Ben Hill Griffin Fertilizer Division, located in Central Florida, foreseeing the growth of liquid fertilizer purchased a liquid fertilizer plant. Soon, they found they reached capacity. They were going to need a new facility to keep up with the still-growing demand.
The demand for liquid fertilizer was due to the emerging problem of greening. Greening, a pest-induced disease that attacks orange trees, was introduced into the area a few years back. It quickly became apparent that pushing the groves was not going to be an economical solution. When it was discovered the disease attacked the root system first, agronomists realized that plants could be spoon-fed nutrients via liquid fertilizer to increase the life-span of the affected trees.
In setting priorities for the new plant, Ben Hill Griffin realized what they needed was flexibility, efficiency, and speed. Flexibility was critical due to the large variety of area crops and subsequent formulas and recipes that needed to be mixed.
“Ours is a very different market. We’re a custom blender,” explained Mike Roberts, Director of Sales & Marketing. “We have numerous different products, so you got to have flexibility. You start introducing flexibility, you can also have contamination issues.”
By achieving efficiency they would be able to off-set the cost of the new facility by leveraging as much as their existing staff as possible. Through speed, they wanted to maintain their high levels of customer service, and win new business from area growers.
Ben Hill Griffin reached out to Murray Equipment, Inc. (MEI), a leading supplier of liquid handling equipment in North America, to help them design new liquid plant, complete with automation and controls. Their existing liquid fertilizer facility had been automated by Murray Equipment many years prior. While they were happy with their current relationship, they wanted to make sure they did their due diligence and explore all options. In the end, they chose Murray Equipment.
“We found a company in Murray that took the time to listen to what we needed and also the experience in the Florida market to understand what we were trying to accomplish,” said Mr. Roberts. “We had talked to other suppliers, but they didn’t seem to get what we do or what our business is.”
Ben Hill Griffin was very happy with the results, particularly with the follow-up. The final system incorporated a lot of complex tools and automation. Murray Equipment, Inc. continued to partner with them after the installation to ensure their goals were met.
“They didn’t just take our check and leave us,” shared Mr. Roberts. “They’ve been back and helped us worth through some of the challenges we’ve had just trying to understand how to completely utilize all these new tools.” Murray Equipment has the ability to solve customer issues remotely over the phone. They can take control of the computer to see and solve issues and walk customers through how to do a procedure.
“It’s been a great help knowing we’re not alone down here,” said Roberts.
Like many retailers, Conserv FS realized it needed to address its aging facilities to continue to serve its member owners well into the future, starting with its Waterman, IL location.
“Agriculture has changed. Technology has changed. We wanted to prepare the company to serve the next generation of agriculture,” explained Conserv FS GM, Dave Swigart.
To achieve this goal, Conserv FS determined they needed to increase the speed, throughput, and storage capacity of their fertilizer and crop protection facilities. Also, with high inventory costs, Conserv FS wanted to be sure they had accurate on-time and on-demand inventory levels.
“Looking forward, we wanted to make sure our company was sustainable both financially and environmentally,” shared Adam Day, Conserv FS Agronomy Sales and Marketing Manager.
Having done a project with Murray Equipment previously and their familiarity with ICS Controls, the decision was easy for Conserv FS.
Conserv FS purchased 20 acres around their existing facility to build both a new liquid fertilizer/crop protection retail facility and a dry fertilizer blending facility.
The 80’ x 231’ state-of-the-art liquid facility designed by Murray Equipment features 3 outbound load bays with both top and bottom load - 2 attended bays for fertilizer and crop protection and an unattended loadout bay for 24/7 access. The 3rd bay also doubles as an inbound unloading bay. The fully-automated liquid facility also features a mini-bulk filling station, 1 million gallon UAN tank plus 180,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer, and 73,200 gallons of bulk herbicide storage.
The dry fertilizer building sports a new autobatch system controlled by MEI’s ICS Controls.
