Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Welcome back to the Whole Grain Podcast, the show that feeds your mind with the latest in grain handling and processing. I’m your host, Jim Lenz, and today we are taking a journey through the past, present and future of grain storage. Let’s get started. Hello and welcome to the show. Welcome to the Whole Grain Podcast. My name is Jim Lenz, your host and producer of the show and the director of global education and training at GEAPS. We’re the mission of the Grain Elevator and Processing Society to champion, connect and serve the global grain industry and their members. At Jeeps, we work to be the global community and thought leader for the grain industry, which feeds and fuels the world. Thanks for listening today and for joining the network of thousands of other grain handling and processing professionals from 88 countries across the globe taking strategic steps to grow professionally. The Whole Grain Show will give you the competitive advantage to win at work so you can make more of an impact.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
We’ve got a powerhouse guest joining us, Brent Hanson, commercial accounts manager for the legendary Sukup Manufacturing Company. Sukup is a name that has shaped how grain is stored, protected and managed across the globe, from humble beginnings to today’s towering grain bins built for massive operations. We’re diving deep into how innovation and engineering excellence are transforming the landscape of grain storage. We thank Sukup for supporting Jeeps as a premier partner our highest level partnership. We’re excited to bring you this rich content. We’ll talk about how grain bin sizes have changed over the decades, what’s driving new innovations and how Sukup is helping facilities meet today’s storage demands with greater efficiency, safety and sustainability. Get ready you’ll hear about mind-blowing bin sizes, cutting edge technologies and what’s just over the horizon for farmers, grain elevators and processing operators alike. Let’s dive into the conversation. All right, we have Brent Hansen, Commercial Accounts Manager of Sukup Manufacturing, incorporated with us today. So glad you’re joining us, Brent. Welcome to the show.
Brent Hansen:
Yeah, thank you. It’s an honor to be here with you this morning. Jim, and I’m looking forward to discussing the needs and the changes in the grain industry with you.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
What a great company to connect with, what a great individual. Globally speaking, you have really shaped grain storage, and that’s what I want to talk about today with you is how Sukup Manufacturing has been such a big part of grain storage, and so I think you can bring in some really unique perspective that will be quite interesting to our listeners. Brent, tell us a little bit about Sukup Manufacturing and its role in grain handling and processing industry. I don’t want to make any assumptions for any listeners out there.
Brent Hansen:
No, yeah, it’s been a tremendous family to work for a great company. We were founded in 1963 by Eugene and Mary Sukup right here in Sheffield, iowa, where our corporate headquarters still is. You look at our corporate office and you see the cornfields and bean fields all around us. So that’s very important to us to keep to our roots here. We’re the largest family-owned bin manufacturer in the world, which has been a phenomenal experience to be a part of. We do business in 90 countries around the world and 85% of the products we make today we didn’t offer 25 years ago.
Brent Hansen:
If you’re not growing, you’re dying, so to say. You got to stay innovative. We’re one of the newer bin companies out there. As far as history goes. We kind of knew grain bins from the inside. We did all the accessories for grain bins for many years and then, as our competitors, our other bin manufacturers started making their own accessories. Then, in 2001, we decided to start doing the bins themselves too. So we kind of learned bins from the inside out. We feel like there’s been a lot of advantages for us going that route. You know, seeing the challenges and you know, even though we’re the newcomers as far as history goes in the bin manufacturing. We’ve been able to stay innovative and keep on the leading edge of it, so it’s been great.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Sounds like a great excitement and just a need to learn and grow to support the industry. You bring in a special set of skills. Can you share with our listeners your role and your involvement in the process? Absolutely.
Brent Hansen:
Yeah, so I started out, took up manufacturing about 16 years ago. I actually started out in the manufacturing side, started out in the machining centers, machining gearbox and stuff for farm style unloads, kind of headed the machining center department for about a year and a 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 kind of a shock for me. I was excited. But you know just the opportunities that I’ve seen in this company. I mean most of our sales department started off at different roles, whether it was on the engineering side or production side, and not just sook-ups but the whole industry. There’s a lot of opportunity.
