April 28, 2025 • 38 mins
Episode Summary:
In this episode of The Whole Grain Podcast, host Jim Lenz welcomes Brent Hansen, Commercial Accounts Manager for Sukup Manufacturing Co., for a fascinating discussion on the evolution and future of grain storage. From the humble beginnings of smaller grain bins to today’s towering structures designed for massive operations, Brent shares expert insights on how innovation, efficiency, safety, and sustainability are driving the future of storage solutions.
Whether you’re managing a commercial grain facility or operating an on-farm system, this conversation delivers valuable knowledge and forward-looking trends to help you stay competitive and prepared for what’s ahead.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- How grain bin sizes and technologies have evolved over the decades.
- The differences between commercial and on-farm grain storage needs.
- Cutting-edge innovations Sukup Manufacturing is leading to improve efficiency, safety, and sustainability.
- How automation and smart technologies are reshaping grain storage management.
- Trends shaping the future of the grain industry — and what to expect next.
- Expert advice for facility managers and farmers looking to upgrade their storage systems.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Sukup's history and Brent Hansen’s journey in the grain storage industry.
- The increasing demand for larger, smarter, and safer grain storage solutions.
- Modern challenges in engineering massive commercial bins.
- Sustainability and efficiency as driving factors in today's grain storage design.
- What the future holds: Bigger bins, integrated systems, and the power of innovation.
Resources and Links:
- 🔗 Visit Sukup Manufacturing Co.: www.sukup.com
- 🔗 Sukup Manufacturing YouTube Channel: Sukup YouTube
- 🔗 Learn more about GEAPS and access all episodes of The Whole Grain Podcast: www.geaps.com/wholegrain
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Closing Thought:
"Keep learning, keep innovating, and keep moving the industry forward. Thanks for tuning in to The Whole Grain Podcast — your resource for professional growth and industry insight!"
Grain Elevator and Processing Society champions, connects and serves the global grain industry and its members. Be sure to visit GEAPS’ website to learn how you can grow your network, support your personal professional development, and advance your career. Thank you for listening to another episode of GEAPS’ Whole Grain podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (00:04):
Welcome back to the Whole Grain Podcast, the
show that feeds your mind withthe latest in grain handling and
processing.
I'm your host, Jim Lenz, andtoday we are taking a journey
through the past, present andfuture of grain storage.
Let's get started.
Hello and welcome to the show.
Welcome to the Whole GrainPodcast.
(00:24):
My name is Jim Lenz, your hostand producer of the show and the
director of global educationand training at GEAPS.
We're the mission of the GrainElevator and Processing Society
to champion, connect and servethe global grain industry and
their members.
At Jeeps, we work to be theglobal community and thought
leader for the grain industry,which feeds and fuels the world.
Thanks for listening today andfor joining the network of
thousands of other grainhandling and processing
(00:45):
professionals from 88 countriesacross the globe taking
strategic steps to growprofessionally.
The Whole Grain Show will giveyou the competitive advantage to
win at work so you can makemore of an impact.
We've got a powerhouse guestjoining us, Brent Hanson,
commercial accounts manager forthe legendary Sukup
Manufacturing Company.
Sukup is a name that has shapedhow grain is stored, protected
(01:08):
and managed across the globe,from humble beginnings to
today's towering grain binsbuilt for massive operations.
We're diving deep into howinnovation and engineering
excellence are transforming thelandscape of grain storage.
We thank Sukup for supportingJeeps as a premier partner our
highest level partnership.
We're excited to bring you thisrich content.
(01:29):
We'll talk about how grain binsizes have changed over the
decades, what's driving newinnovations and how Sukup is
helping facilities meet today'sstorage demands with greater
efficiency, safety andsustainability.
Get ready you'll hear aboutmind-blowing bin sizes, cutting
edge technologies and what'sjust over the horizon for
farmers, grain elevators andprocessing operators alike.
(01:51):
Let's dive into theconversation.
All right, we have Brent Hansen, Commercial Accounts Manager of
Sukup Manufacturing,incorporated with us today.
So glad you're joining us,Brent.
(02:11):
Welcome to the show.
Brent Hansen (02:13):
Yeah, thank you.
It's an honor to be here withyou this morning.
Jim, and I'm looking forward todiscussing the needs and the
changes in the grain industrywith you.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (02:21):
What a great company to connect with, what a
great individual.
Globally speaking, you havereally shaped grain storage, and
that's what I want to talkabout today with you is how
Sukup Manufacturing has beensuch a big part of grain storage
, and so I think you can bringin some really unique
perspective that will be quiteinteresting to our listeners.
Brent, tell us a little bitabout Sukup Manufacturing and
(02:43):
its role in grain handling andprocessing industry.
I don't want to make anyassumptions for any listeners
out there.
Brent Hansen (02:48):
No, yeah, it's been a tremendous family to work
for a great company.
We were founded in 1963 byEugene and Mary Sukup right here
in Sheffield, iowa, where ourcorporate headquarters still is.
You look at our corporateoffice and you see the
cornfields and bean fields allaround us.
So that's very important to usto keep to our roots here.
We're the largest family-ownedbin manufacturer in the world,
(03:11):
which has been a phenomenalexperience to be a part of.
We do business in 90 countriesaround the world and 85% of the
products we make today we didn'toffer 25 years ago.
If you're not growing, you'redying, so to say.
You got to stay innovative.
We're one of the newer bincompanies out there.
As far as history goes.
We kind of knew grain bins fromthe inside.
(03:34):
We did all the accessories forgrain bins for many years and
then, as our competitors, ourother bin manufacturers started
making their own accessories.
Then, in 2001, we decided tostart doing the bins themselves
too.
So we kind of learned bins fromthe inside out.
We feel like there's been a lotof advantages for us going that
route.
You know, seeing the challengesand you know, even though we're
(03:56):
the newcomers as far as historygoes in the bin manufacturing.
We've been able to stayinnovative and keep on the
leading edge of it, so it's beengreat.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (04:05):
Sounds like a great excitement and just a need
to learn and grow to supportthe industry.
You bring in a special set ofskills.
Can you share with ourlisteners your role and your
involvement in the process?
Absolutely.
Brent Hansen (04:19):
Yeah, so I started out, took up manufacturing
about 16 years ago.
I actually started out in themanufacturing side, started out
in the machining centers,machining gearbox and stuff for
farm style unloads, kind ofheaded the machining center
department for about a year anda half and at that point Steve
shook up, came up to me and said, like you know, to move into
the sales role, which was kindof a shock for me.
(04:40):
I was excited.
But you know just theopportunities that I've seen in
this company.
I mean most of our salesdepartment started off at
different roles, whether it wason the engineering side or
production side, and not justsook-ups but the whole industry.
There's a lot of opportunity.
So I've been here almost 16years now.
Before that my really only agexperience was working on my
(05:02):
mom's family farm in the summers, growing up with my grandpa and
my uncles, which taught meabout agriculture.
My grandpa had a dairy, myuncle had a farrow to finish hog
operation which he still has tothis day.
My grandpa's passed now butjust learning the work ethic
that goes into agriculture andfarms, it's really irreplaceable
.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (05:20):
I think that broad experience, in-depth
experience, really gives you anopportunity to understand
people's problems and it helpssupport your organization for
the people and organizationsthat you connect with.
If you could share with ourlisteners what excites you most
about working grain storagesolutions, Well.
Brent Hansen (05:36):
I've always said this and I get asked this
question a lot the first thingthat always comes to mind is the
people, whether it's the peopleI work for, the family I work
for or the people I work with.
As I mentioned before, theSukup family is phenomenal to
work for.
As we've gotten to be a largercorporate company now, we
haven't forgot our family values, and that means a lot to even
(05:59):
the larger corporations we workwith.
I mean, they still like thefamily value portion of it.
Yeah, so I would say,definitely the people.
Whether it's the family I'mworking for, the people I'm
working with, they're just greatpeople throughout the industry
and I feel like they're honest,they appreciate hard work.
Just great industry altogether.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (06:16):
Well, your organization is lucky to have
you.
You're, I think, the entiregrain industry, and so that's
why I would love to dive deepinto this incredible change or
evolution of grain storage.
Sukup Manufacturing has a longhistory in grain storage.
As a start here, how have grainbin sizes changed over the
years?
Brent Hansen (06:34):
Well, they've changed a lot, obviously.
You know, like I said before,we manufactured our first bin in
2001.
Before that was accessories.
You know, we started out farmbins.
We did our first half millionbushel bin, I think in 2004 then
.
But you know, in 2005, ouraverage size bin was about
35,000 bushel.
And then go 10 years fartheraverage bin size was 45,000,.
(06:59):
You know, 1.25 times larger inthat 10 years.
And here we are 2024.
Our average size is 65,000bushel and that's that's across
farm and commercial.
So that's you know.
Bins have changed.
They're they're one and a halftimes larger than they.
They were in 2014 now and andjust shy of double what they
(07:19):
were in 2005.
And that's that's based on farmbins and commercial.
Now, as far as commercial bins,yeah, they've changed a lot,
obviously too.
So, yeah, everything's growing,evolving.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (07:32):
We'll dive into that deeper here.
What factors do you think havereally driven the need for
larger and more efficient grainstorage solutions?
Brent Hansen (07:40):
Well, definitely the ag sector in general.
