Cover-All - Building Relationships, One Building at a TimeCargill AgHorizons, a business unit of Cargill, Incorporated, is a customer-focused organization working to bring product and service solutions to producers. With 142,000 employees in 61 countries, the company is committed to using its knowledge and experience to collaborate with customers to help them succeed. In 2006, Cargill identified the need to store at least 1.5 million bushels of corn at the AgHorizons site in Shelton, Nebraska. Considering this tremendous need, Cargill looked to the fertilizer industry to identify various products being used for high volume storage purposes. This is how the relationship between Cargill and Cover-All began.
Matt Richardson is the FSG Operations Leader for Cargill AgHorizons in south central Nebraska. "The two main reasons we chose a Cover-All building is because of the clear-span space and the ease of installation," says Richardson. The fact that the Cover-All® building offered a permanent storage solution and would allow operation in any environment, including wind, rain or snow, was an instant attraction. Cargill decided to purchase a 160' w x 600' l (48.7m x 182.8m) Cover-All® TITAN® building with an 8' (2.4m) wall to store 1.5 million bushels of corn.
Previously, Cargill had been using large bunkers with concrete or wood walls covered with tarps to store large volumes of commodities. "In the past we always had grain condensation issues where mold forms on the corn," says Richardson. "The purchase of a Cover-All building is a permanent solution without the cost of a steel structure.
"Compared to a steel building, a Cover-All building offers clear-span space, whereas a conventional building requires additional support poles. These support poles get in the way when maneuvering large machinery around within a building. As well, installation of a Cover-All® building is typically much faster. "The Cover-All building took just ten days to go up and it was simple to construct," says Richardson. "The entire project was 2.5 months and it would have been at least double the time frame for a conventional building to be part of the project.
"Cargill is planning to install a portable conveyor to be used when filling the building with corn and will use a tractor and portable auger to reclaim the corn by truck. "This was a fun project," says Richardson. "It is the first in our division and we are looking forward to seeing how it works out. This building gives us big space that is affordable."
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