SD Wheat Growers

Welcome to Wolsey, SD., it’s time for another update. Things are still very busy here. The chemical tanks are all installed and the plumbing is almost done. We will have one of the best bulk chemical system in our area and will handle Weathermax, RT3, Harness Xtra, Durango, Surestart, Widematch, Lumax, Huskie, LV6 and Class Act, all in bulk. We have our water tanks in place and are just waiting on electricity to be ran to them. The Office in the warehouse is almost finished and we should be moved in by the end of the week. They are installing the shelving and putting out product for the parts store as I write. The Seed Treater is up and running and we have already treated several hundred units of corn with Avipel. We have brought in a small supply of package chemical for us to use until we get more floor space cleared. The liquid fertilizer dyke area should be up and going by next week. Construction is still going on at both areas. The counter for the warehouse office should be here today and the main office has all the sheet rock mudded and painted and they are installing doors today. That sounds like enough for now. Be sure and call if you have any questions. Thanks

Welcome to Wolsey. Things are extremely busy around here. We are working around a lot of commotion, getting everything ready for a busy spring. We have our 8203 Terragator spreading fertilizer for another location and our 9203 Soilection spreading for our producers. Fertilizer is leaving our plant in a hurry with some days having around 2000 tons per day going out. The time is fast approaching to bring our 8203 back home. Our bulk seed bins are installed and we should be ready to treat your seed by the end of next week. Our warehouse is finally able to take package chemical and seed and a lot of products should be arriving very soon. We have halted construction on our office and moved those crews to the warehouse in order to complete that job sooner. Concrete is done in all but three areas and those will be done as soon we can drive on the poured ones. We have carpenters, concrete guys, two plumbing crews, electricians, lots dirt work equipment and operators along with all of us, getting everything in place to try and become your first choice for any of your agriculture needs. Feel free to call me if you have any questions. Thanks

Welcome again to Wolsey Progress Updates. Things are still plugging along on our construction. The office now has a roof and interior walls and almost all the windows. They are currently working on the roof and putting siding on the eaves. The warehouse has got all the concrete poured inside except for the drive thorough and an area south of the chemical dyke. We have received five 4,000-bushel bulk seed bins, a surge hopper, a weigh hopper and our seed treater. We still need to pour a pad for our seed bins and seal the concrete around the treater before installing them. Our seed system will be a state of the art, automated system that will allow us to treat seed you buy from us or your seed you bring from your farm. We have received two 6,000-gallon tanks for our liquid zinc and coron and have started receiving our six 27,000-gallon liquid fertilizer tanks. Since the last update we have added another bulk fertilizer tender trailer and an 8203 Twin Bed Terragator Fertilizer Spreader that’s currently helping out another location. That’s probably enough info for now. Thanks

Update for week of March 1, 2010
Hello. Things are really picking up here at Wolsey. The Office has all the exterior walls on the second floor and they are putting up interior walls and are going to be putting up the rafters soon, downstairs the concrete floor is poured. The Warehouse has a roof and walls and almost all the overhead doors are installed. They are thawing out the ground inside in order to pour concrete later this week or next and are getting the outside area ready to be thawed for the concrete for our bulk seed bins. Equipment is starting to show up, we have not yet received our bulk chemical tanks but the pumps are here already. The bulk seed tanks, surge and weigh hoppers will arrive next week and rolling stock is starting to show up. We now have 2 dry fertilizer tenders on trailers, an 8 ton fertilizer buggy, 2 case 4420 post sprayers and a goose neck trailer for deliveries. One dry fertilizer machine should be here by next week but I’ll let you know when it arrives for sure. Thanks

Update for week of February 15, 2010
It’s cold but things have progressed here at Wolsey. Our Seed Warehouse now has a roof on about half of the north side and on the office they are putting in the joists between the lower and upper level. All of our chemical and liquid fertilizer tanks have been ordered and we have decided to be somewhat automated on loading out. We have hired a few more employees and plan on hiring some more in specialized areas. We are also starting to hold grower meeting and send out flyers and one call’s. These things, along with this update are to try and keep you informed of what we are doing. If we have missed any area that you have a question about just send me an e-mail and I will attempt to get an answer for you. Thanks again

Update for Week of February 8, 2010
Welcome to another update of our progress here at Wolsey. The Seed Warehouse has all it’s siding on and they are starting to work on the roof. After the warehouse is roofed we will thaw out the ground and finish pouring concrete inside. We have ordered all of the bulk chemical tanks and are working on the dyked area for our liquid fertilizer. The plans are in place for the seed treater and equipment is slowly arriving, our newest addition is a 4420 Case Patriot Post Sprayer and an eight ton dry fertilizer pull type spreader that will be available for customers to rent.
The office/parts area in the warehouse is all designed and the supplier is lined up. As mentioned before we will have a Precision Ag Coordinator located out of this warehouse that will troubleshoot precision equipment concerns for locations and producers from Redfield on south. We will also be handling a full line of sprayer and precision parts.