In fact, both plants are run with ICS controls. Conserv FS wanted the synergy and accuracy that comes from using the same automation company-wide.
“One of the reasons we chose Murray Equipment was their ICS Controls. It ties in with our accounting and agronomy software for more accurate billing and invoicing,” Mr. Day remarked. “By using the same software across the company we are able to train employees to work across all our locations as well as collaborate together on best practices.”
The new Waterman, IL facility boasts a 500% increase in both speed and capacity. This not only allows them to service the area growers better, it helps Conserv FS optimize their other locations as well by sharing the workload.
“We are happy with the results of this project so far,” enthused Mr. Day. “It fits in with our mission to deliver unbeatable customer service well into the future.”
Perhaps the best way to sum up the success of the project is Conserv FS’s decision to upgrade another facility.
“The collaboration between Conserv FS, Murray Equipment, and our general contractor was excellent,” asserted Mr. Swigart. “We already have another identical liquid facility in the works for another location. We like the equipment, we like working with Murray, and the employees enjoy working at the facility”
Greg Birchler, Operations ManagerLooking to the future, Gateway FS of Red Bud, IL saw an opportunity to simultaneously improve customer service and efficiency. By utilizing state-of-the-art liquid fertilizer and crop chemical technology, they could improve speed, productivity, and inventory accuracy. This ensured Gateway FS sprayers were out in the field servicing customers, not waiting to be filled.
Strategically, centrally-located this facility processes orders for multiple outlying locations. It was clear automation was key to realizing their goals and the reason they chose to partner with leading liquid handling equipment and automation provider, Murray Equipment, Inc. (MEI).
“The primary goal was to improve the service to our customers in both accuracy and timeliness,” explained Greg Birchler, Gateway FS Operations Manager. “We selected Murray Equipment primarily because of their experience in the industry, our experience working with them in the past, and the type of system they employ. It does what we needed it to do, but is also very user-friendly.”
Murray Equipment partnered with Gateway FS to design a liquid fertilizer and crop chemical facility to be constructed in phases corresponding with expected demand. The initial phase included plant food and chemistry components with a fully integrated control system. The facility incorporated 3 fully automated loading bays and a weigh system for repackaging.
“Murray Equipment provided everything from top to bottom to make this system run. Everything from valves, plumbing, meters, and pumps to the automation,” said Birchler.
Gateway FS utilizes 2 mass flow meters, 22 TCS 682 meters, MEI ICS 360, and Murray Interface to achieve precision, accuracy, and speed.
“The outlying locations create the order then send it to the new facility for order location,” Birchler continued. “The new location receives the order, processes the order, runs the calculations, updates inventory, marks the order complete, and sends it back to the originating location for billing and inventory accounting – all with virtually no added labor.”
For Gateway FS, the benefits of this facility are already clear. “One of the things we are most impressed with in the Murray system is our ability to load a traditional 3,200 gallon tender truck in less than 8 minutes,” shared Birchler. “That has improved our productivity tremendously. It keeps our sprayers moving out in the fields and not sitting waiting on tender loads to arrive. The bottom line is that it works.”
These benefits come with little to no additional overhead. “We are basically running this location with 2 people. One person running the automation and another taking care of the hand-adds, quality control, and making sure the trucks are hooked up correctly,” said Birchler.
Gateway FS customer expectations are not only being met, but are being exceeded. Birchler explained, “We have been able to streamline our routing and scheduling. Many of our customers have seen a tremendous improvement in terms of timeliness. In many cases, we are able to service customers the same day, where before it wasn’t possible.”
When a fire burned down the chemical shed at GRAINCO FS, Inc.’s Mazon, IL location, it presented an opportunity to fully automate the location and redesign the equipment from the ground up.
GRAINCO FS’s Mazon location specializes in producing hot loads in addition to straight chemical and fertilizer loads. They fill both their own vehicles and sprayers as well as customer tanks.
“We had a few simple product presets before,” explained Brian Mino, GRAINCO FS Operations Manager. “Now with full automation, we have a lot more product diversity.”