I mean, you know, from yieldsbeing higher you look at corn
yields and commodity yields whatthey were 20 years ago to what
they are today there'sdefinitely more storage needed.
And then not only that, there'sbeen consolidation in farms.
There's larger farms, there'sbigger equipment, we have the
same amount of acres planted andthe harvest dates never really
(08:01):
changed.
So you got to be able to domore in less amount of time.
So you're, you got a lot ofcapacity there, a lot of bushels
there that that need to bestored.
The other thing you know is if,with biofuels, over 40% of our
US corn crop is now goes toethanol, which means we need to
be able to capture those bushelsat harvest time and keep that
(08:22):
grain in the condition, whetherit's on the farm, at a local
elevator, large grain company orat a processing facility.
I mean those bushels have to bestored to be able to use them
year round.
So yeah, I mean that'sbasically the gist of it.
If you can capture thosebushels at harvest time and
store it and keep the grain incondition, it adds value to your
operation.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (08:41):
So you're keeping up with all that's going
on in industry and we'recurious what is the largest bin,
or some of the largest binsSukup is currently manufacturing
for commercial grain facilities.
Brent Hansen (08:54):
So you know, we were the first ones that came
out with the million bushel bin.
That's been 15 years agoprobably.
That was 135 foot diameter.
I think it was even actually onTime Magazine or something.
It was the granddaddy of themall and we thought that would be
the largest bins ever.
And then we went to a millionand a half, then we went to 2
million and about four years agowe came out with a new one.
(09:14):
It's 165 foot in diameter, 110foot tall, or 110 foot tall at
the eave, and holds 2.25 millionbushels in each bin.
So that's you know.
It takes a special facility tohave that need and that's where
technology comes into it too.
I mean, you got to know whatyou're doing as far as
(09:35):
monitoring the grain and you gotto be able to move the grain.
Yeah, the flat bottom bins havedefinitely gotten larger, and
also the hopper bins.
We do hopper bins now.
You know they used to be 10,000bushel, 20,000 bushel.
We recently did some hopperbins at a large processing
facility where they're actuallythe daily working bins, so
they're cycled every day.
They're 48 foot in diameter and24 rings tall.
(09:57):
They have 153,000 bushel eachin a steel structure hopper bin.
So everything gets bigger.
A lot of that is due toengineering.
It's come a long ways.
You know bins used to be forone cycle a year and I think
we'll get into that later, butyeah, I mean, everything's
growing still.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (10:14):
That's just amazing.
Let's look at commercial binsversus on-farm grain storage.
How do the needs of large grainfacilities differ from those of
farmers storing grain on site?
Brent Hansen (10:26):
The main thing is the capacities.
You know they've both growntogether.
You know, as the bins gotbigger, the farmers got bigger,
the grain companies got largerand consolidations, you know a
lot of it's changed too with.
You know, on the ag side itused to be tractors and wagons
delivered all the grain out ofthe field.
Now it's semis, you know.
So they got to be able to dumpfaster, receive grain faster.
(10:49):
You know.
So storage and handlingcapacities would be the first
thing that comes to mind.
You know we have largeprocessing partners, even in the
Midwest, that are capable ofreceiving grain at 90,000 bushel
an hour, whether it's multipledumps.
But you got to be able todesign the bins to receive that
amount of grain at a time.
Obviously there's engineeringthat goes into that.
And then you know the reclaimat the same time, maybe 10 or
(11:13):
20,000 bushel an hour.
So there's a lot of engineeringthat goes into these bolted
steel tanks today.
That wasn't thought of 20 yearsago.
You know it used to be allconcrete for those facilities
and now we've, engineering hascome a long ways in the steel
bin and we're able to design forthat and stand behind our
products.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (11:35):
That's fantastic.
So if we look at some of thecommon bin sizes and capacities
being built today for commercialgrain operations, what would
you say the general range is?
And then the same thing foron-farm storage.
What sizes are most common forfarmers and how have those again
changed over time?
Brent Hansen (11:46):
Yeah, the commercial grain facilities I
feel like still have a largerange.
You know anything from 300,000bushel to 800,000 is very common
.
The processing facilities youmight be more to that 750,000 to
1.5 million bushel, more tothat 750,000 to 1.5 million
(12:09):
bushel.
And then the largerbioprocessing facilities and
stuff.
You know you're a million to2.25 million and that's just
mainly because the amount ofgrain that they use, a lot of
these ethanol plants aregrinding 100,000 bushel a day
all the way up to over 200,000bushel a day.
So a 2 million bushel bin is nota lot of storage.
I mean, it's a lot of storageas far as grain goes.
But as far as your, your usageand your and your daily usage
goes, you know you're talking 10, 15 days of storage is all you
(12:31):
have.
So Mm-hmm, and on the farm, youknow I'd say probably the most
common is still probably that50,000 to 60,000 bushel and goes
up from there.
You know we see large farmersbuilding commercial what I would
call commercial facilities ontheir own and they're putting up
105-foot diameter bins and thenreceiving pits and you know so
(12:52):
it continues to evolve and yougot to stay on the leading edge
of it.
But we feel like we're doing agood job with that and filling
our customers' needs, orpartners' needs, actually.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (13:00):
With an increase in demand for storage
size, for volume.
I would imagine yourengineering team is quite busy
and really developing solutions.
There are challenges that occur.
What are some of those uniqueengineering challenges when
designing storage solutions formassive commercial operations?
Brent Hansen (13:17):
Well, yeah, you're absolutely right.
I mean, you know you've got tocontinue to evolve.
As everything gets larger, sodoes the equipment, which means
you need a stronger roof tosupport that equipment.
You know, when we first startedin commercial bins, a
30,000-pound roof load was aheavy roof.
As those bins have gottenlarger in diameter and the
structures are bigger, withbigger equipment on them,
they're spanning longerdistances.
(13:38):
Now the larger bins have150,000 peak load rating.
But you have to have that, youknow, in order to put that
heavier equipment on it, to landon it.
And so you know it's just yougotta.
It's not just one thing.
Just because the bin getsbigger, the storage capacity
gets bigger, you still got toengineer for the equipment that
gets bigger.
The higher capacity fill andreclaim systems plays key roles
(14:04):
in the engineering of the binitself.
So there's a lot that goes intoit, but we got a great team
here and stay on the leadingedge of it.
I'll also add to that as far asengineering challenges go, when
you're designing the larger bins, you know it used to be a
single sheet of steel would beyour sidewall, as these bins got
larger.
Now it's laminated sheets whereyou know you might be stacking
(14:25):
two, three or four sheetstogether and laminating them
together.
You do that out in the fieldand when you do that you create
places for moisture to get in,like, say, for instance, behind
the stiffener.
You know it used to be at that.
If you know much aboutassembling grain bins, you used
to put the bolt from the insideout and it would seal from the
inside of the bin.
When you start laminate themyou need to seal the outside too
(14:48):
so you don't get that moistureto infiltrate the bin or get
into the grain, to spoil thegrain, which obviously is a
safety issue.
It's a loss of value.
It can harm the structure ofthe bin itself if it corrodes
enough.
So several years ago we startedand the industry just kind of
told us you know, larger binsjust have a tendency to leak.
(15:10):
Well, that was not anacceptable answer to us.
So we started taking apartgrain bins, whether it was
shook-up bins or competitor'sbins.
What we found was, with allthose laminated sheets, the
water would actually and itseems hard to believe unless you
actually see it the water wouldget behind the vertical
stiffener on the outside of thebin and the sheet and enough
would go on those threads inbetween those sheets that would
(15:33):
migrate over to the verticalseams.
So the bin erectors weregetting blamed, saying, well,
the vertical seams are leaking,they didn't get the bin sealed
up.
Well, that wasn't it at all.
So I don't remember the yearit's been.
Oh, I bet close to 10 years ago.
We came up with thisdouble-ended stud bowl and
patented it and we have aspecial made for us and
(15:53):
basically you put that on theoutside.
It's got a positive seal on theoutside of the bin which
eliminates any moisture gettingbetween those laminated sheets.
We've talked about notnecessarily engineering
challenges, but just engineeringsolutions too, you know, to
eliminate that stuff.
Another thing when you got todoing the laminated sheets, you
know a standard sidewall.
(16:14):
You go around one waycounterclockwise or clockwise
and you you overlap the seam.
Well, as you get into multiplelaminations, you know you could
be talking over a half inch gapwhere they overlap and then the
sheet above that for grain tofall out.
You know, it's just, it's likea flashing of any type.
So what we did is, when we getto a triple laminated sheet, we
(16:37):
actually have a splice plate.
It's kind of like the sheetsbutt together and then a splice
plate goes over the top of them.
And again, that's not newtechnology at all for the steel
industry.
I mean, they did it with steamengines how many, how many
decades ago or whatever you know.
We were able to just bring thattechnology into grain bins and
(16:58):
it creates a much strongerconnection because you have a
double shear point on thosebolts and also it doesn't have
that gap on the overlap forgrain to fall out or moisture to
come in.
So those two things haveprobably been some of the
biggest benefits to us.
As far as increased marketshare, you know, and like I said
, it's not all necessarily newtechnology, it's just using
(17:21):
technology that's alreadyavailable and bringing those
into our industry and stayinginnovative.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (17:25):
Yeah, that is very interesting.
