What They Needed
CFE is a farmer-owned cooperative that services local farms and businesses in the areas of agronomy, feed, grain and lumber. With 23 locations throughout northwest Iowa, southwest Minnesota and southeast South Dakota, CFE serves more than 3,000 members.
“Our goal was to efficiently serve CFE’s patrons’ needs in our Western region by consolidating four outdated dry fertilizer plants into one-state-of-the-art facility,” says Rob Jacobs, CFO of CFE.
What Stueve Created
“It was a completely new, greenfield site,” says Russ Buscher, Vice President of Engineering for Stueve. “It wasn’t without its challenges. It had a severe slope, and a wet spring delayed the project quite a bit. In the end, we completed the facility in about nine months.”
“The rain delay and site issues were challenging,” says Rob Jacobs, CEO at CFE. “Stueve did a good job of working through weather-related issues. We missed our goal of operating the plant the spring of 2017 due to the delays, but Stueve’s leadership team worked well with CFE to ensure our satisfaction of a quality asset that meets our long term goals of servicing our patrons for many years to come.”
The finished project includes capacity for 30,000 tons of dry fertilizer, a double load-out bay (one of which includes load out for both liquid and dry), a chemical container building and a 250-ton blend tower. The facility is designed to serve both wholesale and retail customers.
“CFE is much more efficient in our operations today in delivering the very best quality blends of dry fertilizer to our customers,” Jacobs says. “By combining several plants and the speed with which we can blend and deliver fertilizer to the county, CFE is well positioned to meet our long-term goals.”
Specs at a Glance
Capacity: 30,000 tons
Bins: 5 macro, 4 micro
Blend tower: 250-ton overhead. Dry-only load out bay: 100’ x 98,’ 250TPH capacity
Double load-out area: Combination liquid and dry load-out bay: 100’ x 98’
Truck receiving area: 250 TPH
