14 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 | Feed&Grain www.feedandgrain.com

COV ER S T ORY ❚ L A NDM A R K FA L L RI V ER

mong the corn-covered hills of central Wisconsin looms a testament to the future of Wisconsin agri-culture and grain han-

dling as a whole. Though known for its inclement weather and dairy production, according to the USDA’s Crop Production Summary for 2013, Wisconsin was ninth in corn produc-tion and 15th in soybean production, despite having a wet harvest season.

Looking at what the members of Landmark Services Cooperative needed now, and looking forward to what they will need in the future, the co-op built a new grain facility in Fall River, WI, to give them plenty of speed, space and markets — every-thing a farmer needs to grow.

Picking a new siteThere is a long list of factors to con-sider when choosing the location for

a new facility: space needed, avail-able land, transportation access, local originations, competing businesses and the hundreds of other small things that can hinder the progress of a project.

“We looked at several different locations when trying to deter-mine the best site for this facility,” explained Douglas Cropp, execu-tive vice president – grain division. “Given the amount of land needed

A

Rising out of south-central Wisconsin, Landmark’s Fall River grain terminal

can match the industry’s best. By Steven Kilger

A NEWBENCHMARKfor Grain Elevators

www.feedandgrain.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 | Feed&Grain 15

for a loop track next to a railroad, the number of available locations was limited in our trade territory.”

Though they considered multiple spots, Fall River, WI, stood out as the clear winner.

“This site became an obvious choice,” Cropp continued. “The proximity to the state highway sys-tem for easy truck access, it is located on a double mainline track of the Class I CP Railroad and the excel-

lent grain production in the area.” Once a spot was chosen for

the new grain elevator, Landmark chose McCormick Construction Company, Inc. as the main contrac-tor for the $6.5 million site — a rela-tionship that worked out well for the new facility.

“McCormick has been great to work with,” Meghan Neuman, loca-tion manager, said. “Through plan-ning to the completion of the facility

they’ve been helpful and supportive.”

Speedy receiving At the new facility, in most cases, a driver pulls up to the first receiving station and doesn’t have to do any-thing but align with the grain probe. As the probe system from Gamet takes the sample, a CompuWeigh Smart Truck system guides the driver through the process, lets them know when to stop, scans their RFID tag, and lets them know when to pull forward. During harvest, the RFID

AT-A-GLANCELANDMARK SERVICES COOPERATIVE — FALL RIVER, WIAnnual intake: 15 to 25 million bushelsStorage: 4.65 million Truck receiving: 40,000 bushels/hour Truck load-out: 15,000 bushels/hourRail load-out: 80,000 bushels/hourRail receiving: 20,000 bushels/hourGrain dryer: 10,000 bushels/hour Bucket elevator: 20,000 bushels/hourLoad-out distributer: 20,000 bushels/hourReclaim systems: 60,000 bushels/hour

From left to right: Ben Brancel, Wisconsin secretary of agricul-ture, trade and consumer protection; John Blaska, chairman of the Landmark board; and Bob Carlson, president and CEO, Landmark.

PHOTO COURTESY OF LANDMARK SERVICES COOPERATIVE

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COV ER S T ORY ❚ L A NDM A R K FA L L RI V ER

system proved its worth, keeping lines to an almost nonexistent level, and time from weigh in to weigh out minimal.

“During harvest, our average truck time was around six to seven minutes from when they pulled up to get probed to when they were scaled to leave,” said Neuman. “But we’re capable of going faster; the shortest time I’ve seen a truck get through the facility was three min-utes.”

RFIDsAs the facility opened, and prepared itself to start taking in grain with the 2014 harvest, radio-frequency iden-tification (RFID) tags were given out to members that correspond to their account. The only thing a farm needs to log a shipment with the facility is that RFID tag on their dashboard.

The tags give the co-op a quick, automatic and safe way to read and log trucks’ information, keeping up with Landmark’s goal to have its members spend as little time at the elevator, and as much back in the field as possible.

“We had a good response from our members,” Neuman said. “The only time we had lines was when we had

a simple glitch, but unlike an older facility where a glitch will have you backed up for a day, we were able to get caught up again in a half hour.”

These systems also help keep track of the filing and record keep-ing by automatically entering infor-mation into the facility records. By doing this, RFID tags cut down on the chance for human error and free

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The Fall Rivers, WI, facility is using the latest technology, such as drones and a 10,000 bushel/hour dryer to give its members the best service posable.

www.feedandgrain.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015 | Feed&Grain 17

up staff during harvest — the busiest time of the year.

Weighing inAfter a truck gets probed and its RFID tag is read, it continues past two mammoth 1.5-million-bushel center drawn ground piles from LeMar onto a scale by C&A Scales. Laser photo “eyes” count the number of axles as the truck drives on, and makes sure the entire truck is in posi-tion before weighing it. Once more, a message board gives the driver instructions.

As drivers continue forward, they pass six 40-foot-diameter, 135-foot-tall concrete silos capable of storing a combined 862,993 bushels, and move into one of the three truck pits.

Truck pitsTruck pits 1 and 2 can both take in grain at 20,000 bushels/hour, giv-ing them a two-minute 42-second unload time. The third pit is for loading outbound grain. A retract-able load-out spout from SLY, Inc. is used in conjunction with Schlagel drag conveyors to fill trucks in three minutes 26 seconds at 15,000 bush-els/hour. Keeping with Landmark’s philosophy of building with the

future in mind, the third receiving bay can be retrofitted with another dump pit if the need arrives.