Brent Hansen (17:27):
Wow, and honestly you can go on our website,
wwwsookupcom.
If you go to the commercial binbrochures we show you pictures
of both those and seeing thepicture definitely helps it sink
in.
I mean, a lot of people in theindustry just assumed that
bigger bins had spoilage andmoisture got in them.
So you know.
The other thing we talk aboutis you know the old I'm going to
(17:49):
call them government bins theold 18 foot diameter bins.
You know that was what they hadon the farm.
I mean you look at these 2million bushel bins or 2.25
million bushel bins.
They have a flat peak deckthat's 21 foot in diameter.
I mean it's almost like a roomup there, a house up there.
You know it's not enclosed butit's that big of a flat deck for
(18:12):
landing that bigger equipmenton.
It's got a railing around it sopeople can get up there and
service.
You know you got to haveserviceability in the equipment
because the easier you make itto service, the more apt it is
to happen.
So, as the bins have gottenbigger, those are some of the
key things that we've done and Ithink they've been real
industry changers.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (18:27):
I'm glad you're sure of that.
There must be some greatdialogue that occurs between
those who are your clients thatyou work with, and the
engineering team and sales andbeyond.
There's so much in innovationsand advancements in grain
storage in just a small amountof years and you've been such
great leaders at SukupManufacturing.
So, beyond size, how have grainbins evolved in terms of
(18:49):
technology?
I'm curious of your response.
Brent Hansen (18:52):
You know the bins themselves, not really
technology in those, I mean,yeah, there's some engineering
that goes into them.
I guess one thing I'd like totouch on too.
When we talk about thechallenge with the bigger bins
or not necessarily challenges,but the things that we do here
you know most bins on thesecommercial sites anymore they're
specific, engineered for thatspecific site.
So you know the usage that theywant to do, whether it's you,
(19:14):
you know, 12 cycles a year or 50cycles a year.
You know we try to uh engineereach bin for the, the local
codes, whether it's seismic.
You know some customers want todesign for different wind loads
.
We all know that there's been alot of abnormality in the in
these winds lately, with theratios and stuff.
So so we, we can, as long as weknow that up front what the
(19:37):
customer is looking for, youknow we try to design for, as we
know that upfront what thecustomer's looking for, you know
we try to design them for snowloads, seismic loads or if the
customer wants a different windload, we can do that too.
Um, but uh, you know, back inthe day I would say, you know,
steel bins were originally usedfor basically single fill
(19:57):
annually, you know, and theconcrete structures were used
for anything more than that, Iwould say.
But now we do daily workingbins.
Yeah, like I say, the usage,the local codes.
I would say that's the biggestthing with technology, I mean as
far as the bin itself goes.
I mean obviously.
Obviously there's otheradvancements in efficiencies and
(20:17):
safeties, I think.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (20:18):
What do you see as new features?
Advancement and Sukup's grainstorage solutions.
What are they in terms ofimproving efficiency and safety?
Obviously, those are importantitems.
Brent Hansen (20:29):
Yeah, I mean.
So.
We recently acquired a companycalled Ramco Innovations.
They're based out of West DesMoines.
It was an industrial automationcompany.
We'd worked with some on ourmanufacturing so we had a
history with them before.
They had a great team.
Their employees are not.
Much has changed on their side.
Their employees are still allemployed and they're based out
of West Des Moines still.
(20:50):
But we brought those twocompanies together to form a
company called Sync, which ispowered by Sip Cup and it's
going to be more of the binmonitoring, the grain site
management and automation.
You know we're starting off.
We've got some beta sites outthere.
We've actually been developingthis stuff for a couple of years
.
Reliability, obviously, is oneof the main focuses we wanted to
(21:10):
make sure we have down, so wedidn't want to roll it out too
early.
But we've got some beta sitesnow.
We've been doing for a coupleof years and it's going to be a
grain site management andautomation.
We're focusing more on, I'mgoing to say, the ag side, which
is more farm or large farmright now.
But the main things that that'sbringing is the temperature and
moisture monitoring.
(21:31):
Bringing is the temperature andmoisture monitoring and then
the environmental sensors too.
You know the co2, the weatherand humidity, uh, static
pressure, all that stuff, and wewe have technology now that can
knows that stuff um, so it'sgoing to be uh great.
I mean that.
How I tie that into safety is Idon't want to say never, but not
(21:52):
that I'm aware of, or you veryrarely hear of, an accident.
You know a grain entrapmentwith free-flowing corn.
You know, usually it's becausecorn's out of condition.
So that's where I call that asafety feature now, where you're
able to keep that grain incondition.
It makes everything saferbecause you know what you have
(22:12):
in the bin.
You can plan for it.
Also, we have not passingpulleys in the peak of all of
our bins now for rescue, or youknow, and that comes standard on
all of our bins, whether it'son farm or commercial bins we
also have safety doors now which, uh, you know, basically, on a
grain bin door there's innerdoors and there's an outer skin
and the new safety door.
(22:32):
What that does is it will notallow you to close the outer
door unless the inner doors areclosed, and the reason why that
is is your inner door is yourstructural door that holds the
grain.
So we would see people wouldclose the outer skin and forget
to shut those inner doors, youknow, and then it would be too
late.
They'd see grain coming upagainst that door, knew that
door would blow out and causeentrapment on the outside of the
bin.
(22:52):
So we have a new safety doornow that we have, you know,
continuing to keep our customersand partners safety in our
foresight.
Everyone wants to go home totheir family.
Whether it's a family farm or acommercial grain company.
Safety's always got to benumber one because not only is
it family and lives, but yeah,we need everybody here and safe
(23:13):
to go home to their families atnight.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (23:15):
Yeah, that's terrific that you mentioned that
Automation is a big componentto safety, like you said, to
understand the condition of thecorn 24-7.
Also, we are facing in theindustry a shortage of employees
, which is no secret to thosewho work for grain facilities,
of employees, which is no secretto those who work for grain
(23:35):
facilities.
What's your commentary towardsyour interest in growing and
evolving as a company andsupporting now automation like
you never have before?
What does that mean to thosewho work in grain facilities in
terms of adding automation?
Brent Hansen (23:49):
Well, absolutely.
I mean, it's no different thanour manufacturing here, you know
, as there's work work poolshortages, you know we have a
lot of automation in our plantand I can honestly tell you when
I started for Sookups in 2009,there was roughly 300 employees
(24:09):
and today we have moreautomation we've ever had and
now we have 850 employees.
So the automation and stuff isnot necessarily taking jobs away
.
It's giving more technical jobs, making people more efficient,
whether it's programming on themanufacturing side, but
automation definitely on thefarm side and the grain side,
(24:30):
because you know, withautomation we talked about the
sink stuff it makes youroperators and your managers more
successful at their job.
There's technology out therenow, whether it's sink and stuff
where you're, you know it'sgoing to tell you when to run
your fans to keep your grain incondition and you know your
dryer and you know moreautomation is where it's going
(24:51):
and, yeah, some of that's due tolabor shortages, but a lot of
it's just due to being moreefficient and being able to keep
the grain in conditions for use.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (24:59):
What is Sukup's role in sustainability in
modern grain storage design Inyour conversations with clients?
How can you support that?
Brent Hansen (25:10):
It definitely needs to store more grain and
keep grain in the condition tofeed and fuel the world.
I mean, the population isgrowing so it requires more food
.
There's a big push for energyIndependence with the biofuels.
There's just so much that goesinto it and I I really feel like
, uh, jeeps is on the leadingedge now of bringing the you
(25:30):
know grain elevators andprocessor society, bringing the
biofuels market as a processorto join with Jeeps.
I'm super excited.
I think it's the rightdirection to go because we have
to feed the world and fuel theworld.
So I guess that's my opinion ofhow sustainability plays a role
in grain storage and design.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (25:50):
Absolutely, it makes sense.
You're in again a unique spaceto, and a guest on the whole
grain show to speak on industrytrends and the future outlook.
What trends do you see shapingthe future of grain storage?
Brent Hansen (26:04):
Yeah, I think I touched base on this a little
bit earlier Definitely see themore automation, and that's on
farm and commercial grain andprocessing.
We touch base abouttechnologies there to be able to
tell farmers or grain companiesor processing facilities based
on humidity, temperature, allthat when to run your fans, you
(26:25):
know more automation as far aswhat your dryer's doing.
We have tower dryers on farmand commercial tower dryers out
there that you can monitor themfrom your phone and your combine
now.
So I definitely see theautomation side shaping a lot in
the future and I also see, likewe talked about processing and
biofuels industries comingtogether.
(26:45):
It's pretty hard to talk aboutgrain elevators and processing
without talking about biofuels.
As I mentioned before, 40% ofour corn crop in the United
States goes to biofuels.
And there's also the I don'twant to call it byproduct
anymore, they're actuallyco-products, but we're still
using the distiller's grains andstuff for livestock feed.
(27:07):
There's a lot of advantages toit In my opinion.
I think they go hand in hand.
I think it's a bright futurefor us.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (27:19):
Do you think grain bins will continue to grow
in size, or do you?
Brent Hansen (27:22):
see there a shift towards other solutions like
integrated storage systems?
I'll be honest with you, jim,that's a tough question.
You know, like I said, beforewe built the first million
bushel bin, everyone thought,wow, we're putting a million
bushels of storage in one bin,you know.
