Bottineau Elevator Expanding - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Bottineau Elevator Expanding

Farmers near the Turtle Mountains who do business with Bottineau Farmers Elevator will be welcomed in a new facility in 2013.

Upgrades have been made that should increase delivery speed...and lessen truck congestion in town.

Perry Olson shows us the change in this weeks Eye on Agriculture.

Bottineau Farmers Elevator stands tall in Bottineau...but its growing out too.

(Wayne Johnson - Bottineau Farmers Manager GM) "Yeah, it has been a construction year..."

General Manager Wayne Johnson has overseen the building of a new testing and weighing location to the north -- at a location where the congestion that elevators can create, can gather.

(Wayne Johnson - Bottineau Farmers Manager GM) "The trucks have gotten bigger and the farmers are delivering at harvest time. It has gone from the old single axle trucks to tandems and they skipped the triples and went right to semis and now we end up with a bunch of semis sitting in town."

This new facility won't eliminate trucks at the elevator -- it is afterall where the product is unloaded -- but it should shorten the time spent there. That's because it is here where testing and weighing will happen...

(Wayne Johnson - Bottineau Farmers Manager GM) "This is about the only way we could direct traffic out of town, and all come through one probe, one weigh station and then dump at one of the facilities and then exit on to Highway 5."

A new fertilizer housing location will be constructed this spring on this site too. More and more, growers are demanding fertilizer at the same time -- meaning having it on site is a must. This will give them that ability. It's a 13 thousand ton plant that should serve the region well...

(Wayne Johnson - Bottineau Farmers Manager GM) "We didn't get a lot of fertilizer on in the fall so spring will be busy for fertilizer. Dry as well as Anhydrous."

Perry Olson, KX News.

Johnson says the changes at the elevator have also meant they have added staff to handle the increase in business.