Brent Hansen:
So I’ve been here almost 16 years now. Before that my really only ag experience was working on my mom’s family farm in the summers, growing up with my grandpa and my uncles, which taught me about agriculture. My grandpa had a dairy, my uncle had a farrow to finish hog operation which he still has to this day. My grandpa’s passed now but just learning the work ethic that goes into agriculture and farms, it’s really irreplaceable.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
I think that broad experience, in-depth experience, really gives you an opportunity to understand people’s problems and it helps support your organization for the people and organizations that you connect with. If you could share with our listeners what excites you most about working grain storage solutions, Well.
Brent Hansen:
I’ve always said this and I get asked this question a lot the first thing that always comes to mind is the people, whether it’s the people I work for, the family I work for or the people I work with. As I mentioned before, the Sukup family is phenomenal to work for. As we’ve gotten to be a larger corporate company now, we haven’t forgot our family values, and that means a lot to even the larger corporations we work with. I mean, they still like the family value portion of it. Yeah, so I would say, definitely the people. Whether it’s the family I’m working for, the people I’m working with, they’re just great people throughout the industry and I feel like they’re honest, they appreciate hard work. Just great industry altogether.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Well, your organization is lucky to have you. You’re, I think, the entire grain industry, and so that’s why I would love to dive deep into this incredible change or evolution of grain storage. Sukup Manufacturing has a long history in grain storage. As a start here, how have grain bin sizes changed over the years?
Brent Hansen:
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 farm bins. We did our first half million bushel bin, I think in 2004 then. But you know, in 2005, our average size bin was about 35,000 bushel. And then go 10 years farther average bin size was 45,000,. You know, 1.25 times larger in that 10 years. And here we are 2024. Our average size is 65,000 bushel and that’s that’s across farm and commercial. So that’s you know. Bins have changed. They’re they’re one and a half times larger than they. They were in 2014 now and and just shy of double what they were in 2005. And that’s that’s based on farm bins 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:
We’ll dive into that deeper here. What factors do you think have really driven the need for larger and more efficient grain storage solutions?
Brent Hansen:
Well, definitely the ag sector in general. I mean, you know, from yields being higher you look at corn yields and commodity yields what they were 20 years ago to what they are today there’s definitely more storage needed. And then not only that, there’s been consolidation in farms. There’s larger farms, there’s bigger equipment, we have the same amount of acres planted and the harvest dates never really changed. So you got to be able to do more in less amount of time. So you’re, you got a lot of capacity there, a lot of bushels there that that need to be stored.
Brent Hansen:
The other thing you know is if, with biofuels, over 40% of our US corn crop is now goes to ethanol, which means we need to be able to capture those bushels at harvest time and keep that grain in the condition, whether it’s on the farm, at a local elevator, large grain company or at a processing facility. I mean those bushels have to be stored to be able to use them year round. So yeah, I mean that’s basically the gist of it. If you can capture those bushels at harvest time and store it and keep the grain in condition, it adds value to your operation.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
So you’re keeping up with all that’s going on in industry and we’re curious what is the largest bin, or some of the largest bins Sukup is currently manufacturing for commercial grain facilities.
Brent Hansen:
So you know, we were the first ones that came out with the million bushel bin. That’s been 15 years ago probably. That was 135 foot diameter. I think it was even actually on Time Magazine or something. It was the granddaddy of them all and we thought that would be the largest bins ever. And then we went to a million and a half, then we went to 2 million and about four years ago we came out with a new one. It’s 165 foot in diameter, 110 foot tall, or 110 foot tall at the eave, and holds 2.25 million bushels in each bin. So that’s you know.