Weighing outLeaving the dump pits, drivers will pass by a massive Zimmerman

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AG & IndustrIAl EnGInEErs & PlAnnErs

763.559.9100 www.vaaeng.com

General Arrangement • Structural • Track Design Civil • Mechanical • Electrical • Industrial Architecture

Landmark Services Cooperative expects between 15 to 25 million bushels annually at the Fall River facility. But with only 4.65 million bushels of storage, the turnaround has to be very quick in order to keep the grain flowing. That is why one of the driving factors behind the selection of Fall River, WI, was the presence of a double mainline track of the class I Canadian Pacific Railroad. This line is the first CP railroad connected to a Landmark facility.

“We look at our relationship as a growing partnership between landmark and the CP,” explained Cropp. “We continue to work together to find the best markets to bring value to both of

our companies.”The Fall River facility’s loop track

holds up to 125 rail cars with the abil-ity to load out at 80,000 bushels/hour and receive 20,000 bushels/hour. The rail load-out spout can be moved up, down and side to side making the con-nection to the rail car quick and easy to make. It is controlled in the scale house in a small alcove that sits almost directly above the train and offers an 180 degree view of the loading and unloading process.

“That spout is not standard,” Neu-man explained. “It was something we had designed for our Evansville, WI, location and modified a bit for this location. It makes such a difference;

we can keep the power on the cars at about half a mile an hour and just fill it as it moves along.”

This flexibility proved itself during harvest, where the crew at the facil-ity was able to load 100-car-trains in less than 8 hours, something Neuman thinks they can do even better.

“We can load 3,800 bushels into a rail car with an accurate weight and grade in just less than 3 minutes,” Cropp said.

CP Railroad Partners with Landmark

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COV ER S T ORY ❚ L A NDM A R K FA L L RI V ER

Supplier EquipmentContractor McCormick Construction Co.

Engineering VAA, LLC (Van Sickle Allen)

Aeration fans and system AIRLANCO (AGI)

Bearing sensors CMC Industrial Electronics

Bin sweeps Springland

Bucket elevators Schlagel

Bulk weigh scale C&A Scales

Catwalk LeMar

Cleaner Intersystems

Concrete tank builder McCormick Construction Co.

Control system Knobelsdorff Electric

Conveyors Schlagel

Conveyor belting Hi Roller Conveyors (AGI)

Consulting engineer VanSickle Allen & Associates

Distributor Schlagel

Dust collection system SM Enterprise

Dust filters Camcorp

Elevator buckets Schlagel

Fall protection Fall Protection System

Grain dryer Zimmerman

Grain probe Gamet

Manlift Schumacher Elevator

Millwright McCormick Construction Co.

Motion sensors CMC Industrial Electronics

Roof system Kooiker Roofing

Samplers Gamet

Speed reducers Dodge

Steel storage Brock

Steel tank erection Cross Country

Tower support system LeMar

Truck scale B-TEK

Electrical contractor Knobelsdorff Electric

EQUIPMENT LIST

PHOTO COURTESY OF LANDMARK SERVICES COOPERATIVE Drones give views that are impossible to achieve with traditional

aerial photography.

Though steeped in controversy, there is little doubt that the personal drone market is on its way. Anyone can purchase an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and the Federal Avia-tion Administration (FAA) has yet to make a nationwide rule regulating them, making the rules and legali-ties of flying them complicated. Even when the FAA does finalize the rules, it looks like a pilot’s license will be required to fly one.

That combined with the expense of purchasing one (anywhere from a few hundred to several thousands of dollars), the equipment needed to use it for field scouting and the ability to analyze and use the information that is gathered may

put this breakthrough technology out of the reach of some farmers.

At the grand opening of Landmark Services Cooperative’s Fall River facil-ity, members eagerly watched as pilots put small UAVs through their paces. More than a simple demon-stration, this was a showcase of an innovative offering that may become more common around the country. By teaming up with local agronomy departments or companies who spe-cialize in UAVs, cooperatives and pos-sibly even commercial grain elevators can offer a mutually beneficial deal to their customers.

By having drones scout their fields, producers will be able to see problem

spots in their crops, including things like soil erosion, crop disease, under fertilization, and weather damage hopefully in time to be able to pre-vent serious damage or the loss of the crop completely. Grain elevators and cooperatives will get valuable information on how the crop is doing in the surrounding area and make better estimates about how large the harvest will be.

No one is quite sure what drone regulations will eventually be, but it may become the perfect chance for producers and their local elevator to form a mutually beneficial partner-ship, one where both sides share the costs and the benefits.

Drones: A shared opportunity

10,000-bushel/hour dryer standing next to a Brock 75,000-bushel steel bin. In all, total storage for the elevator is at an impressive 4.65 million bushels.

On its way out, the truck stops one more time at the exit scale. Like the entrance scale, it’s equipped with laser photo eyes and a message board. Once the truck is weighed, and a ticket is printed, the truck and driver are free to get back to the field.

When the Fall River Facility opened in late August 2014, it was starting with a completely new staff. Though there were hiccups, the facility did remark-ably well this fall and received glowing reviews from its members, praising the speed and ease of use.

“We were able to fill all of our space and only had one hiccup in the harvest season with a mid-November snowfall,” Cropp said. “Overall we are quite pleased with how the harvest went.”

Neuman added “We’ve had a lot of account referrals because of our speed and service. It’s great to have that extra support from our producers.” ❚

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