The projects at Stratford are just a series of expansions and improvements that United Co-op has seen at several of its branch sites in recent years. General Manager Tim Scott said the purpose is simply to serve members better.

“We hope it goes as well as the other sites,” Scott said. “This is all about serving farmers better.”

United Co-op was formed in 1977 when independent cooperatives in Webster City, Highview, Flugstad, Stonega and Kamrar voted to come together as one. The former Stratford Grain and Supply joined the United family in 1994. Today it’s a busy site and one that continues to grow.

“What’s driving the expansion project is the need for additional storage to serve our customers,” said Doran Stakey, location manager for United Co-op in Stratford.

-Farm News photo by Lori Berglund General Manager Tim Scott, left, with Location Manager Doran Stakey sit inside the current office for United Co-op in Stratford.

Stakey is already looking forward to the 2024 harvest season when the site will have a million bushels in new capacity and faster grain legs to help speed farmers on their way. When completed, total capacity will be just over 2 million bushels to serve the needs of area farmers.

“We are building two, 500,000-bushel, steel bins,” Stakey said. “We’ve been short on storage for soybeans, and this will help take care of that problem.”

One of the new bins will be for soybeans and the other for dry corn. The bins will go up in the area where there are currently two woodhouses dating to the 1950s and ’60s.

The current office, built in 1951, is in this area and will be brought down as well. A new office is under construction directly east, a short distance across town.

Once those buildings are cleared, work will be able to commence on the new steel bins. One of the woodhouses will be burned, under the direction of a state coordinator and with the assistance of area fire departments. The other woodhouse sits too close to current storage and will have to be brought down manually.

-Farm News photo by Lori Berglund Location Manager Doran Stakey and General Manager Tim Scott stand in front of the new branch office being built for United Co-op in Stratford.

An important part of the project is a new grain leg that will help move things more quickly at harvest time, according to Stakey.

“We will have a new receiving pit for soybeans that will make it extremely faster for dumping than what it has been,” Stakey said. “We’re putting in a 20,000 bushel-per-hour grain leg that’s going to make things so nice.”

Stratford has been operating with two grain legs; one at 10,000 bushels-per-hour, and another at just 3,000 bushels-per-hour. The smaller one will be gone, while the large one will keep on working.

“With the new 20,000 bushel-per-hour leg, and we’ll still have the 10,000-bushel one, things will get moved along,” Stakey said.

Adjacent to the new office, construction is underway on a new scale, similar to what United Co-op has installed in recent years at both its Kamrar and Stonega sites. The new scale will be four feet wider than the current scale and make it much more convenient for today’s larger equipment.

“Right now, we can’t weigh duals and the bigger anhydrous tanks,” Stakey said. “The tractor has to pull all the way off, but the new scale will accommodate the duals.”

At 14 feet wide and 80 feet long, with a capacity of 200,000 pounds, the new scale will make it easier and safer to weigh any of the loads that come in. Siouxland Scales, which did the project in Kamrar last year, is the general contractor for the project.

“The design will be really nice,” Stakey said. “There is a bump-out for the probe, so it will be easier to see them. We won’t have to move the tractor and wagons in order to probe in more than one spot.”

Construction on the new office is already moving along and will be ready for employees to move in before demolition on the current site begins. It will be larger and provide a meeting room to welcome area farmers for meetings.

“Dan Bergman, our agronomy manager, is going to have a nice meeting room in there,” Stakey said.

Bergman will be offering winter meetings on seed and chemical options, as well as a chance to talk with customers about any of their needs for the coming season.

Stakey offered his agreement and is looking forward to showing off all the improvement when the work is done.

“We’re farmer-owned, and we want to serve them better,” Stakey said. “If we can move things more quickly here, that helps them get more done in a day.”