CropLife Facilities Issue – Nutrien Ag Solutions, Janesville, WI
What They Needed
When considering how to continue better serving growers along the Eastern Wisconsin/Illinois border, Nutrien Ag Solutions realized they were out of room. Closing two aging locations, they decided to invest in a new central state-of-the-art retail facility in Janesville, WI.
Speed, efficiency, safety, and automation were the key factors when selecting which vendors to use for the facility. Murray Equipment stood out as the best equipment and software provider for the liquid fertilizer and chemical component of the project.
“I spoke with other division managers at Nutrien and they recommended MEI. I was specifically looking for a solution that would allow direct injection in a safe and efficient way,” explained Scott Pate, Nutrien Division Manager. “Murray’s ICS ControlPro software which runs the plant also has the ability to send and receive data from agronomy and back office software. That appealed to me.”
Janesville is one of several MEI and Nutrien projects completed this Spring.
What We Designed
The 23,000 square foot facility features 3 loadout bays – 2 bottom load and a 24/7 unattended loadout, a mini-bulk filling station, 2 million gallons of nitrogen, 180,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer with room to double capacity, and 46,000 gallons of bulk herbicide storage.
The ICS ControlPro software operates the entire facility with 1 computer terminal for the attended bays, a touch screen panel for the repackaging area, and a touch screen panel for the Unattended loadout. ICS ControlPro is designed to automatically import tickets from the agronomy software, blend the batches at the direction of a few mouse clicks or touches, and then send the data back to the home office for inventory and billing.
Benefits Achieved
While the expected benefits of speed, efficiency, and safety have been achieved, Scott Pate said he noticed a big difference in the employees.
“Employees are happier. They’re less stressed. The software and automation take away the guess work and much of the potential for things to go wrong,” said Pate. “Since it’s all enclosed, we’ve also dramatically reduced chemical exposure.”
With the planting season under their belt, Pate says he’s looking forward to upcoming software updates which allow them to do even more.
