet in diameter, 93 feet tall at the eave, and 121 feet tall at the peak atop an 8-foot concrete stem wall.

The tank will have a flat floor, outside stiffeners, a Prairie Land BinGator paddle sweep, and 24-cable AGI CMC grain temperature monitoring system.

A set of six GSI 40-hp centrifugal fans supply 1/7 cfm per bushel of aeration through in-floor ducting, with the assistance of 11 roof exhausters and 52 vents.

The project also will include two upgraded 500-bushel mechanical receiving pits. These will feed a pair of GSI 15,000-bph legs outfitted with single rows of Maxi-Lift 16x8 CC-style buckets mounted on 17-1/2-inch belts.

The legs will empty into a four-duct Schlagel double distributor, which in turn, will send grain to the new tank via a GSI 30,000-bph enclosed drag conveyor.

The tank won’t have a sidedraw, but it will empty onto a GSI 15,000-bph reclaim drag running back to the receiving legs in an above-ground tunnel.

Also included will be a 4,000-bph GSI Zimmerman tower dryer fired by natural gas and serviced by GSI 6,000-bph wet and dry legs. The new legs will be enclosed in a 20-foot-x-24-foot-x-170-foot Warrior tower with switchback stairs.

A Warrior box bridge free-spanning 150 feet connects from the main tower to a second Warrior 4-foot-x-8-foot-90-foot tower. A new GSI 15,000-bph conveyor will run through this bridge to feed the coop’s existing tanks, as well as a Meridian 6,000-bushel smooth-walled loadout bin.

MaxYield Cooperative

• West Bend, IA • 515-200-5115
• Founded • 1915
• Storage capacity: 49 million bushels at 19 locations
• Annual revenues: $350-400 million
• Number of members: 2,100
• Number of employees: 205
• Crops handled: Corn, soybeans, oats, organic corn and soybeans
• Services
• Grain handling and merchandising, feed, full-service agronomy, Cardtrol fuel service, convenience stores

Key personnel

• Keith Heim, CEO
• Ben Buie, grain team leader
• Frank Uhde, area leader
• Pat White, Belmond/Klemme/Garner location leader
• Sara Anderson, Britt location leader
• Jeff Marsh, operations leader

Project Suppliers

• Aeration fans • GSI, Sukup Mfg. Co.
• Bin sweep • Prairie Land Millwright Inc.
• Bucket elevator • GSI
• Catwalk • Warrior Mfg. LLC
• Concrete • K&K Construction, Clayton Leiker
• Control system • Packard Electric
• Conveyors • GSI, Schlagel Inc.
• Contractor • in-house
• Distributor • Schlagel Inc.
• Electrical contractors • RBF Electric, Reding Electric, Packard Electric
• Elevator buckets • Maxi-Lift Inc.
• Engineering • Curry Wille & Associates, KC Engineering
• Excavation • Charlson Excavating
• Grain dryer • Zimmerman Grain Dryers
• Grain temp system • AGI CMC
• Leg belting • Continental Belting
• Level indicators • Bindicator
• Millwright • B & E Construction Inc.
• Speed reducers • Dodge
• Steel storage • Sukup Mfg. Co., GSI, Meridian Mfg. Inc.
• Steel tank erection • Buresh Building Systems Inc.
• Tower support system • Warrior Mfg. LLC

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

Reprinted from September/October 2020 GRAIN JOURNAL