And then 1.2 and 1.5.
And if you had told me we gotto 2.25 million bushels in one
(27:42):
bin 10 years ago, I'd have saidno, that's not going to happen.
So so I'm not going to tell youthat they're not going to
continue to grow.
Obviously, everything evolves.
I mean and I will say that tooyou know, most Sukup as a
company, most of the stuff thatwe have added to our product
line whether it be larger bins,larger dryers, on-farm larger
(28:05):
dryers, mixed flow dryers hasdeveloped because of customer
requests.
I mean, we've, to my knowledge,and not that maybe we never
have, but most things we come upwith we listen to our we have a
dealer network that is secondto none and they work close with
us and our customers.
And the dealer network is soimportant to us because our
(28:27):
dealers have grown with us aswe've grown.
Our company is too big to beeverywhere at once, so our
dealers are kind of the face ofour company in a lot of aspects,
and customers and partners outthere tell us that they need
something that's not in theindustry.
Yet I can assure you we'regoing to take a look at it.
I can't say we're going to doit every time, but we're going
to take a look at it and see ifwe can grow with them and meet
the industry's needs.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (28:47):
That's fantastic.
So Well, Sukup Manufacturing iscertainly preparing for the
next generation of grain storageneeds.
There's evidence there.
You're continuing to evolve andhave great conversations.
You are on the beat with thedealers, just by themselves
alone.
Sukup dealers, first of all.
How many?
Where are they located and whatadvice would you give to grain
(29:10):
facility managers or farmerslooking to upgrade their storage
systems?
Brent Hansen (29:15):
As far as the number of years ago, that's a
good question.
I don't know that.
I'm guessing there's probably500 of them globally.
A few years back we purchasedone of our distributors in
Denmark that had a great marketshare in Europe.
It was Dancorn at the time.
Now it shook up Europe and mostof that stuff all we also have
(29:36):
a and they, they and most ofthat stuff all gets shipped out
of Iowa, out of the U S, thatproduct.
We also have a joint venture inUkraine with manufacturing over
there.
I think the people listening tothis podcast will probably be be
happy to know that most allthat steel that we use to
manufacture over there stillcomes from the United States.
Most of our engineering isbased off United States
standards and what we know we'regetting for steel here in the
(29:57):
United States.
So it still all comes from theUnited States, or almost all of
it.
And then we have a good dealernetwork through Canada, mexico,
south America, you know.
So we have a great globaldealer network that have been
partners for most of them for along time.
You know, as, as far as planningfor the future, I would tell uh
(30:19):
, most of our customers, even onfarm, you know, don't be afraid
to start over.
We see a lot of evencorporations or grain elevators
are doing it, and obviously itdepends on the size of your
existing operation.
But sometimes it's plan aheadis the number one thing, you
know.
Get a long-term plan of whatyou see your company growing
(30:40):
into, whether it's what's yourdream bushel storage, this
facility, whether it's on farmor commercial site, and plan
ahead so you're not throwinggood money at bad redoing stuff
that you already invested in.
If you can come up with along-term plan, I think that's
very important.
Anytime you start redoing stuffit's costing you unnecessary
money usually.
So that's one thing I wouldtell grain facility managers.
(31:02):
Even as a standalone, even onyour existing site, you know,
maybe it's time to put inanother receiving pit with the
capacity you want.
We talked briefly about graincoming into.
Facilities used to be tractorsand wagons.
You know well here in Iowa youused to have a grain elevator
every five to 10 miles down theroad.
Well, with consolidation nowsome of those have shut down and
moving to transport more semis.
(31:25):
If you don't have a decentcapacity on your receiving,
they're not going to wait inline with semis anymore, they're
going to drive down the road tothe next location.
So you know, yeah, I'd say planfor the future is the best
thing, and continue to learn.
I still learn every day at myjob and, honestly, a lot of the
stuff I learn is from ourpartners and customers in the
industry.
Some of those guys have beenout longer than we have, and
(31:45):
don't be closed-minded.
I think the future is brightfor the whole industry.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (31:49):
That's great to recap what you're seeing here
and how you can support it.
Like producers, farmers comingin, efficiency and speed are key
.
So to imagine clients who arefacing those challenges or
looking for solutions andplanning ahead is key.
Who are facing those challengesor looking for solutions, and
planning ahead is key.
Who are some of those, or whatare some of the names of the
(32:12):
roles that you and other membersof your Sukup team meet with on
the commercial side?
Who do you connect with inhaving these conversations?
Brent Hansen (32:18):
You know, even though we truly believe in our
dealer network our dealers arewhat have grown with us and
allowed us to grow we still keepstrong partnership and
relationship with corporateexecutives.
I mean, I personally go to yourNational Ethanol Conference,
your National Grain and FeedAnnual Convention, your growth
(32:39):
energy events, and those peopleknow that we sell through our
dealer network, but I can helpthem get them in touch with the
right dealer.
They're partners too.
Just because they're not buyingdirect from us does not mean
they're not partners in theindustry, because we're all
working together to make theindustry better.
And by having a goodrelationship with them and
forming partnerships with them,sookups is better off serving
(33:01):
them, even as end users, becauseI know one of our dealers might
be right for the job and youasked specifically about the
commercial side but we doeverything from local farm shows
to National Grain and FeedConvention.
It's just staying in front ofyour partners, staying with them
, realizing their needs andcontinue to grow together.
(33:21):
That's what I think itbasically boils down to.
If you can do those things,everyone's going to succeed.
I always say too I hate theterm customers because we as a
company would rather look forpartners.
Customers are someone that buysfrom you when they need
something, and maybe that's aharsh term.
I don't want customers, but ifwe can form partnerships where
everyone succeeds together, it'sbetter for everybody involved
(33:43):
and it's better for the industryas a whole.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (33:46):
How many countries are there Sukup
products?
How many countries have yours?
Do you know that?
Brent Hansen (33:53):
Yeah, great question.
So we just recently put thattogether Over 90 countries we
have products in across theglobe.
You know we don't do I'm notsaying we do business in all
those 90 countries every year.
I'd say in recent years it'sprobably closer to 15 or 20
countries a year.
That's growing too, but overthe history of the company, over
90 countries.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (34:13):
Thinking about where the organization started.
It's a family organization.
That's really special.
So thank you for being a gueston the Whole Grain Podcast,
Brent.
I was wondering if people wantto connect with S ukup and know
all that there is to have interms of products and services.
Where is, or what are, someplaces to lead our listeners?
Brent Hansen (34:35):
You know, I'd say, uh, you know obviously our
company website www.
sukupcom.
Www.
sukupcom is a great place.
We also have a YouTube channel.
You can Google that withdifferent stuff you know, as far
as even product lines anddifferent how-to videos.
You can always call ourcorporate headquarters here in
(34:57):
Sheffield, iowa, 641-892-4222.
Or you can go on our websitethen look up the dealer locator,
put in your local zip code andyou can find our partners in our
business that are veryknowledgeable.
Most of them are very long-termdealers and partners, very
knowledgeable, and set up a lotof different places, a lot of
information out there.
(35:17):
Give us a call or get on thewebsite.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (35:20):
Great, we'll be sure to put that in the show
notes for this episode, allthose links and phone number and
that information, brent.
Final thoughts on theimportance of proper grain
storage in today's industry.
Brent Hansen (35:32):
Yeah, the main thing I'm going to say on that
is safety.
Properly stored grain andkeeping grain in condition is
much safer than improper storedgrain.
If you can keep the grain incondition, you stand a lot
better chance of going home safeto your family.
Obviously, as we brought upbefore, as we're doing more
processing here in the UnitedStates, we got to be able to
store that grain and keep it inthe condition to use all year
(35:54):
long.
Give Sukup a call, or give oneof our dealers a call, or,
honestly, for anybody, even ifyou're not a Sukup customer, go
to who you're going with.
But proper stored grain saveslives and we are all for that.
So we'd love a shout at yourbusiness.
If there's an opportunity or apartnership with you, there's an
opportunity.
But regardless of who you'reworking with, proper stored
grain is safer than an improperstored grain.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (36:17):
Great final words.
My words to you and the Sukupteam.
Thank you for supporting GEAPS.
Thank you for supporting therecent GEAPS Exchange.
It was a special opportunityfor people to connect and have
conversations with you and yourteam.
Thank you for being a guest onthe show.
Brent Hansen (36:34):
Yeah, thank you, Jim, and I look forward to
working with you and the Jeepsteam and the organization and
their members in the future.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (36:41):
All right.
Thank you, Brent.
Thank you.
Wow! What an incredibleconversation with Brent Hanson
from Sukup Manufacturing.
It's clear the future of grainstorage is not just about
getting bigger.
It's about getting smarter andsafer.
A huge thank you to Brent forsharing his expertise and giving
us an insider's look at wherethe grain industry is headed.
If you want to learn more aboutSukup's innovations, be sure to
(37:02):
visit sukupcom that'sS-U-K-U-Pcom and be sure to
visit their YouTube page as well.
And hey, if you enjoyed today'sepisode, subscribe to the Whole
Grain Podcast, share with afriend and stay tuned.
We've got more amazing guestsand topics coming your way to
help you grow your knowledge andyour career.
There are two easy ways toaccess the Whole Grain show.
