The rising demand for soybean oil as a feedstock for the production of renewable diesel is having an impact on grain companies across the country. Case in point is Central Valley Ag.

The 12,700-member cooperative based in York, NE with grain, feed, energy, agronomy, and retail operations in 77 communities in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, that growing demand for soybeans led to storage projects at its Shelby and Tamora, NE train-loading facilities in 2023.

According to Operations Manager Hans Szarafinski, the growing demand for soybeans led to a storage expansion project at its Shelby and Tamora, NE train-loading facilities in 2023.

Central Valley Ag carries a big footprint in the grain industry from Oyens, IA In western Iowa to Ainsworth, NE in central Nebraska.

Formed in 2003 by three Nebraska cooperatives, CVA has grown through four more mergers into a full-service cooperative handling grain, feed (nine feed mills), agronomy, and retail.

“In the past,” says Szarafinski, “most of our soybeans had been shipped by rail to the Pacific Northwest, Gulf, Mexico direct, and domestic crush plants. But, now with two new nearby soybean crush plants being built in David City, NE and Norfolk, NE, our margin opportunities are expanding and we can carry beans longer.”

That need for more storage prompted the coop in late 2022 to solicit bids to add single jumpform concrete tanks at Shelby and Tamora.

The coop hired Habco, Salina, KS, as the design/build contractor for the projects, and it began work in early 2023. “Habco did an excellent job for us,” says Szarafinski, who joined CVA in 2021 and has been in the grain industry since 2002. “We hope to use them more in the future.”

Shelby, NE

The expansion at Shelby, which loads 112-car unit-trains on the Union Pacific, started in March 2023 and was completed by September for the fall corn harvest.

The project centered around a 112-foot diameter McPherson Storage Systems jumpform tank. The flat-bottom tank stands 124 feet tall and can store 1 million bushels, upping the elevator’s storage capacity to 2.5 million bushels. It has a 10-foot-x-8-foot below-ground tunnel that is 150 feet long leading back to the existing elevator’s shipping leg.

Part of the project included increasing the elevator’s receiving capacity from 20,000 bph to 30,000 bph. This included a new 800-bushel gravity truck receiving pit, the elevator’s second, built adjacent to the new concrete tank. It dumps grain into a new 30,000-bph AGI Hi Roller which takes grain from the pit and the new concrete tank back to the elevator’s shipping leg.

According to Szarafinski, this 50% increase allows the elevator to get half of its 60,000-bph rail loading capacity from the new tank. “This allows us to load two separate commodities via rail back-to-back when needed.”

The tank is filled from the existing receiving/shipping leg by an AGI Hi Roller 30,000-bph enclosed belt conveyor in a 7-foot-wide-x-144-foot-long APEX walk-through catwalk that routes grain a Warrior 30,000-bph upper fill drag conveyor. Grain is reclaimed into an AGI Hi Roller 30,000-bph enclosed belt conveyor in a below-ground tunnel back to the outside receiving conveyor that feeds the receiving/shipping leg. A 7,500- to 15,000-bph Prairie Land Millwright Bin Gator paddle bin sweep is used for final cleanout.

The tank’s updraft aeration system features six Rolfes@Boone 60-hp fans providing 1/9.5 cfm per bushel for corn. Grain temperature is measured by a 12-cable wireless Rolfes@Boone system.

Tamora, NE

The expansion at Tamora, which loads 112-car unit trains on the BNSF, started in February 2023 and was finished in November.

A 102-foot-diameter McPherson jumpform tank was built on the west end of the elevator, adjacent to two existing McPherson tanks – a 84-foot-diameter built in 2012 and the other an 80-foot-diameter built in 2005. The new flat-bottom tank stands 144 feet tall and can store 1 million bushels, upping the elevator’s storage capacity to 2.65 million bushels. It has a 4-foot stem wall with a machinery trough.

The tank is filled by a new Warrior 30,000-bph drag which ties into the fill conveyors for the two adjacent tanks. Grain is reclaimed by a gravity spout into an above-ground AGI Hi Roller 60,000-bph enclosed belt conveyor. That conveyor then ties into an existing AGI Hi Roller 60,000-bph enclosed belt conveyor that goes back to the rail loadout shipping leg. A 7,500- to 15,000-bph Bin Gator paddle bin sweep is used for final cleanout.

The tank’s updraft aeration system features eight AGI Airlanco 50-hp fans providing 1/10 cfm per bushel corn. Grain temperature is measured by an 18-cable Rolfes@Boone system.

“So far, we are happy with the construction and operations of both projects,” says Szarafinski.

Wireless Temperature System

According to Szarafinski, both sites utilize a Rolfes@Boone KTX wireless grain temperature monitoring system, which allows users to view grain temperatures in the tanks via mobile app or web portal.

Szarafinski says the system gives him and his employees easy remote access to data at an unlimited number of locations and unlimited number of storage tanks. “It allows us to receive real-time data and real-time notifications of any issues in the tanks,” he says. “It is also fully customizable to each location.”

“We are very happy with this system,” Szarafinski adds. “We’re planning on installing the system at several of our other elevators in our region.”

Supplier List

In This Issue

Grain Journal May June 2024

View this review and more in the Grain Journal May June 2024 magazine.