These renovations began in the fall of 2023 and ended in the fall of 2024. The new systems were in place and used for the 2024 harvest.

“We outgrew our old facility. We couldn’t grow anymore because our old facility couldn’t handle it, and we couldn’t take on any new business,” said Pro Cooperative Location Manager Todd Nissen. “Nothing was automated; it was all done by hand.”

Nissen said renovations called for the demolition of several old buildings that once stood on the grounds. They were replaced with a new EPS agronomy center measuring 385 feet by 88 feet, with an office attached to the front.

The center features all needs under one roof — including large areas for chemicals, seed storage and a new 60-foot shop for maintaining and repairing company equipment.

-Photo by Karen Schwaller
Pro Cooperative Location Manager Todd Nissen walks near the bulk chemical tanks. The cooperative has access to 24 bulk tanks at a time.

“The agronomy complex has two load-out bays for liquid fertilizer, and one of them is a 24-hour bay, so all of our growers can access it anytime with their code so they can get water or fertilizer or whatever they need,” said Nissen. “They only need to punch in their order number (arranged ahead of time) and come in at any time — we don’t even have to be here.”

Farmers can load liquid nitrogen, starter fertilizer, ammonium thiosulfate and more, along with any chemical, which can be premixed and ready to load onto tankers and brought to the field.

“With this facility we have 14 bulk product tanks and 10 other products on mini-bulk stands, so we have access to 24 bulk products at one time,” said Nissen. “Anything people use that we don’t have in bulk we can add with an inductor cone.”

The new campus also features a repack area, where farmers can bring in their mini-bulk and get it filled with any chemical they need. The new state-of-the-art system measures chemicals by the pound instead of gallons; Nissen said that results in a more accurate measurement and is fast.

“With this system, recipes are made up on the work order, and then it’s pulled into the system. Once you click on that order, the system pulls everything in and mixes it all for you,” said Nissen.

The complex renovation also added an additional UAN (32 percent liquid nitrogen) tank that holds 1.5 million gallons.

“Before, we only were able to store about a third of that — about half a million gallons,” said Nissen. “Now we can order more at a time and store it here, and pass along a better price to our growers.”

He said these improvements are enhancing the work of their producers.

“People are catching onto it, and it’s so efficient,” he said. “We can fill a full tanker load (in and out) in 10 minutes because it’s all automation.”

The seed area features five bulk bins for five bulk products, along with other needed varieties, a new load-out for bulk seed, and a truck loading ramp to help move product where it needs to go. Seed treatment can now all be done under roof as well.

New scale

Nissen said the previous Pro Cooperative campus featured a scale system that created bottlenecks every year, which he said would sometimes frustrate people who had to spend time waiting in line at harvest time.

The new design features inbound and outbound lanes with a probe sitting between them, which is able to swing to both sides. Farmers can come in with their grain, have it probed, then drive ahead to the new scale house, which features two new side-by-side truck scales (14 feet by 80 feet) that are under roof. Producers now use a radio frequency identification (RFID) card to check in and out of the scale process using scanners there. Intercoms are available if someone needs to contact the office.

Nissen said the scale being under roof will render more accurate readings of grain weights, without the problems associated with wind moving the scale or snow sitting on the scale. The new card readers allow farmers to check in and out of that process without having to check in person with anyone. They can just be on their way, saving time.

He also said this improvement has reduced the bottleneck situation they had previously, with only one scale.

“All the pits would be empty, but everybody was waiting to get on the scale,” said Nissen. “We have four pits to dump at this facility and we can do it in a hurry. Three of them are 15,000 bushels per hour, and one is 20,000 bushels per hour.”

Nissen said elevator grain capacity is at 3.7 million bushels. This renovation did not add any new grain storage. The last grain storage improvements at Pro Cooperative were an 800,000- bushel bin in 2018-2019, and another one of the same size two years before that.

Pro Cooperative installed a new road leading into the elevator campus, keeping truck and tractor traffic out of the city streets. That access road improved traffic getting to the elevator, while improving safety for the citizens of Terril.

Pro Cooperative has 14 locations. The Terril location now serves as a regional hub for the northern region of the company, and the other similar hub is in Rolfe, which serves the company’s southern region. Farmers can go to their local Pro Cooperative elevators to do their business, but all seed and chemicals come from one of those two hub locations.

“Everything is in one spot — you’re not doing inventory on five locations because all the agronomy products are in (the two main hubs),” said Nissen.

The cost of this renovation, Nissen said, was a very substantial commitment by the Pro Cooperative Board of Directors, and indicated their commitment to the farmers they serve, Nissen said.

“It was needed,” he said. “We’re way more efficient now. (Elevators) are all going to be this way eventually. This is the future. Who wouldn’t want to do business at a place where there are state-of-the-art facilities?”