(37:24):
Number one go to the Jeepswebsite.
Visit GEAPS.
com/ whole grain.
You can also visit yourfavorite podcast apps, such as
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AmazonMusic, Overcast, Podbean,
Youtube Music, Pandora and,again, just about any podcast
app out there.
Enter Whole Grain in the searchand hit the subscribe button
and you are all set.
All episodes will be downloadedas soon as they are released.
(37:46):
Plus, you can catch up on allpast episodes.
This Jeep's Whole Grain podcastshow brings in listeners from
88 countries.
If you and your organizationare interested in placing an
audio ad in the Whole Grain show, we can help you with that and
help put a spotlight on yourbusiness.
Please reach out to me, JimLenz, Director of Global
Education and Training at Jeep's, the Grain Elevator and
Processing Society.
(38:07):
My email is james@ geapscom.
J-a-m-e-s at G-E-A-P-S dot com.
We look forward to connectingwith you.
Until next time, keep learning,keep innovating and keep moving
the industry forward.
Have yourself a great day andthanks for listening to Whole
(38:29):
Grain.
Welcome back to the Whole Grain Podcast, the
show that feeds your mind withthe latest in grain handling and
processing.
I'm your host, Jim Lenz, andtoday we are taking a journey
through the past, present andfuture of grain storage.
Let's get started.
Hello and welcome to the show.
Welcome to the Whole GrainPodcast.
(00:24):
My name is Jim Lenz, your hostand producer of the show and the
director of global educationand training at GEAPS.
We're the mission of the GrainElevator and Processing Society
to champion, connect and servethe global grain industry and
their members.
At Jeeps, we work to be theglobal community and thought
leader for the grain industry,which feeds and fuels the world.
Thanks for listening today andfor joining the network of
thousands of other grainhandling and processing
(00:45):
professionals from 88 countriesacross the globe taking
strategic steps to growprofessionally.
The Whole Grain Show will giveyou the competitive advantage to
win at work so you can makemore of an impact.
We've got a powerhouse guestjoining us, Brent Hanson,
commercial accounts manager forthe legendary Sukup
Manufacturing Company.
Sukup is a name that has shapedhow grain is stored, protected
(01:08):
and managed across the globe,from humble beginnings to
today's towering grain binsbuilt for massive operations.
We're diving deep into howinnovation and engineering
excellence are transforming thelandscape of grain storage.
We thank Sukup for supportingJeeps as a premier partner our
highest level partnership.
We're excited to bring you thisrich content.
(01:29):
We'll talk about how grain binsizes have changed over the
decades, what's driving newinnovations and how Sukup is
helping facilities meet today'sstorage demands with greater
efficiency, safety andsustainability.
Get ready you'll hear aboutmind-blowing bin sizes, cutting
edge technologies and what'sjust over the horizon for
farmers, grain elevators andprocessing operators alike.
(01:51):
Let's dive into theconversation.
All right, we have Brent Hansen, Commercial Accounts Manager of
Sukup Manufacturing,incorporated with us today.
So glad you're joining us,Brent.
(02:11):
Welcome to the show.
Brent Hansen (02:13):
Yeah, thank you.
It's an honor to be here withyou this morning.
Jim, and I'm looking forward todiscussing the needs and the
changes in the grain industrywith you.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (02:21):
What a great company to connect with, what a
great individual.
Globally speaking, you havereally shaped grain storage, and
that's what I want to talkabout today with you is how
Sukup Manufacturing has beensuch a big part of grain storage
, and so I think you can bringin some really unique
perspective that will be quiteinteresting to our listeners.
Brent, tell us a little bitabout Sukup Manufacturing and
(02:43):
its role in grain handling andprocessing industry.
I don't want to make anyassumptions for any listeners
out there.
Brent Hansen (02:48):
No, yeah, it's been a tremendous family to work
for a great company.
We were founded in 1963 byEugene and Mary Sukup right here
in Sheffield, iowa, where ourcorporate headquarters still is.
You look at our corporateoffice and you see the
cornfields and bean fields allaround us.
So that's very important to usto keep to our roots here.
We're the largest family-ownedbin manufacturer in the world,
(03:11):
which has been a phenomenalexperience to be a part of.
We do business in 90 countriesaround the world and 85% of the
products we make today we didn'toffer 25 years ago.
If you're not growing, you'redying, so to say.
You got to stay innovative.
We're one of the newer bincompanies out there.
As far as history goes.
We kind of knew grain bins fromthe inside.
(03:34):
We did all the accessories forgrain bins for many years and
then, as our competitors, ourother bin manufacturers started
making their own accessories.
Then, in 2001, we decided tostart doing the bins themselves
too.
So we kind of learned bins fromthe inside out.
We feel like there's been a lotof advantages for us going that
route.
You know, seeing the challengesand you know, even though we're
(03:56):
the newcomers as far as historygoes in the bin manufacturing.
We've been able to stayinnovative and keep on the
leading edge of it, so it's beengreat.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (04:05):
Sounds like a great excitement and just a need
to learn and grow to supportthe industry.
You bring in a special set ofskills.
Can you share with ourlisteners your role and your
involvement in the process?
Absolutely.
Brent Hansen (04:19):
Yeah, so I started out, took up manufacturing
about 16 years ago.
I actually started out in themanufacturing side, started out
in the machining centers,machining gearbox and stuff for
farm style unloads, kind ofheaded the machining center
department for about a year anda half and at that point Steve
shook up, came up to me and said, like you know, to move into
the sales role, which was kindof a shock for me.
(04:40):
I was excited.
But you know just theopportunities that I've seen in
this company.
I mean most of our salesdepartment started off at
different roles, whether it wason the engineering side or
production side, and not justsook-ups but the whole industry.
There's a lot of opportunity.
So I've been here almost 16years now.
Before that my really only agexperience was working on my
(05:02):
mom's family farm in the summers, growing up with my grandpa and
my uncles, which taught meabout agriculture.
My grandpa had a dairy, myuncle had a farrow to finish hog
operation which he still has tothis day.
My grandpa's passed now butjust learning the work ethic
that goes into agriculture andfarms, it's really irreplaceable
.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (05:20):
I think that broad experience, in-depth
experience, really gives you anopportunity to understand
people's problems and it helpssupport your organization for
the people and organizationsthat you connect with.
If you could share with ourlisteners what excites you most
about working grain storagesolutions, Well.
Brent Hansen (05:36):
I've always said this and I get asked this
question a lot the first thingthat always comes to mind is the
people, whether it's the peopleI work for, the family I work
for or the people I work with.
As I mentioned before, theSukup family is phenomenal to
work for.
As we've gotten to be a largercorporate company now, we
haven't forgot our family values, and that means a lot to even
(05:59):
the larger corporations we workwith.
I mean, they still like thefamily value portion of it.
Yeah, so I would say,definitely the people.
Whether it's the family I'mworking for, the people I'm
working with, they're just greatpeople throughout the industry
and I feel like they're honest,they appreciate hard work.
Just great industry altogether.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (06:16):
Well, your organization is lucky to have
you.
You're, I think, the entiregrain industry, and so that's
why I would love to dive deepinto this incredible change or
evolution of grain storage.
Sukup Manufacturing has a longhistory in grain storage.
As a start here, how have grainbin sizes changed over the
years?
Brent Hansen (06:34):
Well, they've changed a lot, obviously.
You know, like I said before,we manufactured our first bin in
2001.
Before that was accessories.
You know, we started out farmbins.
We did our first half millionbushel bin, I think in 2004 then
.
But you know, in 2005, ouraverage size bin was about
35,000 bushel.
And then go 10 years fartheraverage bin size was 45,000,.
(06:59):
You know, 1.25 times larger inthat 10 years.
And here we are 2024.
Our average size is 65,000bushel and that's that's across
farm and commercial.
So that's you know.
Bins have changed.
They're they're one and a halftimes larger than they.
They were in 2014 now and andjust shy of double what they
(07:19):
were in 2005.
And that's that's based on farmbins and commercial.
Now, as far as commercial bins,yeah, they've changed a lot,
obviously too.
So, yeah, everything's growing,evolving.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (07:32):
We'll dive into that deeper here.
What factors do you think havereally driven the need for
larger and more efficient grainstorage solutions?
Brent Hansen (07:40):
Well, definitely the ag sector in general.
I mean, you know, from yieldsbeing higher you look at corn
yields and commodity yields whatthey were 20 years ago to what
they are today there'sdefinitely more storage needed.
And then not only that, there'sbeen consolidation in farms.
There's larger farms, there'sbigger equipment, we have the
same amount of acres planted andthe harvest dates never really
(08:01):
changed.
So you got to be able to domore in less amount of time.
So you're, you got a lot ofcapacity there, a lot of bushels
there that that need to bestored.
The other thing you know is if,with biofuels, over 40% of our
US corn crop is now goes toethanol, which means we need to
be able to capture those bushelsat harvest time and keep that
(08:22):
grain in the condition, whetherit's on the farm, at a local
elevator, large grain company orat a processing facility.
I mean those bushels have to bestored to be able to use them
year round.
So yeah, I mean that'sbasically the gist of it.
If you can capture thosebushels at harvest time and
store it and keep the grain incondition, it adds value to your
operation.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (08:41):
So you're keeping up with all that's going
on in industry and we'recurious what is the largest bin,
or some of the largest binsSukup is currently manufacturing
for commercial grain facilities.