Brent Hansen:
It takes a special facility to have that need and that’s where technology comes into it too. I mean, you got to know what you’re doing as far as monitoring the grain and you got to be able to move the grain. Yeah, the flat bottom bins have definitely gotten larger, and also the hopper bins. We do hopper bins now. You know they used to be 10,000 bushel, 20,000 bushel. We recently did some hopper bins at a large processing facility where they’re actually the daily working bins, so they’re cycled every day. They’re 48 foot in diameter and 24 rings tall. They have 153,000 bushel each in a steel structure hopper bin. So everything gets bigger. A lot of that is due to engineering. It’s come a long ways. You know bins used to be for one cycle a year and I think we’ll get into that later, but yeah, I mean, everything’s growing still.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
That’s just amazing. Let’s look at commercial bins versus on-farm grain storage. How do the needs of large grain facilities differ from those of farmers storing grain on site?
Brent Hansen:
The main thing is the capacities. You know they’ve both grown together. You know, as the bins got bigger, the farmers got bigger, the grain companies got larger and consolidations, you know a lot of it’s changed too with. You know, on the ag side it used to be tractors and wagons delivered all the grain out of the field. Now it’s semis, you know. So they got to be able to dump faster, receive grain faster. You know. So storage and handling capacities would be the first thing that comes to mind.
Brent Hansen:
You know we have large processing partners, even in the Midwest, that are capable of receiving grain at 90,000 bushel an hour, whether it’s multiple dumps. But you got to be able to design the bins to receive that amount of grain at a time. Obviously there’s engineering that goes into that. And then you know the reclaim at the same time, maybe 10 or 20,000 bushel an hour. So there’s a lot of engineering that goes into these bolted steel tanks today. That wasn’t thought of 20 years ago. You know it used to be all concrete for those facilities and now we’ve, engineering has come a long ways in the steel bin and we’re able to design for that and stand behind our products.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
That’s fantastic. So if we look at some of the common bin sizes and capacities being built today for commercial grain operations, what would you say the general range is? And then the same thing for on-farm storage. What sizes are most common for farmers and how have those again changed over time?
Brent Hansen:
Yeah, the commercial grain facilities I feel like still have a large range. You know anything from 300,000 bushel to 800,000 is very common. The processing facilities you might be more to that 750,000 to 1.5 million bushel, more to that 750,000 to 1.5 million bushel. And then the larger bioprocessing facilities and stuff. You know you’re a million to 2.25 million and that’s just mainly because the amount of grain that they use, a lot of these ethanol plants are grinding 100,000 bushel a day all the way up to over 200,000 bushel a day.
Brent Hansen:
So a 2 million bushel bin is not a lot of storage. I mean, it’s a lot of storage as far as grain goes. But as far as your, your usage and your and your daily usage goes, you know you’re talking 10, 15 days of storage is all you have. So Mm-hmm, and on the farm, you know I’d say probably the most common is still probably that 50,000 to 60,000 bushel and goes up from there. You know we see large farmers building commercial what I would call commercial facilities on their own and they’re putting up 105-foot diameter bins and then receiving pits and you know so it continues to evolve and you got to stay on the leading edge of it. But we feel like we’re doing a good job with that and filling our customers’ needs, or partners’ needs, actually.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
With an increase in demand for storage size, for volume. I would imagine your engineering team is quite busy and really developing solutions. There are challenges that occur. What are some of those unique engineering challenges when designing storage solutions for massive commercial operations?
Brent Hansen:
Well, yeah, you’re absolutely right. I mean, you know you’ve got to continue to evolve. As everything gets larger, so does the equipment, which means you need a stronger roof to support that equipment. You know, when we first started in commercial bins, a 30,000-pound roof load was a heavy roof. As those bins have gotten larger in diameter and the structures are bigger, with bigger equipment on them, they’re spanning longer distances. Now the larger bins have 150,000 peak load rating. But you have to have that, you know, in order to put that heavier equipment on it, to land on it. And so you know it’s just you gotta. It’s not just one thing. Just because the bin gets bigger, the storage capacity gets bigger, you still got to engineer for the equipment that gets bigger. The higher capacity fill and reclaim systems plays key roles in the engineering of the bin itself. So there’s a lot that goes into it, but we got a great team here and stay on the leading edge of it.
