By Lance Nixon

South Dakota’s newest ethanol plant could be up and running by November or December this year.

Ringneck Energy, Onida, S.D., started construction in September last year, and its construction contract calls for completion by January 2019. "We’re thinking they’re on or ahead of schedule," says Walt Wendland, Ringneck Energy CEO.

The plant will have the capacity to use 28 million bushels of corn and produce 80 million gallons of ethanol and 224,000 dry tons of distillers grain annually. It will employ about 40 people.

Corn source
Ringneck Energy will be a significant new market for corn, and a source for distillers grain in central South Dakota. It will be further west than any ethanol plant South Dakota. Only Red Trail Energy in Richardton, N.D., and Blue Flint Energy in Underwood, N.D., are closer to Idaho and West Coast distillers grain markets.

Ringneck Energy developers believe there will be plenty of corn from the central South Dakota region to supply the plant. When investigating the feasibility of building a plant in Onida, S.D., they looked at a 13-county area for corn production, not including those counties that normally supply grain to the ethanol plants in Mina, S.D., and Redfield, S.D. They also looked at 10 years of crop data from an area as far south as Winner, S.D. In 2014, about 71 million bushels of corn left the area to be fed or processed elsewhere.

"This is why we’re here," Wendland says.

Milo option
Being at the western edge of corn country brings risk of drought. Ringneck’s study showed that the plant could expect reduced corn yields in its service area due to drought about once in every 10 years. With that in mind, Ringneck also took milo production into consideration. Onida sits at the northeast corner of South Dakota’s milo production region and milo can be substituted for corn without any tweaking of the ethanol process, Wendland says. Although he doesn’t anticipate using more than 10% milo, it is an option, especially when rainfall is scant.

"In dry years, milo can do pretty good and yield better," Wendland says. Some Kansas ethanol plants 20% to 100% milo in their processes.

With better seed genetics, technology and equipment, corn has been on the increase in Sully County, S.D., where the plant is located, and in the other counties that would supply the Onida, S.D., plant.

"We don’t see that coming to an end," Wendland said.

Nixon is a freelance writer from Pierre, S.D.