Brent Hansen (08:54):
So you know, we were the first ones that came
out with the million bushel bin.
That's been 15 years agoprobably.
That was 135 foot diameter.
I think it was even actually onTime Magazine or something.
It was the granddaddy of themall and we thought that would be
the largest bins ever.
And then we went to a millionand a half, then we went to 2
million and about four years agowe came out with a new one.
(09:14):
It's 165 foot in diameter, 110foot tall, or 110 foot tall at
the eave, and holds 2.25 millionbushels in each bin.
So that's you know.
It takes a special facility tohave that need and that's where
technology comes into it too.
I mean, you got to know whatyou're doing as far as
(09:35):
monitoring the grain and you gotto be able to move the grain.
Yeah, the flat bottom bins havedefinitely gotten larger, and
also the hopper bins.
We do hopper bins now.
You know they used to be 10,000bushel, 20,000 bushel.
We recently did some hopperbins at a large processing
facility where they're actuallythe daily working bins, so
they're cycled every day.
They're 48 foot in diameter and24 rings tall.
(09:57):
They have 153,000 bushel eachin a steel structure hopper bin.
So everything gets bigger.
A lot of that is due toengineering.
It's come a long ways.
You know bins used to be forone cycle a year and I think
we'll get into that later, butyeah, I mean, everything's
growing still.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (10:14):
That's just amazing.
Let's look at commercial binsversus on-farm grain storage.
How do the needs of large grainfacilities differ from those of
farmers storing grain on site?
Brent Hansen (10:26):
The main thing is the capacities.
You know they've both growntogether.
You know, as the bins gotbigger, the farmers got bigger,
the grain companies got largerand consolidations, you know a
lot of it's changed too with.
You know, on the ag side itused to be tractors and wagons
delivered all the grain out ofthe field.
Now it's semis, you know.
So they got to be able to dumpfaster, receive grain faster.
(10:49):
You know.
So storage and handlingcapacities would be the first
thing that comes to mind.
You know we have largeprocessing partners, even in the
Midwest, that are capable ofreceiving grain at 90,000 bushel
an hour, whether it's multipledumps.
But you got to be able todesign the bins to receive that
amount of grain at a time.
Obviously there's engineeringthat goes into that.
And then you know the reclaimat the same time, maybe 10 or
(11:13):
20,000 bushel an hour.
So there's a lot of engineeringthat goes into these bolted
steel tanks today.
That wasn't thought of 20 yearsago.
You know it used to be allconcrete for those facilities
and now we've, engineering hascome a long ways in the steel
bin and we're able to design forthat and stand behind our
products.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (11:35):
That's fantastic.
So if we look at some of thecommon bin sizes and capacities
being built today for commercialgrain operations, what would
you say the general range is?
And then the same thing foron-farm storage.
What sizes are most common forfarmers and how have those again
changed over time?
Brent Hansen (11:46):
Yeah, the commercial grain facilities I
feel like still have a largerange.
You know anything from 300,000bushel to 800,000 is very common
.
The processing facilities youmight be more to that 750,000 to
1.5 million bushel, more tothat 750,000 to 1.5 million
(12:09):
bushel.
And then the largerbioprocessing facilities and
stuff.
You know you're a million to2.25 million and that's just
mainly because the amount ofgrain that they use, a lot of
these ethanol plants aregrinding 100,000 bushel a day
all the way up to over 200,000bushel a day.
So a 2 million bushel bin is nota lot of storage.
I mean, it's a lot of storageas far as grain goes.
But as far as your, your usageand your and your daily usage
goes, you know you're talking 10, 15 days of storage is all you
(12:31):
have.
So Mm-hmm, and on the farm, youknow I'd say probably the most
common is still probably that50,000 to 60,000 bushel and goes
up from there.
You know we see large farmersbuilding commercial what I would
call commercial facilities ontheir own and they're putting up
105-foot diameter bins and thenreceiving pits and you know so
(12:52):
it continues to evolve and yougot to stay on the leading edge
of it.
But we feel like we're doing agood job with that and filling
our customers' needs, orpartners' needs, actually.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (13:00):
With an increase in demand for storage
size, for volume.
I would imagine yourengineering team is quite busy
and really developing solutions.
There are challenges that occur.
What are some of those uniqueengineering challenges when
designing storage solutions formassive commercial operations?
Brent Hansen (13:17):
Well, yeah, you're absolutely right.
I mean, you know you've got tocontinue to evolve.
As everything gets larger, sodoes the equipment, which means
you need a stronger roof tosupport that equipment.
You know, when we first startedin commercial bins, a
30,000-pound roof load was aheavy roof.
As those bins have gottenlarger in diameter and the
structures are bigger, withbigger equipment on them,
they're spanning longerdistances.
(13:38):
Now the larger bins have150,000 peak load rating.
But you have to have that, youknow, in order to put that
heavier equipment on it, to landon it.
And so you know it's just yougotta.
It's not just one thing.
Just because the bin getsbigger, the storage capacity
gets bigger, you still got toengineer for the equipment that
gets bigger.
The higher capacity fill andreclaim systems plays key roles
(14:04):
in the engineering of the binitself.
So there's a lot that goes intoit, but we got a great team
here and stay on the leadingedge of it.
I'll also add to that as far asengineering challenges go, when
you're designing the larger bins, you know it used to be a
single sheet of steel would beyour sidewall, as these bins got
larger.
Now it's laminated sheets whereyou know you might be stacking
(14:25):
two, three or four sheetstogether and laminating them
together.
You do that out in the fieldand when you do that you create
places for moisture to get in,like, say, for instance, behind
the stiffener.
You know it used to be at that.
If you know much aboutassembling grain bins, you used
to put the bolt from the insideout and it would seal from the
inside of the bin.
When you start laminate themyou need to seal the outside too
(14:48):
so you don't get that moistureto infiltrate the bin or get
into the grain, to spoil thegrain, which obviously is a
safety issue.
It's a loss of value.
It can harm the structure ofthe bin itself if it corrodes
enough.
So several years ago we startedand the industry just kind of
told us you know, larger binsjust have a tendency to leak.
(15:10):
Well, that was not anacceptable answer to us.
So we started taking apartgrain bins, whether it was
shook-up bins or competitor'sbins.
What we found was, with allthose laminated sheets, the
water would actually and itseems hard to believe unless you
actually see it the water wouldget behind the vertical
stiffener on the outside of thebin and the sheet and enough
would go on those threads inbetween those sheets that would
(15:33):
migrate over to the verticalseams.
So the bin erectors weregetting blamed, saying, well,
the vertical seams are leaking,they didn't get the bin sealed
up.
Well, that wasn't it at all.
So I don't remember the yearit's been.
Oh, I bet close to 10 years ago.
We came up with thisdouble-ended stud bowl and
patented it and we have aspecial made for us and
(15:53):
basically you put that on theoutside.
It's got a positive seal on theoutside of the bin which
eliminates any moisture gettingbetween those laminated sheets.
We've talked about notnecessarily engineering
challenges, but just engineeringsolutions too, you know, to
eliminate that stuff.
Another thing when you got todoing the laminated sheets, you
know a standard sidewall.
(16:14):
You go around one waycounterclockwise or clockwise
and you you overlap the seam.
Well, as you get into multiplelaminations, you know you could
be talking over a half inch gapwhere they overlap and then the
sheet above that for grain tofall out.
You know, it's just, it's likea flashing of any type.
So what we did is, when we getto a triple laminated sheet, we
(16:37):
actually have a splice plate.
It's kind of like the sheetsbutt together and then a splice
plate goes over the top of them.
And again, that's not newtechnology at all for the steel
industry.
I mean, they did it with steamengines how many, how many
decades ago or whatever you know.
We were able to just bring thattechnology into grain bins and
(16:58):
it creates a much strongerconnection because you have a
double shear point on thosebolts and also it doesn't have
that gap on the overlap forgrain to fall out or moisture to
come in.
So those two things haveprobably been some of the
biggest benefits to us.
As far as increased marketshare, you know, and like I said
, it's not all necessarily newtechnology, it's just using
(17:21):
technology that's alreadyavailable and bringing those
into our industry and stayinginnovative.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (17:25):
Yeah, that is very interesting.
Brent Hansen (17:27):
Wow, and honestly you can go on our website,
wwwsookupcom.
If you go to the commercial binbrochures we show you pictures
of both those and seeing thepicture definitely helps it sink
in.
I mean, a lot of people in theindustry just assumed that
bigger bins had spoilage andmoisture got in them.
So you know.
The other thing we talk aboutis you know the old I'm going to
(17:49):
call them government bins theold 18 foot diameter bins.
You know that was what they hadon the farm.
I mean you look at these 2million bushel bins or 2.25
million bushel bins.
They have a flat peak deckthat's 21 foot in diameter.
I mean it's almost like a roomup there, a house up there.
You know it's not enclosed butit's that big of a flat deck for
(18:12):
landing that bigger equipmenton.
It's got a railing around it sopeople can get up there and
service.
You know you got to haveserviceability in the equipment
because the easier you make itto service, the more apt it is
to happen.
So, as the bins have gottenbigger, those are some of the
key things that we've done and Ithink they've been real
industry changers.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (18:27):
I'm glad you're sure of that.
