Beginning in March, Deerfield Ag Services in Ohio will invest more than $2.3 million in facility layout changes and new grain-handling equipment in Deerfield and Massillon that will significantly speed up delivery and unloading times for farmer customers.

Construction is expected to be complete before wheat harvest in July. Grain-handling facilities for all commodities will remain open during construction.

“Time is money for our customers, and we want our farmers to spend less time in line dumping grain and more time in the fields,” says Steve Ramseyer, Deerfield Ag Services’ grain superintendent. “These improvements will drastically improve the efficiency of our operations and get farmers back to what matters most to them.”

The scope of the updates includes several major components at two locations and will eliminate the need to store soybeans in temporary polyethylene bags at both.

Here is a look at the upgrades:

Deerfield location. The Deerfield headquarters location will undergo some reconfiguring, as well as new grain-handling equipment and storage.

Wheat pit and grain leg. Deerfield will install a new, large dump pit, which can hold a semi load of wheat, as well as move the existing corn leg to the wheat area. This will speed wheat unloading from 3,000 bushels per hour to 7,000 bushels per hour.

Corn pit. The project will include installation of a new 15,000-bushel-per-hour corn leg, which will more than double unloading speed. In addition, pit auger and overhead conveyor capacity will be increased accordingly.

Grain bin capacity. Deerfield will add 414,000 bushels of storage in a 90-foot diameter bin in the field east of the bean complex by the container loadout scales. This component will start with concrete in March, with the bin erected in April. K and S Millwrights will install the wheat and corn area updates, and TAM Systems will install the grain bin.

Massillon location. The company will add a conveyor to its container auger. This will move the augers 15 feet away from the rail to allow containers to be loaded five days a week and still allow the railroad to move cars without interruption. This update will allow Deerfield Ag Services to load export containers from Massillon in the fall, instead of the Deerfield facility. In the late fall, the company will move container loading back to Deerfield to allow Massillon to build inventory for unit train rail shipments.

“We pride ourselves on doing all we can do to keep accepting all grains from farmers at all times through harvest, whether it is bagging or transferring from one facility to another or — now this year — adding space,” Ramseyer says.

Deerfield Ag Services is based in Deerfield, Ohio, with additional grain locations in Louisville, Ohio; Kinsman, Ohio; and Massillon, Ohio.

Source: Deerfield Ag Services