Brent Hansen:
I’ll also add to that as far as engineering challenges go, when you’re designing the larger bins, you know it used to be a single sheet of steel would be your sidewall, as these bins got larger. Now it’s laminated sheets where you know you might be stacking two, three or four sheets together and laminating them together. You do that out in the field and 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 about assembling grain bins, you used to put the bolt from the inside out and it would seal from the inside of the bin. When you start laminate them you need to seal the outside too so you don’t get that moisture to infiltrate the bin or get into the grain, to spoil the grain, which obviously is a safety issue. It’s a loss of value. It can harm the structure of the bin itself if it corrodes enough.
Brent Hansen:
So several years ago we started and the industry just kind of told us you know, larger bins just have a tendency to leak. Well, that was not an acceptable answer to us. So we started taking apart grain bins, whether it was shook-up bins or competitor’s bins. What we found was, with all those laminated sheets, the water would actually and it seems hard to believe unless you actually see it the water would get behind the vertical stiffener on the outside of the bin and the sheet and enough would go on those threads in between those sheets that would migrate over to the vertical seams. So the bin erectors were getting 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 year it’s been. Oh, I bet close to 10 years ago.
Brent Hansen:
We came up with this double-ended stud bowl and patented it and we have a special made for us and basically you put that on the outside. It’s got a positive seal on the outside of the bin which eliminates any moisture getting between those laminated sheets. We’ve talked about not necessarily engineering challenges, but just engineering solutions too, you know, to eliminate that stuff. Another thing when you got to doing the laminated sheets, you know a standard sidewall. You go around one way counterclockwise or clockwise and you you overlap the seam.
Brent Hansen:
Well, as you get into multiple laminations, you know you could be talking over a half inch gap where they overlap and then the sheet above that for grain to fall out. You know, it’s just, it’s like a flashing of any type. So what we did is, when we get to a triple laminated sheet, we actually have a splice plate. It’s kind of like the sheets butt together and then a splice plate goes over the top of them.
Brent Hansen:
And again, that’s not new technology at all for the steel industry. I mean, they did it with steam engines how many, how many decades ago or whatever you know. We were able to just bring that technology into grain bins and it creates a much stronger connection because you have a double shear point on those bolts and also it doesn’t have that gap on the overlap for grain to fall out or moisture to come in. So those two things have probably been some of the biggest benefits to us. As far as increased market share, you know, and like I said, it’s not all necessarily new technology, it’s just using technology that’s already available and bringing those into our industry and staying innovative.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Yeah, that is very interesting.
Brent Hansen:
Wow, and honestly you can go on our website, wwwsookupcom. If you go to the commercial bin brochures we show you pictures of both those and seeing the picture definitely helps it sink in. I mean, a lot of people in the industry just assumed that bigger bins had spoilage and moisture got in them. So you know. The other thing we talk about is you know the old I’m going to call them government bins the old 18 foot diameter bins. You know that was what they had on the farm.
Brent Hansen:
I mean you look at these 2 million bushel bins or 2.25 million bushel bins. They have a flat peak deck that’s 21 foot in diameter. I mean it’s almost like a room up there, a house up there. You know it’s not enclosed but it’s that big of a flat deck for landing that bigger equipment on. It’s got a railing around it so people can get up there and service. You know you got to have serviceability in the equipment because the easier you make it to service, the more apt it is to happen. So, as the bins have gotten bigger, those are some of the key things that we’ve done and I think they’ve been real industry changers.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
I’m glad you’re sure of that. There must be some great dialogue that occurs between those who are your clients that you work with, and the engineering team and sales and beyond. There’s so much in innovations and advancements in grain storage in just a small amount of years and you’ve been such great leaders at Sukup Manufacturing. So, beyond size, how have grain bins evolved in terms of technology? I’m curious of your response.
