News
Bottineau Farmer's Elevator moves forward with projects
Heather Milbrath
06/26/2012
The Bottineau Farmer’s Elevator has had a growth of business in the past few years, and as a result has made many changes to their business.
The elevator is changing the whole setup of how grain is processed. Wayne Johnson, BFE’s general manager, said that many patrons have suggested the elevator get a probe to sample grain.
“This could not be done without putting a probe at each location. With the trucks
getting bigger and the traffic problem at harvest time a plan to relocate was designed,” Johnson said.
This plan also included two new scales and a new office building. The new office building and one of the scales is located west of the fair grounds. The other scale is located on the west side of Railroad Avenue, near Grace Lutheran Church.
BFE decided to solve the traffic problem by creating a one-way flow of traffic. Johnson says this new system will cut down truck traffic on Highway 5 by about 50 percent. All loaded trucks will enter from the north to the anhydrous plant via 13th Ave. NE (airport road) or 11th Ave. NE (north of Gardena Road). At the first stop trucks will be probed and proceed to the scale behind the new office building. After being weighed, the trucks will go to the designated elevator to dump.
“When they are dumped they will proceed to the exit scale south of the bridge on Railroad Avenue for final weight.” Johnson said. “At the exit scale a ticket will be produced and the process will be complete.”
Johnson said the total cost of the project will be around a million dollars.
“We will be moving in after harvest and then we will implement the new probe and ticket system. The scales will be done by July 1 and the office should be done mid August or first part of September.” Johnson said.
Eventually all the department heads will be housed in the new office building, but for now will just be the office staff. The plan for the old office location is to have a new conveyor to make a third dump pit. At this time, however, the old office building will stay.
There are also plans for a new fertilizer plant between the new office and the railroad tracks, in hopes to make BFE more centralized.
Johnson feels the there are many advantages to this new system including: the consistency of grading, maximizing the dump time, decreasing confusion of line placement and utilization of dump locations.