There must be some greatdialogue that occurs between
those who are your clients thatyou work with, and the
engineering team and sales andbeyond.
There's so much in innovationsand advancements in grain
storage in just a small amountof years and you've been such
great leaders at SukupManufacturing.
So, beyond size, how have grainbins evolved in terms of
(18:49):
technology?
I'm curious of your response.
Brent Hansen (18:52):
You know the bins themselves, not really
technology in those, I mean,yeah, there's some engineering
that goes into them.
I guess one thing I'd like totouch on too.
When we talk about thechallenge with the bigger bins
or not necessarily challenges,but the things that we do here
you know most bins on thesecommercial sites anymore they're
specific, engineered for thatspecific site.
So you know the usage that theywant to do, whether it's you,
(19:14):
you know, 12 cycles a year or 50cycles a year.
You know we try to uh engineereach bin for the, the local
codes, whether it's seismic.
You know some customers want todesign for different wind loads
.
We all know that there's been alot of abnormality in the in
these winds lately, with theratios and stuff.
So so we, we can, as long as weknow that up front what the
(19:37):
customer is looking for, youknow we try to design for, as we
know that upfront what thecustomer's looking for, you know
we try to design them for snowloads, seismic loads or if the
customer wants a different windload, we can do that too.
Um, but uh, you know, back inthe day I would say, you know,
steel bins were originally usedfor basically single fill
(19:57):
annually, you know, and theconcrete structures were used
for anything more than that, Iwould say.
But now we do daily workingbins.
Yeah, like I say, the usage,the local codes.
I would say that's the biggestthing with technology, I mean as
far as the bin itself goes.
I mean obviously.
Obviously there's otheradvancements in efficiencies and
(20:17):
safeties, I think.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (20:18):
What do you see as new features?
Advancement and Sukup's grainstorage solutions.
What are they in terms ofimproving efficiency and safety?
Obviously, those are importantitems.
Brent Hansen (20:29):
Yeah, I mean.
So.
We recently acquired a companycalled Ramco Innovations.
They're based out of West DesMoines.
It was an industrial automationcompany.
We'd worked with some on ourmanufacturing so we had a
history with them before.
They had a great team.
Their employees are not.
Much has changed on their side.
Their employees are still allemployed and they're based out
of West Des Moines still.
(20:50):
But we brought those twocompanies together to form a
company called Sync, which ispowered by Sip Cup and it's
going to be more of the binmonitoring, the grain site
management and automation.
You know we're starting off.
We've got some beta sites outthere.
We've actually been developingthis stuff for a couple of years
.
Reliability, obviously, is oneof the main focuses we wanted to
(21:10):
make sure we have down, so wedidn't want to roll it out too
early.
But we've got some beta sitesnow.
We've been doing for a coupleof years and it's going to be a
grain site management andautomation.
We're focusing more on, I'mgoing to say, the ag side, which
is more farm or large farmright now.
But the main things that that'sbringing is the temperature and
moisture monitoring.
(21:31):
Bringing is the temperature andmoisture monitoring and then
the environmental sensors too.
You know the co2, the weatherand humidity, uh, static
pressure, all that stuff, and wewe have technology now that can
knows that stuff um, so it'sgoing to be uh great.
I mean that.
How I tie that into safety is Idon't want to say never, but not
(21:52):
that I'm aware of, or you veryrarely hear of, an accident.
You know a grain entrapmentwith free-flowing corn.
You know, usually it's becausecorn's out of condition.
So that's where I call that asafety feature now, where you're
able to keep that grain incondition.
It makes everything saferbecause you know what you have
(22:12):
in the bin.
You can plan for it.
Also, we have not passingpulleys in the peak of all of
our bins now for rescue, or youknow, and that comes standard on
all of our bins, whether it'son farm or commercial bins we
also have safety doors now which, uh, you know, basically, on a
grain bin door there's innerdoors and there's an outer skin
and the new safety door.
(22:32):
What that does is it will notallow you to close the outer
door unless the inner doors areclosed, and the reason why that
is is your inner door is yourstructural door that holds the
grain.
So we would see people wouldclose the outer skin and forget
to shut those inner doors, youknow, and then it would be too
late.
They'd see grain coming upagainst that door, knew that
door would blow out and causeentrapment on the outside of the
bin.
(22:52):
So we have a new safety doornow that we have, you know,
continuing to keep our customersand partners safety in our
foresight.
Everyone wants to go home totheir family.
Whether it's a family farm or acommercial grain company.
Safety's always got to benumber one because not only is
it family and lives, but yeah,we need everybody here and safe
(23:13):
to go home to their families atnight.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (23:15):
Yeah, that's terrific that you mentioned that
Automation is a big componentto safety, like you said, to
understand the condition of thecorn 24-7.
Also, we are facing in theindustry a shortage of employees
, which is no secret to thosewho work for grain facilities,
of employees, which is no secretto those who work for grain
(23:35):
facilities.
What's your commentary towardsyour interest in growing and
evolving as a company andsupporting now automation like
you never have before?
What does that mean to thosewho work in grain facilities in
terms of adding automation?
Brent Hansen (23:49):
Well, absolutely.
I mean, it's no different thanour manufacturing here, you know
, as there's work work poolshortages, you know we have a
lot of automation in our plantand I can honestly tell you when
I started for Sookups in 2009,there was roughly 300 employees
(24:09):
and today we have moreautomation we've ever had and
now we have 850 employees.
So the automation and stuff isnot necessarily taking jobs away
.
It's giving more technical jobs, making people more efficient,
whether it's programming on themanufacturing side, but
automation definitely on thefarm side and the grain side,
(24:30):
because you know, withautomation we talked about the
sink stuff it makes youroperators and your managers more
successful at their job.
There's technology out therenow, whether it's sink and stuff
where you're, you know it'sgoing to tell you when to run
your fans to keep your grain incondition and you know your
dryer and you know moreautomation is where it's going
(24:51):
and, yeah, some of that's due tolabor shortages, but a lot of
it's just due to being moreefficient and being able to keep
the grain in conditions for use.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (24:59):
What is Sukup's role in sustainability in
modern grain storage design Inyour conversations with clients?
How can you support that?
Brent Hansen (25:10):
It definitely needs to store more grain and
keep grain in the condition tofeed and fuel the world.
I mean, the population isgrowing so it requires more food
.
There's a big push for energyIndependence with the biofuels.
There's just so much that goesinto it and I I really feel like
, uh, jeeps is on the leadingedge now of bringing the you
(25:30):
know grain elevators andprocessor society, bringing the
biofuels market as a processorto join with Jeeps.
I'm super excited.
I think it's the rightdirection to go because we have
to feed the world and fuel theworld.
So I guess that's my opinion ofhow sustainability plays a role
in grain storage and design.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (25:50):
Absolutely, it makes sense.
You're in again a unique spaceto, and a guest on the whole
grain show to speak on industrytrends and the future outlook.
What trends do you see shapingthe future of grain storage?
Brent Hansen (26:04):
Yeah, I think I touched base on this a little
bit earlier Definitely see themore automation, and that's on
farm and commercial grain andprocessing.
We touch base abouttechnologies there to be able to
tell farmers or grain companiesor processing facilities based
on humidity, temperature, allthat when to run your fans, you
(26:25):
know more automation as far aswhat your dryer's doing.
We have tower dryers on farmand commercial tower dryers out
there that you can monitor themfrom your phone and your combine
now.
So I definitely see theautomation side shaping a lot in
the future and I also see, likewe talked about processing and
biofuels industries comingtogether.
(26:45):
It's pretty hard to talk aboutgrain elevators and processing
without talking about biofuels.
As I mentioned before, 40% ofour corn crop in the United
States goes to biofuels.
And there's also the I don'twant to call it byproduct
anymore, they're actuallyco-products, but we're still
using the distiller's grains andstuff for livestock feed.
(27:07):
There's a lot of advantages toit In my opinion.
I think they go hand in hand.
I think it's a bright futurefor us.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (27:19):
Do you think grain bins will continue to grow
in size, or do you?
Brent Hansen (27:22):
see there a shift towards other solutions like
integrated storage systems?
I'll be honest with you, jim,that's a tough question.
You know, like I said, beforewe built the first million
bushel bin, everyone thought,wow, we're putting a million
bushels of storage in one bin,you know.
And then 1.2 and 1.5.
And if you had told me we gotto 2.25 million bushels in one
(27:42):
bin 10 years ago, I'd have saidno, that's not going to happen.
So so I'm not going to tell youthat they're not going to
continue to grow.
Obviously, everything evolves.
I mean and I will say that tooyou know, most Sukup as a
company, most of the stuff thatwe have added to our product
line whether it be larger bins,larger dryers, on-farm larger
(28:05):
dryers, mixed flow dryers hasdeveloped because of customer
requests.
I mean, we've, to my knowledge,and not that maybe we never
have, but most things we come upwith we listen to our we have a
dealer network that is secondto none and they work close with
us and our customers.
And the dealer network is soimportant to us because our
(28:27):
dealers have grown with us aswe've grown.
Our company is too big to beeverywhere at once, so our
dealers are kind of the face ofour company in a lot of aspects,
and customers and partners outthere tell us that they need
something that's not in theindustry.
Yet I can assure you we'regoing to take a look at it.
