“The GSI team was easy to work with during the building of our new CHS Colton Agronomy Center,” said Gregg Fodness, Agronomy Location Manager. “They were good about getting things done in a timely manner so that we were ready to go before the busy season hit. They listened to any concerns and questions we had and always came up with a solution for us.”
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Eastern Farmers Co-op, operating as a division of CHS Inc., announced plans to construct a new agronomy center near Colton, SD (in northern Minnehaha County) for the 2017 season. The new plant handles 30,990 tons of dry fertilizer storage and 1,500 tons of liquid fertilizer storage. The facility also provides crop protection services and seed warehouses. The receiving bucket elevator operates at 800 tons per hour and feeds the over-bin transfer belt conveyor.
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The new plant handles 30,990 tons of dry fertilizer storage and 1,500 tons of liquid fertilizer storage. The facility also provides crop protection services and seed warehouses.
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The tower fill bucket elevator operates at a capacity of 300 tons per hour.
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GSI’s three-way valves with Salem gates are connected to two 8-ton weigh hoppers. All of the equipment GSI provides is manufactured of stainless steel. The enlarged tower footprint (20X20 feet) allows for ease of access at interior platforms.
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From overhead bin storage (six major and five minor ingredient bins), GSI’s dual-stage and full-open pneumatic Salem gates control the flow to the two 8-ton weigh hoppers.
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Material is moved via the 36-inch-wide over-bin transfer belt conveyor at a speed of 550 feet per minute. The heavy-duty tripper moves product 800 tons per hour to storage areas and can be remotely controlled from the office or ground level.
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The blend tower includes an 8-ton dual-shaft horizontal blender that offers unequaled mixing efficiency. Cycle times are shorter, and blends remain consistent batch to batch. The blend tower is fed by a bucket elevator that operates at a capacity of 300 tons per hour.
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During construction a crew uses a crane to lift the 250-ton-capacity overhead bin clusters.
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CHS Southwest Grain in Lemmon, SD, became dissatisfied with the performance of its fertilizer terminal after just five years of service. The company chose to build a new agronomy center from the ground up, selecting GSI’s InterSystems brand of crop nutrient material handling and blending equipment (foreground) while citing speed and design flexibility.
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GSI’s InterSystems brand has introduced a fertilizer plow that can replace a standard tripper and is lighter, smaller, and more cost-effective, with no loss in capacity. By maintaining an even-pile peak, it is 20 to 30% more efficient than a drag conveyor by eliminating the voids in the product piles between gates. The fertilizer plow requires a smaller building head-house, offering further savings in the construction of new processing facilities.
“In today’s rapidly changing ag market, operations with the most flexibility to adapt to end-user requirements and volatile market conditions win,” said Nate Reznechek, Sales Director at GSI. “The CHS team knew the current tandard wouldn’t cut it, which is why they included GSI’s InterSystems brand of higher-quality, heavy-duty fertilizer-processing equipment in its new agronomy center in Colton. As an engineered-to-order brand, GSI goes beyond standard with equipment customized for its customers’ geography and crop mix. A great example at CHS’s Colton facility is our dual-shaft horizontal blender, which completes an 8-ton batch in just 45 seconds! Customers are loaded and back in the field faster with the high-quality blends they demand.”
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July 6, 2018 
