“Grain Journal did a Facility Feature on our newest grain facility, which was built in 2018 in Collins, IA. That facility has a lot of automation. It’s a 3-million-bushel facility with three scales (two outbound and one inbound), 40,000-bph receiving capacity, and a 7,000-bph dryer. We can run that elevator with one person, who can be in the office grading grain.

“From a technology standpoint, the one thing the industry is still trying to figure out is how to grade grain without human intervention. We haven’t cracked the code on that one yet. But everything else in our Collins facility is run or could be run with automation. However, we don’t run it that way every day of the year. During harvest, we have people man the pits, so our customer doesn’t have to get out of the truck. That actually keeps the flow moving a little quicker.

“But, at the end of the day, the facility is fully automated. We could run it remotely if we wanted to.

“Over time, if you look at the trends, you’ve got bigger, faster farmers and a smaller pool of labor. That’s where the importance of automation comes in. A lot of our facilities are automated in some form or fashion.

“Another big innovation, believe it or not, is cordless tools. That came from one of my teammates who has been doing maintenance for 40 years. He crawls around all of our facilities doing various maintenance and repair, and the ability for him to take cordless tools with him has been pretty profound.

“Near-infrared (NIR) technology also has been influential for us. We’re in the soybean crush business, so oil and protein matter to us. With the utilization of these NIR machines, we can test for oil and then, to the extent it’s possible, we can favor soybeans that have more oil over those that don’t.”

515-817-2100 | www.landuscooperative.com

Reprinted from Grain Journal March/April 2020 Issue