Brent Hansen:
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 to touch on too. When we talk about the challenge with the bigger bins or not necessarily challenges, but the things that we do here you know most bins on these commercial sites anymore they’re specific, engineered for that specific site. So you know the usage that they want to do, whether it’s you, you know, 12 cycles a year or 50 cycles a year. You know we try to uh engineer each bin for the, the local codes, whether it’s seismic. You know some customers want to design for different wind loads.
Brent Hansen:
We all know that there’s been a lot of abnormality in the in these winds lately, with the ratios and stuff. So so we, we can, as long as we know that up front what the customer is looking for, you know we try to design for, as we know that upfront what the customer’s looking for, you know we try to design them for snow loads, seismic loads or if the customer wants a different wind load, we can do that too. Um, but uh, you know, back in the day I would say, you know, steel bins were originally used for basically single fill annually, you know, and the concrete structures were used for anything more than that, I would say. But now we do daily working bins. Yeah, like I say, the usage, the local codes. I would say that’s the biggest thing with technology, I mean as far as the bin itself goes. I mean obviously. Obviously there’s other advancements in efficiencies and safeties, I think.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
What do you see as new features? Advancement and Sukup’s grain storage solutions. What are they in terms of improving efficiency and safety? Obviously, those are important items.
Brent Hansen:
Yeah, I mean.
Brent Hansen:
So. We recently acquired a company called Ramco Innovations. They’re based out of West Des Moines. It was an industrial automation company. We’d worked with some on our manufacturing 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 all employed and they’re based out of West Des Moines still. But we brought those two companies together to form a company called Sync, which is powered by Sip Cup and it’s going to be more of the bin monitoring, the grain site management and automation.
Brent Hansen:
You know we’re starting off. We’ve got some beta sites out there. We’ve actually been developing this stuff for a couple of years. Reliability, obviously, is one of the main focuses we wanted to make sure we have down, so we didn’t want to roll it out too early. But we’ve got some beta sites now. We’ve been doing for a couple of years and it’s going to be a grain site management and automation. We’re focusing more on, I’m going to say, the ag side, which is more farm or large farm right now. But the main things that that’s bringing is the temperature and moisture monitoring. Bringing is the temperature and moisture monitoring and then the environmental sensors too. You know the co2, the weather and humidity, uh, static pressure, all that stuff, and we we have technology now that can knows that stuff um, so it’s going to be uh great. I mean that.
Brent Hansen:
How I tie that into safety is I don’t want to say never, but not that I’m aware of, or you very rarely hear of, an accident. You know a grain entrapment with free-flowing corn. You know, usually it’s because corn’s out of condition. So that’s where I call that a safety feature now, where you’re able to keep that grain in condition. It makes everything safer because you know what you have in the bin. You can plan for it.
Brent Hansen:
Also, we have not passing pulleys in the peak of all of our bins now for rescue, or you know, and that comes standard on all of our bins, whether it’s on farm or commercial bins we also have safety doors now which, uh, you know, basically, on a grain bin door there’s inner doors and there’s an outer skin and the new safety door. What that does is it will not allow you to close the outer door unless the inner doors are closed, and the reason why that is is your inner door is your structural door that holds the grain. So we would see people would close the outer skin and forget to shut those inner doors, you know, and then it would be too late. They’d see grain coming up against that door, knew that door would blow out and cause entrapment on the outside of the bin. So we have a new safety door now that we have, you know, continuing to keep our customers and partners safety in our foresight.
Brent Hansen:
Everyone wants to go home to their family. Whether it’s a family farm or a commercial grain company. Safety’s always got to be number one because not only is it family and lives, but yeah, we need everybody here and safe to go home to their families at night.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Yeah, that’s terrific that you mentioned that Automation is a big component to safety, like you said, to understand the condition of the corn 24-7. Also, we are facing in the industry a shortage of employees, which is no secret to those who work for grain facilities, of employees, which is no secret to those who work for grain facilities. What’s your commentary towards your interest in growing and evolving as a company and supporting now automation like you never have before? What does that mean to those who work in grain facilities in terms of adding automation?
