Facility Feature
Million-Bushel Rail Terminal

There is a lot of competition for grain origination in the rolling hills between Minot, ND and the Missouri River. For newly-formed TriGen Ag Partners, LLC, that meant building a new rail terminal.

“This was an area that could use an elevator like this,” says TriGen General Manager and CEO Rick Talbott, “located between two other cooperatives.”

A new rail-loading elevator was a major goal of TriGen, formed in August 2020 through the merger between Max Farmers Elevator and Plaza Makoti Equity Elevator, in partnership with Agrex, Inc. Prior to the formation of TriGen, Talbott had been running the Max operation.

The new company selected an easily accessible site for the terminal off State Highway 28 near Ryder, ND (701-758-2935) on a Canadian Pacific rail line. The slipform concrete facility contains about 1 million bushels of storage and an 8,500-foot loop track.

To build the roughly $20 million Ryder facility, TriGen awarded the contract to Vigen Construction, Inc., East Grand Forks, MN (218-773-1158). “They did some projects for us at our Max elevator, and we really liked their work,” says Talbott.

Groundbreaking took place in September 2020. The Vigen crew began pouring the slip in June 2021.

The facility began receiving grain in December of that year, and the first train was loaded in January 2022.

“We have the capacity to hold 142 covered hopper cars, and we’ve loaded four 110-car unit trains so far,” he says. “Three of them have gone to the Pacific Northwest and the fourth to Texas.”

Upright Storage

Due to soil conditions, the new elevator structure is supported by 402 auger cast pilings sunk up to 80 feet deep.

Atop that base is a slipform structure containing eight large tanks and five interstice bins, plus a square concrete section holding the bulk weigh loadout scale. The eight large tanks hold 112,000 bushels each. Each is 36 feet in diameter and 140 feet tall.

Each tank is equipped with four-cable grain temperature monitoring systems manufactured by Hope Electric, BinMaster radar-type level indicators, and Grain Savers grain ladders at the top. The western four tanks have sidedraw spouts.

The eight tanks also are equipped with North American Equipment Luft Kanal aeration and air-assisted unloading floors, powered by a single AGI Airlanco 50-hp centrifugal fan per two tanks. For aeration purposes, each delivers 1/9.8 cfm per bushel.

Grain Routing

Incoming trucks carry grain to a Gamet truck probe station adjacent to a two-story office and lab building. Trucks then proceed onto a B-Tec 110-foot pit-type inbound scale for weighing.

A digital display screen, part of the Hope Electric control system operating the facility, directs the driver to one of two enclosed mechanical receiving pits holding about 800 bushels each.

The pits feed Schlagel 20,000-bph legs equipped with a single row of Tapco 20x8 CCLP-HD buckets mounted on a Continental 22-inch belt. The legs are inside an outdoor alcove recessed into the slip.

The legs deposit grain into two Schlagel six-duct rotary double distributor. The distributor sends grain out to storage via a Schlagel overhead 20,000-bph drag conveyors.

Grain also can be sent prior to storage through a Cimbria 10,000-bph MegaCleaner for vibratory screening.

A roof-mounted Schenck Process baghouse collects dust from the grain stream.

The GSI dryer, rated at 4,700 bph at five ponts of moisture removal, was installed in 2022 and is fired from a 30,000-gallon propane tank adjacent to the elevator. It has not been used yet.

Storage tanks empty onto an AGI Hi Roller 80,000-bph Hi Life enclosed belt conveyor in a below-ground tunnel. It runs to a Schlagel 60,000-bph shipping leg or 20,000-bph receiving leg. The shipping leg is equipped with three rows of Tapco 20x8 buckets on a 64-inch Continental belt supplied by Applied Power Products.

The shipping leg feeds a Vigen-built weigh loadout scale housed inside the slip to protect it from harsh North Dakota weather. The 80,000-bph bulkweigher is operated using oneWeigh software. Workers atop railcars during loading operations are protected with a Vigen-built trolley unit 240 feet long.

Talbott says it’s been taking eight hours to load a 110-car train, but he expects that to speed up.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

From July/August 2022 Grain Journal Issue

TriGen Ag Partners

Max, ND • 701-679-2400

Founded: 2020

Storage capacity: 4 million bushels at four locations

Annual volume: 8-10 million bushels

Annual revenues: $80 million

Number of employees: 25

Crops handled: Hard red spring and winter wheat, durum, canola, soybeans, flax, barley

Services: Grain handling and merchandising, agronomy, seed cleaning, custom application

Ryder Supplier List

Aeration fans • AGI Airlanco

Aeration system • North American Equipment Co. Inc.

Bearing sensors • Rolfes@Boone

Bucket elevators • Schlagel Inc.

Bulk weigh scale • Vigen Construction, Inc.

Catwalk • Vigen Construction, Inc.

Cleaner • Bratney Companies

Concrete tank builder • Vigen Construction, Inc.

Contractor • Vigen Construction, Inc.

Control system • Hope Electric, Inc.

Conveyors (belt) • AGI Hi Roller

Conveyors (drag) • Schlagel Inc.

Conveyor belting • Fenner Dunlop

Distributor • Schlagel Inc.

Dust filters • Schenck Process

Elevator buckets • Tapco Inc.

Engineering (structural) • VAA, LLC

Fall protection • Vigen Construction, Inc.

Grain dryer • GSI

Grain temperature system • Hope Electric, Inc.

Leg belting • Applied Power Products/ Continental

Level indicators • BinMaster

Liner • Mass Flow Sourcing, LLC

Magnets • Puritan Magnetics, Inc.

Manlift • Schumacher Elevator Co.

Millwright • Vigen Construction, Inc.

Motion sensors • Rolfes@Boone

Motors • Toshiba International; Baldor Motors

Roof system • NIJAC Roofing

Sampler • GSI

Speed reducers • Dodge Industrial, Inc.

Tower support system • Vigen Construction, Inc.

Truck probe • Gamet Mfg. In