Legacy Building Solutions Designs Unique Fertilizer Facility for Agriland FS

By CropLife Staff|July 2, 2019

Legacy Building Solutions designs, manufactures, and installs fabric structures globally. Agriland FS Inc. is a farmer-owned cooperative that provides agricultural products directly to farmers. After working from a leased building for several years, Agriland FS determined the need to add a permanent fertilizer storage building at its Woodbine, IA, location. The new building would be used for storing, mixing, and distributing fertilizer.

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After working from a leased building for several years, Agriland FS determined the need to add a permanent fertilizer storage building at its Woodbine, IA, location. All photos courtesy of Legacy Building Solutions.
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Legacy partnered with Agriland FS to design a unique building with separate space for bulk storage, loading, and driving heavy equipment.
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The farmer-owned cooperative provides agricultural products directly to farmers.
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White ExxoTec Elite PVC fabric covers the entire building, allowing natural light into the facility.
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The building design provides Agriland FS with more than 19,000 square feet of clearspan storage.
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Legacy fabric structures are designed using FEA software with manual quality checks, allowing hanging loads to be suspended from the building frame.
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Legacy’s innovative building design allows Agriland FS to meet its need of multiple operations contained in one facility.

Legacy partnered with Agriland FS to design a unique building with separate space for bulk storage, loading, and driving heavy equipment. This custom-building design means maximum space for multiple operations without wasted square footage.

The building design gives Agriland FS more than 19,000 square feet of clearspan storage area, which means space for storing, mixing, and loading fertilizer. All framing members are specially treated for corrosion protection. A transloading conveyor suspended from the frame loads the storage bays from trucks.

What They Needed

Agriland FS Inc. is a farmer-owned cooperative that provides agricultural products directly to farmers. After working from a leased building for several years, Agriland FS determined the need to add a permanent fertilizer storage building at its Woodbine, IA, location. The new building would be used for storing, mixing, and distributing fertilizer. “We needed a building we could adapt. Having everything contained in one facility was easier than trying to add another part to an existing building,” Agriland FS Procurement Manager Curtis Hoakison says.

What We Designed

Thanks to several other Legacy buildings in Iowa, Agriland FS had experience with the design options, natural light, and building quality, as well as the construction management process. As part of the due diligence process, Agriland FS contacted Legacy and another building manufacturer to compare quotes for building price and construction time.

“We were working on a very aggressive timeline,” Hoakison says. “We bought the land in February, and we needed to be operational early in the fall.” When the other company couldn’t promise that the building would be useable by the timeline, Agriland FS finalized the decision to use a Legacy building.

After consulting with Agriland FS and studying the available parcel of land, Legacy proposed a three-tiered building design. The main cavity of the building uses pre-cast concrete panels to create fertilizer bins. A trough in the center of the building contains hoppers and loading equipment. The third area of the building is outfitted with overhead doors on either end to create a drive-through area for trucks and loaders.

Agriland FS quickly saw the benefits in Legacy’s building design. “It was a great idea that allowed us to save space and not have wasted space,” Hoakison says. The existing relationship was also beneficial. “Legacy is always on the ball and very transparent with prices and timelines.”

The building design gives Agriland FS more than 19,000 square feet of clearspan storage area. All steel framing members are hot-dip galvanized, which protects the building from the corrosive effects of fertilizer. A transloading conveyor suspended from the frame loads the storage bays from trucks. White ExxoTec Elite PVC fabric covers the entire building. ExxoTec does not corrode in the presence of fertilizer and allows natural light into the facility — saving on the time and money spent installing and maintaining electrical lighting. “The ability to use natural light is great,” Hoakison says. “We do have lighting installed in the building, but we don’t need it during the daytime.”

In today’s complex and fast-paced crop production sector, the team at CROPLIFE keeps 21,000 agricultural retailers, distributors and their suppliers up to date on such decidedly 21st century issues as seed technology, biotechnology, precision agriculture, customer service and retention, and business management. See all author stories here.