Brent Hansen:
Well, absolutely. I mean, it’s no different than our manufacturing here, you know, as there’s work work pool shortages, you know we have a lot of automation in our plant and I can honestly tell you when I started for Sookups in 2009, there was roughly 300 employees and today we have more automation we’ve ever had and now we have 850 employees. So the automation and stuff is not necessarily taking jobs away. It’s giving more technical jobs, making people more efficient, whether it’s programming on the manufacturing side, but automation definitely on the farm side and the grain side, because you know, with automation we talked about the sink stuff it makes your operators and your managers more successful at their job. There’s technology out there now, whether it’s sink and stuff where you’re, you know it’s going to tell you when to run your fans to keep your grain in condition and you know your dryer and you know more automation is where it’s going and, yeah, some of that’s due to labor shortages, but a lot of it’s just due to being more efficient and being able to keep the grain in conditions for use.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
What is Sukup’s role in sustainability in modern grain storage design In your conversations with clients? How can you support that?
Brent Hansen:
It definitely needs to store more grain and keep grain in the condition to feed and fuel the world. I mean, the population is growing so it requires more food. There’s a big push for energy Independence with the biofuels. There’s just so much that goes into it and I I really feel like, uh, jeeps is on the leading edge now of bringing the you know grain elevators and processor society, bringing the biofuels market as a processor to join with Jeeps. I’m super excited. I think it’s the right direction to go because we have to feed the world and fuel the world. So I guess that’s my opinion of how sustainability plays a role in grain storage and design.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Absolutely, it makes sense. You’re in again a unique space to, and a guest on the whole grain show to speak on industry trends and the future outlook. What trends do you see shaping the future of grain storage?
Brent Hansen:
Yeah, I think I touched base on this a little bit earlier Definitely see the more automation, and that’s on farm and commercial grain and processing. We touch base about technologies there to be able to tell farmers or grain companies or processing facilities based on humidity, temperature, all that when to run your fans, you know more automation as far as what your dryer’s doing. We have tower dryers on farm and commercial tower dryers out there that you can monitor them from your phone and your combine now. So I definitely see the automation side shaping a lot in the future and I also see, like we talked about processing and biofuels industries coming together. It’s pretty hard to talk about grain elevators and processing without talking about biofuels. As I mentioned before, 40% of our corn crop in the United States goes to biofuels. And there’s also the I don’t want to call it byproduct anymore, they’re actually co-products, but we’re still using the distiller’s grains and stuff for livestock feed. There’s a lot of advantages to it In my opinion. I think they go hand in hand. I think it’s a bright future for us.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Do you think grain bins will continue to grow in size, or do you?
Brent Hansen:
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, before we 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 got to 2.25 million bushels in one bin 10 years ago, I’d have said no, that’s not going to happen. So so I’m not going to tell you that they’re not going to continue to grow.
Brent Hansen:
Obviously, everything evolves. I mean and I will say that too you know, most Sukup as a company, most of the stuff that we have added to our product line whether it be larger bins, larger dryers, on-farm larger dryers, mixed flow dryers has developed because of customer requests. I mean, we’ve, to my knowledge, and not that maybe we never have, but most things we come up with we listen to our we have a dealer network that is second to none and they work close with us and our customers. And the dealer network is so important to us because our dealers have grown with us as we’ve grown. Our company is too big to be everywhere at once, so our dealers are kind of the face of our company in a lot of aspects, and customers and partners out there tell us that they need something that’s not in the industry. Yet I can assure you we’re going to take a look at it. I can’t say we’re going to do it every time, but we’re going to take a look at it and see if we can grow with them and meet the industry’s needs.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
That’s fantastic. So Well, Sukup Manufacturing is certainly preparing for the next generation of grain storage needs. There’s evidence there. You’re continuing to evolve and have great conversations. You are on the beat with the dealers, just by themselves alone. Sukup dealers, first of all. How many? Where are they located and what advice would you give to grain facility managers or farmers looking to upgrade their storage systems?
