Facility Feature
Space and Speed for customers

Speed and space. Those are the two basic services a grain-handling farmer-owned cooperative offers to its customers, according to Mark Tarter, vice president of grain at The Equity since 1986 after earning a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University.

Since the Effingham, IL-based cooperative purchased a grain elevator in Strasburg, IL (217-644-2266), “we’ve seen continued growth ever since we’ve been there.” Tarter says. The Equity currently operates three grain elevators

“It was getting to be a struggle to keep the facility open the way it needs to be during harvest,” he continues. “Our rail terminal in Effingham is in the middle of town, while the Strasburg elevator is in the middle of a cornfield, making it easier for our producers in that area to deliver there.”

As a matter of customer service then, the cooperative decided to add storage and a third receiving leg at Strasburg.

When Grain Journal visited the elevator in mid-August 2022, workers from Pals Electric, Teutopolis, IL, were putting the finishing touches on electrical systems controlling a new steel annex prior to an anticipated Sept. 1 startup in plenty of time for fall harvest.

Prior to construction of the new annex, the all-steel elevator at Strasburg consisted of five 60-foot-diameter tanks, two 48-foot tanks, and four 42-foot tanks holding a total of 980,000 bushels

The annex, constructed by Grain Flo Inc., Heyworth, IL, includes a Sukup 764,000-bushel corrugated steel tank, by far the largest storage structure at Strasburg. It also includes an enclosed receiving pit, the facility’s third, a GSI 25,000-bph receiving leg, and GSI enclosed belt conveyors for filling and reclaiming from the new tank.

Location Manager Ron Wirth notes that Grain Flo was selected as contractor and millwright through a normal bidding process. Wirth, a Strasburg native, has been at the Strasburg elevator his entire 40-year grain industry career after earning an associate degree from Lakeland Junior College in Mattoon, IL. Grain Flo has done some projects for The Equity in the past, he says.

In addition to Grain Flo and Pals, MBI Concrete Construction, Effingham, did the concrete work on the project, and Wieber Steel Construction, Altamont, SD, erected the tank. Work on the project began in November 2021.

Annex Specifications

The new Sukup tank holds nearly 764,000 bushels and will be used for corn. It measures 105 feet in diameter, 95 feet tall at the eave, and a little over 124 feet tall at the peak. The tank has a flat concrete floor and an 8-foot stem wall upon which the steel tank rests.

The flat-bottom tank is outfitted with outside stiffeners, a GSI X-Series 16-inch zero-entry sweep auger, and 24-cable Rolfes@Boone grain temperature monitoring system. The tank also has a sidedraw spout and spiral staircase around the outside.

A set of four Chicago Blower 50-hp centrifugal fans provide 1/9 cfm per bushel of aeration through in-floor ducting.

Immediately to the west of the big tank is a raised and enclosed 1,200-bushel mechanical receiving pit. The pit feeds a GSI 25,000-bph leg, which is equipped with two rows of Maxi-Lift 14x8 buckets mounted on a 32-inch Continental belt.

The leg deposits grain into a GSI four-duct rotary distributor, which in turn, deposits it onto an overhead GSI 25,000-bph, 146-foot-long enclosed belt conveyor running out to the new tank or to the older section of the facility.

The leg and distributor are enclosed in a GSI 16-foot-x-16-foot-x-158-foot support tower equipped with switchback stairs and a platform 146 feet up from the ground. The fill conveyor is supported by a GSI 7-foot-x-7-foot-x-165-foot top truss.

The tank empties through nine sumps into a GSI 20,000-bph enclosed belt reclaim conveyor in an 7-foot-tall by 7-foot-wide above-ground tunnel, The conveyor runs back to the new receiving leg.

Spouting from the distributor allows grain to be transferred to older parts of the facility.

Tarter comments that the site has plenty of space for more upright storage as the need arises. “We have a 10-year growth plan,” he says.

Ed Zdrojewski, editor

From September/October 2022 Grain Journal

The Equity

Effingham, IL • 217-342-4101

Founded: 1919

Grain storage capacity: 9.4 million bushels at three locations

Annual volume: 27 million bushels

Annual sales: $700 million+

Number of members: 5,089

Number of employees: 450

Crops handled: Corn, soybeans, soft red winter wheat

Key personnel at Strasburg:

Ron Wirth, location manager

Mike Dunaway, grain superintendent

Don Spivey, outside operations

Shelby Meinhart, scale operator

Strasburg Supplier List

Aeration fans • Chicago Blower

Bin sweep • GSI

Bucket elevator • GSI

Catwalk • GSI

Concrete • MBI Concrete Construction

Contractor • Grain Flo Inc.

Control system • Pals Electric

Conveyors • GSI

Conveyor belting • Continental

Distributor • GSI

Elevator buckets • Maxi-Lift Inc.

Engineering • SKS Engineers, LLC

Grain temperature system • Rolfes@Boone

Leg belting • Continental

Millwright • Grain Flo Inc.

Motors • Siemens/Allis

Speed reducers • Dodge Industrial, Inc.

Steel storage • Sukup Mfg. Co.

Steel tank erection • Wieber Steel Construction

Tower support system • GSI