Update for Week of January 25, 2010
Another week has gone by here at Wolsey and progress on the warehouse and office building has slowed down again because of the weather. We have hired a few more employees and, other than the buildings, things are starting to get busy. Safety is a big part of our job at Wheat Growers and all our employees are trained before they ever go to work. A large portion of my time has recently been spent on safety training. We have a lot of projects going on at once. The liquid fertilizer tanks are scheduled to be delivered around early February, so we need to finish up on the dyke area before they arrive, we got another new piece of equipment, a 24 ton side shooter fertilizer tender on a trailer and we still are not completely finished on our bulk chemical tanks. They keep wanting to deliver our bulk seed tanks and our pads are not even poured yet. So thing are busy but I will try to keep you informed as we progress. Thanks

Update for Week of December 28, 2009
Well another week has gone by and our warehouse is starting to look like an actual building. We have the bulk fertilizer tanks on order and are working on getting the bulk chemical tanks ordered. We finalized the size of our parts store.
The parts store is going to handle sprayer fittings, parts, hoses, etc.. An Ag Precision Coordinator will also be located out of the Wolsey parts store. His duties will include helping other locations and producers on precision ag equip. selection and implementation. We feel very lucky to have a precision expert that we and our customers can rely on.
Interviews are going slow due to the fact of having no building yet, but we can’t wait until the last minute, and interviewing now, lets us hopefully chose the best candidate for the job.

Photos as of Week of December 29

Update for Week of December 14, 2009:
Welcome to our second Wolsey Agronomy Retail Center Update. There hasn’t been a lot of activity due to cold and a little snow. The rest of the concrete flooring will be poured after the building is up and they are starting to come along on the frame work for the building.

We have a small dyked area north of the fertilizer plant for liquid/starter fertilizer and we have the storage tanks ordered. We are putting in 6-27,000 and some smaller ones. Having the ability to resupply quickly from several nearby sources lets us maintain a reliable supply for our producers without having a lot of larger tanks.

We have ordered a forklift and post sprayers and have posted job openings for several positions. I already have several applications to go through and will begin the interview process shortly. We currently have on board: Dean Weidner, Amanda Haugeberg, Larry Ames, Josh Hoffman and Jordan Keltgen. Along with Jordan, Brain Baum has also started with us as another agronomist. Brian is a graduate from Northern State University and has been farming in the alpena area.

Update for Week of December 7, 2009:
Wheat Growers is expanding the agronomy offerings at Wolsey. Construction is underway on a Retail Agronomy Center that will provide full-service agronomy. I will update you on the progress of the agronomy center periodically on this site. It will be my attempt to let you know what’s going on and what is planned down the road. After college I spent the last 24 years in retail Ag and look forward to this very unique opportunity here at Wolsey. Remember you can check out progress here or email me with any questions.

As most of you know we already have a real advantage by having a 32,000-ton fertilizer building on site and a large grain elevator that currently takes grain from local producers and from other Wheat Grower facilities. In addition to these we are adding a 26,000 sq. ft. chemical and seed warehouse that will also house a parts store and warehouse office area. A new office building that will hold agronomy on the lower level and grain on the upper level and fertilizer, chemical and tendering/service equipment. The new office will be east of the old office, which will be gone, and the warehouse will be east of the new office (about in the middle of the old truck loop). There will be lots of changes, such as rerouting the old loop, that we will need your patience on, but the final product will be worth it. The Grain Elevator will also get some improvements such as to the scale, probe and loop but we will talk on that later, for now I just wanted to get you up to date on agronomy.
All the forms are poured for the warehouse and office and about half of the floor of the warehouse is done. We already have the dyke area done for the bulk chemicals, conduit and plumbing are in place and we have a final plan for the parts store layout. We are putting in a 20,000 -bushel bulk seed handling on the north east side of the warehouse. It will consist of 5 – 4,000 bu. bins, a scale, hopper and tumble seed treater. After much deliberating we have the plans in place.

It’s snowed a little now and we I don’t know how that will affect the progress but I will keep you informed. Until next week.

Thanks

Craig Miller, Wolsey Retail Agronomy Center Manager