Brent Hansen:
As far as the number of years ago, that’s a good question. I don’t know that. I’m guessing there’s probably 500 of them globally. A few years back we purchased one of our distributors in Denmark that had a great market share in Europe. It was Dancorn at the time. Now it shook up Europe and most of that stuff all we also have a and they, they and most of that stuff all gets shipped out of Iowa, out of the U S, that product. We also have a joint venture in Ukraine with manufacturing over there.
Brent Hansen:
I think the people listening to this podcast will probably be be happy to know that most all that steel that we use to manufacture over there still comes from the United States. Most of our engineering is based off United States standards and what we know we’re getting for steel here in the United States. So it still all comes from the United States, or almost all of it. And then we have a good dealer network through Canada, mexico, south America, you know. So we have a great global dealer network that have been partners for most of them for a long time.
Brent Hansen:
You know, as, as far as planning for the future, I would tell uh, most of our customers, even on farm, you know, don’t be afraid to start over. We see a lot of even corporations or grain elevators are doing it, and obviously it depends on the size of your existing operation. But sometimes it’s plan ahead is the number one thing, you know. Get a long-term plan of what you see your company growing into, whether it’s what’s your dream bushel storage, this facility, whether it’s on farm or commercial site, and plan ahead so you’re not throwing good money at bad redoing stuff that you already invested in. If you can come up with a long-term plan, I think that’s very important. Anytime you start redoing stuff it’s costing you unnecessary money usually. So that’s one thing I would tell grain facility managers. Even as a standalone, even on your existing site, you know, maybe it’s time to put in another receiving pit with the capacity you want.
Brent Hansen:
We talked briefly about grain coming into. Facilities used to be tractors and wagons. You know well here in Iowa you used to have a grain elevator every five to 10 miles down the road. Well, with consolidation now some of those have shut down and moving to transport more semis. If you don’t have a decent capacity on your receiving, they’re not going to wait in line with semis anymore, they’re going to drive down the road to the next location. So you know, yeah, I’d say plan for the future is the best thing, and continue to learn. I still learn every day at my job and, honestly, a lot of the stuff I learn is from our partners and customers in the industry. Some of those guys have been out longer than we have, and don’t be closed-minded. I think the future is bright for the whole industry.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
That’s great to recap what you’re seeing here and how you can support it. Like producers, farmers coming in, efficiency and speed are key. So to imagine clients who are facing those challenges or looking for solutions and planning ahead is key. Who are facing those challenges or looking for solutions, and planning ahead is key. Who are some of those, or what are some of the names of the roles that you and other members of your Sukup team meet with on the commercial side? Who do you connect with in having these conversations?
Brent Hansen:
You know, even though we truly believe in our dealer network our dealers are what have grown with us and allowed us to grow we still keep strong partnership and relationship with corporate executives. I mean, I personally go to your National Ethanol Conference, your National Grain and Feed Annual Convention, your growth energy events, and those people know that we sell through our dealer network, but I can help them get them in touch with the right dealer. They’re partners too. Just because they’re not buying direct from us does not mean they’re not partners in the industry, because we’re all working together to make the industry better. And by having a good relationship with them and forming partnerships with them, sookups is better off serving them, even as end users, because I know one of our dealers might be right for the job and you asked specifically about the commercial side but we do everything from local farm shows to National Grain and Feed Convention.
Brent Hansen:
It’s just staying in front of your partners, staying with them, realizing their needs and continue to grow together. That’s what I think it basically boils down to. If you can do those things, everyone’s going to succeed. I always say too I hate the term customers because we as a company would rather look for partners. Customers are someone that buys from you when they need something, and maybe that’s a harsh term. I don’t want customers, but if we can form partnerships where everyone succeeds together, it’s better for everybody involved and it’s better for the industry as a whole.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
How many countries are there Sukup products? How many countries have yours? Do you know that?