I can't say we're going to doit every time, but we're going
to take a look at it and see ifwe can grow with them and meet
the industry's needs.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (28:47):
That's fantastic.
So Well, Sukup Manufacturing iscertainly preparing for the
next generation of grain storageneeds.
There's evidence there.
You're continuing to evolve andhave great conversations.
You are on the beat with thedealers, just by themselves
alone.
Sukup dealers, first of all.
How many?
Where are they located and whatadvice would you give to grain
(29:10):
facility managers or farmerslooking to upgrade their storage
systems?
Brent Hansen (29:15):
As far as the number of years ago, that's a
good question.
I don't know that.
I'm guessing there's probably500 of them globally.
A few years back we purchasedone of our distributors in
Denmark that had a great marketshare in Europe.
It was Dancorn at the time.
Now it shook up Europe and mostof that stuff all we also have
(29:36):
a and they, they and most ofthat stuff all gets shipped out
of Iowa, out of the U S, thatproduct.
We also have a joint venture inUkraine with manufacturing over
there.
I think the people listening tothis podcast will probably be be
happy to know that most allthat steel that we use to
manufacture over there stillcomes from the United States.
Most of our engineering isbased off United States
standards and what we know we'regetting for steel here in the
(29:57):
United States.
So it still all comes from theUnited States, or almost all of
it.
And then we have a good dealernetwork through Canada, mexico,
south America, you know.
So we have a great globaldealer network that have been
partners for most of them for along time.
You know, as, as far as planningfor the future, I would tell uh
(30:19):
, most of our customers, even onfarm, you know, don't be afraid
to start over.
We see a lot of evencorporations or grain elevators
are doing it, and obviously itdepends on the size of your
existing operation.
But sometimes it's plan aheadis the number one thing, you
know.
Get a long-term plan of whatyou see your company growing
(30:40):
into, whether it's what's yourdream bushel storage, this
facility, whether it's on farmor commercial site, and plan
ahead so you're not throwinggood money at bad redoing stuff
that you already invested in.
If you can come up with along-term plan, I think that's
very important.
Anytime you start redoing stuffit's costing you unnecessary
money usually.
So that's one thing I wouldtell grain facility managers.
(31:02):
Even as a standalone, even onyour existing site, you know,
maybe it's time to put inanother receiving pit with the
capacity you want.
We talked briefly about graincoming into.
Facilities used to be tractorsand wagons.
You know well here in Iowa youused to have a grain elevator
every five to 10 miles down theroad.
Well, with consolidation nowsome of those have shut down and
moving to transport more semis.
(31:25):
If you don't have a decentcapacity on your receiving,
they're not going to wait inline with semis anymore, they're
going to drive down the road tothe next location.
So you know, yeah, I'd say planfor the future is the best
thing, and continue to learn.
I still learn every day at myjob and, honestly, a lot of the
stuff I learn is from ourpartners and customers in the
industry.
Some of those guys have beenout longer than we have, and
(31:45):
don't be closed-minded.
I think the future is brightfor the whole industry.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (31:49):
That's great to recap what you're seeing here
and how you can support it.
Like producers, farmers comingin, efficiency and speed are key
.
So to imagine clients who arefacing those challenges or
looking for solutions andplanning ahead is key.
Who are facing those challengesor looking for solutions, and
planning ahead is key.
Who are some of those, or whatare some of the names of the
(32:12):
roles that you and other membersof your Sukup team meet with on
the commercial side?
Who do you connect with inhaving these conversations?
Brent Hansen (32:18):
You know, even though we truly believe in our
dealer network our dealers arewhat have grown with us and
allowed us to grow we still keepstrong partnership and
relationship with corporateexecutives.
I mean, I personally go to yourNational Ethanol Conference,
your National Grain and FeedAnnual Convention, your growth
(32:39):
energy events, and those peopleknow that we sell through our
dealer network, but I can helpthem get them in touch with the
right dealer.
They're partners too.
Just because they're not buyingdirect from us does not mean
they're not partners in theindustry, because we're all
working together to make theindustry better.
And by having a goodrelationship with them and
forming partnerships with them,sookups is better off serving
(33:01):
them, even as end users, becauseI know one of our dealers might
be right for the job and youasked specifically about the
commercial side but we doeverything from local farm shows
to National Grain and FeedConvention.
It's just staying in front ofyour partners, staying with them
, realizing their needs andcontinue to grow together.
(33:21):
That's what I think itbasically boils down to.
If you can do those things,everyone's going to succeed.
I always say too I hate theterm customers because we as a
company would rather look forpartners.
Customers are someone that buysfrom you when they need
something, and maybe that's aharsh term.
I don't want customers, but ifwe can form partnerships where
everyone succeeds together, it'sbetter for everybody involved
(33:43):
and it's better for the industryas a whole.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (33:46):
How many countries are there Sukup
products?
How many countries have yours?
Do you know that?
Brent Hansen (33:53):
Yeah, great question.
So we just recently put thattogether Over 90 countries we
have products in across theglobe.
You know we don't do I'm notsaying we do business in all
those 90 countries every year.
I'd say in recent years it'sprobably closer to 15 or 20
countries a year.
That's growing too, but overthe history of the company, over
90 countries.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (34:13):
Thinking about where the organization started.
It's a family organization.
That's really special.
So thank you for being a gueston the Whole Grain Podcast,
Brent.
I was wondering if people wantto connect with S ukup and know
all that there is to have interms of products and services.
Where is, or what are, someplaces to lead our listeners?
Brent Hansen (34:35):
You know, I'd say, uh, you know obviously our
company website www.
sukupcom.
Www.
sukupcom is a great place.
We also have a YouTube channel.
You can Google that withdifferent stuff you know, as far
as even product lines anddifferent how-to videos.
You can always call ourcorporate headquarters here in
(34:57):
Sheffield, iowa, 641-892-4222.
Or you can go on our websitethen look up the dealer locator,
put in your local zip code andyou can find our partners in our
business that are veryknowledgeable.
Most of them are very long-termdealers and partners, very
knowledgeable, and set up a lotof different places, a lot of
information out there.
(35:17):
Give us a call or get on thewebsite.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (35:20):
Great, we'll be sure to put that in the show
notes for this episode, allthose links and phone number and
that information, brent.
Final thoughts on theimportance of proper grain
storage in today's industry.
Brent Hansen (35:32):
Yeah, the main thing I'm going to say on that
is safety.
Properly stored grain andkeeping grain in condition is
much safer than improper storedgrain.
If you can keep the grain incondition, you stand a lot
better chance of going home safeto your family.
Obviously, as we brought upbefore, as we're doing more
processing here in the UnitedStates, we got to be able to
store that grain and keep it inthe condition to use all year
(35:54):
long.
Give Sukup a call, or give oneof our dealers a call, or,
honestly, for anybody, even ifyou're not a Sukup customer, go
to who you're going with.
But proper stored grain saveslives and we are all for that.
So we'd love a shout at yourbusiness.
If there's an opportunity or apartnership with you, there's an
opportunity.
But regardless of who you'reworking with, proper stored
grain is safer than an improperstored grain.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (36:17):
Great final words.
My words to you and the Sukupteam.
Thank you for supporting GEAPS.
Thank you for supporting therecent GEAPS Exchange.
It was a special opportunityfor people to connect and have
conversations with you and yourteam.
Thank you for being a guest onthe show.
Brent Hansen (36:34):
Yeah, thank you, Jim, and I look forward to
working with you and the Jeepsteam and the organization and
their members in the future.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS (36:41):
All right.
Thank you, Brent.
Thank you.
Wow! What an incredibleconversation with Brent Hanson
from Sukup Manufacturing.
It's clear the future of grainstorage is not just about
getting bigger.
It's about getting smarter andsafer.
A huge thank you to Brent forsharing his expertise and giving
us an insider's look at wherethe grain industry is headed.
If you want to learn more aboutSukup's innovations, be sure to
(37:02):
visit sukupcom that'sS-U-K-U-Pcom and be sure to
visit their YouTube page as well.
And hey, if you enjoyed today'sepisode, subscribe to the Whole
Grain Podcast, share with afriend and stay tuned.
We've got more amazing guestsand topics coming your way to
help you grow your knowledge andyour career.
There are two easy ways toaccess the Whole Grain show.
(37:24):
Number one go to the Jeepswebsite.
Visit GEAPS.
com/ whole grain.
You can also visit yourfavorite podcast apps, such as
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AmazonMusic, Overcast, Podbean,
Youtube Music, Pandora and,again, just about any podcast
app out there.
Enter Whole Grain in the searchand hit the subscribe button
and you are all set.
All episodes will be downloadedas soon as they are released.
(37:46):
Plus, you can catch up on allpast episodes.
This Jeep's Whole Grain podcastshow brings in listeners from
88 countries.
If you and your organizationare interested in placing an
audio ad in the Whole Grain show, we can help you with that and
help put a spotlight on yourbusiness.
Please reach out to me, JimLenz, Director of Global
Education and Training at Jeep's, the Grain Elevator and
Processing Society.
(38:07):
My email is james@ geapscom.
J-a-m-e-s at G-E-A-P-S dot com.
We look forward to connectingwith you.
Until next time, keep learning,keep innovating and keep moving
the industry forward.
Have yourself a great day andthanks for listening to Whole
(38:29):
Grain.
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