Farmers Pride Expansion Is Well Underway

This May, Farmers Pride announced a huge project coming to their Bloomfield location. The $9 million project includes a brand new facility that will have a leg receiving capacity of 20,000 bushels an hour, bringing the total to 37,000 bushels an hour for Bloomfield’s Farmers Pride facilities.

According to Dave Spencer, head of sales and marketing, progress on the new facility has been right on schedule 

“Considering the weather we have endured, construction has gone very smoothly,” he said.

Farmers Pride plans to finish the project in October, just in time for harvest.

“This year’s harvest will be a little later than normal due to the weather, so the project should be done right in time,” Spencer said.

According to Dean Thernes, Farmers Pride General Manager, 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.

 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 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,” Bloomfield Location Manager, Jason 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.

Everyone at Farmers Pride is excited to see the project coming along so well, as the project has been in the works for some time now.
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“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.

Thernes attributes the long wait to fitting the project into the budget as well as floodplain issues.

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.”

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.

“We are happy to produce a new facility for farmers, and glad to be a part of the Bloomfield community,” Spencer added.

Spencer invites all farmers in the region to see the new facility first hand. There will be an open house the week of October 23, with a specific date to be decided later.  The open house will allow farmers to see the traffic flows, see the new facility and electric scale and witness how the new facility will speed up dump times.