Farmers Pride Embarks On Large Expansion

​Bloomfield citizens might have noticed some construction started north of Broadway Street this week. Farmers Pride is expanding and according to the Bloomfield Location Manager Jason Hames, this $9 million project has been a long time coming.

“It’s been a need for about nine years,” Hames said.

Farmer’s Pride has actually been discussing the expansion for three to four years with their board of directors.

“It’s like anything else, it’s difficult to budget and make it pencil. But this is a long-term asset for the community of Bloomfield and will be here for many years in the future,” said Dean Thernes, Farmers Pride General Manager.

According to Thernes, the improved infrastructure is much needed here. The Bloomfield location brings in many trucks at harvest time and the increased speed and space of this new facility is necessary for the area’s farm producers.

In recent years, Farmers Pride has had to pile grain on the ground because there was not enough bin storage. There are currently eight bins at the location and in most years, that has not been enough storage. The new facility will sport three additional storage bins with 1.9 million bushel storage bringing the total storage at Bloomfield to 3.3 million bushels. There is also room to add two more bins in the future.

Two years ago, the land in which the new facility is being constructed, went up for sale. Farmers Pride jumped on the opportunity to purchase it.

“With the current floodplain, we have run into issues when trying to expand our current facilities. So we purchased it and decided to move forward with this project,” Thernes said.

EBM Construction from Norfolk and Aschoff Construction from Osmond are doing a majority of the work. In addition to the increased storage, this project will add a new dump-through scale, a new dryer and generally more space to receive grain.

The new facility will have a leg receiving capacity of 20,000 bushels an hour, and with the other existing facilities, Farmers Pride will be able to accept up to 37,000 bushels an hour.

“The new facility is very high tech-very automated. We can basically run it from inside the office,” Thernes said.

The main goal of the expansion is to get trucks in and out quicker and bring in new customers. This new tech will speed up the process.

“The truck should be able to pull in, lay open its traps and be gone,” Hames said.

“Trucks should be in and out in about 5-7 minutes,” Thernes added.

The new setup will probe the load and the driver will then pull up to be weighed. After that, they will pull out, get their ticket and be on their way.

This expansion will bring the Farmers Pride Bloomfield location up a notch, as similar Farmers Pride projects in Osmond and Neligh as well as other newer facilities recently built in the region.

“This will be a very long-term project, built to serve the area for 40-50 years,” Thernes said. “This project is a great illustration of the benefit of the cooperative system-investing in our member-owners to help them with their operation.”
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Thernes stated that Farmers Pride’s mission is to bring value to our Bloomfield, and all of the member-owners, as they look forward to assisting them in their operations for many years to come.