Speed and accuracy were at the forefront - producing the right blends in a timely manner. GRAINCO FSneeded an equipment and automation provider that would give them the flexibility to produce the multitude of blends required by their customers, accurately and quickly.
Having worked with Murray Equipment and used their ICS controls previously, the decision was easy for GRAINCO.
The 18,000 square foot facility features 3 loadout bays – 2 bottom load and a 24/7 unattended loadout with top and bottom load, a mini-bulk filling station, 1 million gallon solution tank, 180,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer, and 65,000 gallons of bulk herbicide storage.
ICS ControlPro software connects with GRAINCO FS’s agronomy software bringing in ticket, formula, and material information. It also manages equipment and customer information for the unattended bay. The 2 attended bays are managed by ICS 240c touch screen control boxes. The unattended bay features a touch screen control box with full keyboard for equipment/driver verification.
“We get along great with ICS. The support is good. It’s easy to run,” expressed Mino.
The Mazon, IL has become the location of choice for area growers. The speed, accuracy, and number of blends available are a big customer draw.
“We had guys that would get a load of chemicals and apply it themselves in the field,” Mino said. “Now they come here and get hot loads for the ease, and because they can get in and out of here quickly.”
During the planting season, trucks used to be lined up outside nonstop. Now, traffic flows through the building much more smoothly resulting in happier customers and employees.
“It used to take 45 minutes to fill a semi. Now the semi is in and out in under 15 minutes,” shared Mino. “Also, before we could only load in 2 bays, but now we can load in 3.”
Green Valley Ag Owners
Mark Edema and John ChristianIn recent years, Green Valley Ag, located in Western Michigan, realized they were facing growth challenges. During growing season, customers could be in line for 1-2 hours to receive both dry and liquid fertilizer. No longer was replacing key parts to expand capacity going to work. They needed a new facility.
With 25 years’ experience, owners John Christian and Mark Edema, knew they wanted a long term solution – one that would ensure that customers would continue to receive prompt service for years to come.
In addition, Green Valley Ag wanted to leverage as much of their existing staff as possible and limit rapid hiring to staff the new location. They also wanted better inventory control and process improvement with integration into their agronomy software. With this, Green Valley Ag could make sure customers received the same high (or higher) level of customer service they had come to expect.
“One of the challenges we face is that Michigan is a destination state. Nobody comes through here unless they are going to Michigan. The nearest terminal is 2.5 hours away, so we spend a lot of time burning up the highways,” said John Christian. “We needed better control to ensure we have the inventory on hand to service our customers while keeping costs in line.”
Green Valley Ag purchased plot of land in Wayland, MI with rail access. This allowed them to bring in larger volumes of liquid and dry fertilizer.
Early on they engaged Murray Equipment, Inc. (MEI), a leading supplier of liquid handling equipment in North America, to help them design new liquid plant, complete with automation and controls for both their liquid and dry fertilizer plants.
“Some of the unique challenges that Green Valley Ag brought to us was the diversity of crops that they provided solutions for and their wide range customer sizes,” said MEI Sales Manager Todd Scobie. “We worked alongside them to engineer plants that would help them address both these issues while dramatically improving efficiencies.”
The new liquid fertilizer and chemical plant accommodates vehicle sizes of .5 to 50 tons, offers over 2 million gallons of storage, and can fill a semi load in 6 to 8 minutes. The dry fertilizer plant accommodates vehicle sizes of 2 to 50 tons and offers 18 thousand tons of storage. Murray Equipment provided the automation and controls for both plants. As a result, tickets can be sent directly to the MEI software from Green Valley’s agronomy software and upon fulfillment, sent back for billing. The outcome is that tickets that might have required 1 hour to fulfill can be addressed in 20 minutes. Tickets are brought back into the system immediately rather than at the end of the day or up to 3 days later during busy season, inventory levels remain accurate, and shrink is at a minimum.
WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm -
www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.