Brent Hansen:
Yeah, great question. So we just recently put that together Over 90 countries we have products in across the globe. You know we don’t do I’m not saying we do business in all those 90 countries every year. I’d say in recent years it’s probably closer to 15 or 20 countries a year. That’s growing too, but over the history of the company, over 90 countries.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Thinking about where the organization started. It’s a family organization. That’s really special. So thank you for being a guest on the Whole Grain Podcast, Brent. I was wondering if people want to connect with S ukup and know all that there is to have in terms of products and services. Where is, or what are, some places to lead our listeners?
Brent Hansen:
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 with different stuff you know, as far as even product lines and different how-to videos. You can always call our corporate headquarters here in Sheffield, iowa, 641-892-4222. Or you can go on our website then look up the dealer locator, put in your local zip code and you can find our partners in our business that are very knowledgeable. Most of them are very long-term dealers and partners, very knowledgeable, and set up a lot of different places, a lot of information out there. Give us a call or get on the website.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Great, we’ll be sure to put that in the show notes for this episode, all those links and phone number and that information, brent. Final thoughts on the importance of proper grain storage in today’s industry.
Brent Hansen:
Yeah, the main thing I’m going to say on that is safety. Properly stored grain and keeping grain in condition is much safer than improper stored grain. If you can keep the grain in condition, you stand a lot better chance of going home safe to your family. Obviously, as we brought up before, as we’re doing more processing here in the United States, we got to be able to store that grain and keep it in the condition to use all year long. Give Sukup a call, or give one of our dealers a call, or, honestly, for anybody, even if you’re not a Sukup customer, go to who you’re going with. But proper stored grain saves lives and we are all for that. So we’d love a shout at your business. If there’s an opportunity or a partnership with you, there’s an opportunity. But regardless of who you’re working with, proper stored grain is safer than an improper stored grain.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Great final words. My words to you and the Sukup team. Thank you for supporting GEAPS. Thank you for supporting the recent GEAPS Exchange. It was a special opportunity for people to connect and have conversations with you and your team. Thank you for being a guest on the show.
Brent Hansen:
Yeah, thank you, Jim, and I look forward to working with you and the Jeeps team and the organization and their members in the future.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
All right. Thank you, Brent. Thank you. Wow! What an incredible conversation with Brent Hanson from Sukup Manufacturing. It’s clear the future of grain storage is not just about getting bigger. It’s about getting smarter and safer. A huge thank you to Brent for sharing his expertise and giving us an insider’s look at where the grain industry is headed. If you want to learn more about Sukup’s innovations, be sure to visit sukupcom that’s S-U-K-U-Pcom and be sure to visit their YouTube page as well. And hey, if you enjoyed today’s episode, subscribe to the Whole Grain Podcast, share with a friend and stay tuned. We’ve got more amazing guests and topics coming your way to help you grow your knowledge and your career.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
There are two easy ways to access the Whole Grain show. Number one go to the Jeeps website. Visit GEAPS. com/ whole grain. You can also visit your favorite podcast apps, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Podbean, Youtube Music, Pandora and, again, just about any podcast app out there. Enter Whole Grain in the search and hit the subscribe button and you are all set. All episodes will be downloaded as soon as they are released. Plus, you can catch up on all past episodes. This Jeep’s Whole Grain podcast show brings in listeners from 88 countries. If you and your organization are interested in placing an audio ad in the Whole Grain show, we can help you with that and help put a spotlight on your business. Please reach out to me, Jim Lenz, Director of Global Education and Training at Jeep’s, the Grain Elevator and Processing Society. My email is james@ geapscom. J-a-m-e-s at G-E-A-P-S dot com. We look forward to connecting with you. Until next time, keep learning, keep innovating and keep moving the industry forward. Have yourself a great day and thanks for listening to Whole Grain.
