Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Into focus early. Then they find proven expertise to deliver smarter project solutions with no high target costs and timelines and full transparency and accountability. That’s how every project stays on track because a better way leads to lower costs. But more at Teproject Solutions.com. Harvest season often puts great facilities to the test, and in certain years, storage space runs out fast. That’s when temporary storage becomes more than a backup plan, it becomes a lifeline. But as many operators know, using temporary storage can be a high reward, high-risk strategy if the system isn’t properly prepared. In this episode of the Whole Great Podcast, you’ll hear practical insights from someone who has lived in portable for four decades. Industry veteran Bob Marlowe joins us to adapt what it really takes to make temporary storage work without sacrificing great quality and safety bottom line from essential clinics, defective costs to the lusts, or the hard way. This conversation shines the light on what separates successful temporary storage from cost to the state. And just like recent episodes, we’ll wrap up with reflection questions back to your team to help you access your home facilities ready before pilots go down. Stay tuned. Hello and welcome to the show. Welcome to the Whole Grain Podcast. We use this platform to explore the people, innovations, and trends shaping the grain handling and processing industry. The whole grain show brings grain professionals like you together from more than 90 countries around the world. My name is Jim Lenz, your host and the Director of Global Education and Training in Chiefs, where the mission of the Grain Elevator and Processing Society is to champion, connect, and serve the global grain industry and our members. Today we’re diving into a topic that becomes especially important as Harvest approaches temporary storage. Whether your facility uses it as a strategic tool every year or only in emergency situations, this episode will help you think critically about the preparation, planning, and management it requires. We’ll cover the pros and cons, grain quality risks, lessons learned from the field, and the new technologies and best practices helping operators protect their pilots and be sure to listen through to the end for those reflection questions to turn today’s insights into meaningful action for you and your team. All that and more coming up next. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate the opportunity to be with you here today. Thank you. It’s an honor to have you with us. We’ve spent more than four decades working across some of the areas of the green industry. Before we dive into today’s topic, could you share a bit about your background and also what’s kept you passionate about this field for so many years?
Bob Marlow:
Well, thanks. You know, that I guess I’ll go back to I was raised on a farm in Northwest Ohio. So agriculture has been just part of my kind of part of my system, you know, my blood, right? And in my later years, uh after I graduated from high school, I attended a uh local junior college and received a two-year associate’s degree in ag business. And during that time frame, while I was going to school, I started working for the Andersons in Maumee, Ohio. And I worked in a part-time seasonal position. And after graduation, you know, I was looking for a full-time job, right? And I made an application and uh was fortunate to get a full-time job, and it’s the last application that I filled out. Uh, 44 years later, I retired. But in between, there was just a lot of uh great experiences. The company was uh growing almost by leaps and bounds, you know, we were building facilities and so many opportunities. So I was very fortunate to be with a great company that, you know, there were lots of opportunities. And I, of course, you know, growing up on the farm and being part of agriculture, it just seemed like a natural for me to uh continue on. I spent uh about 12 or 13 years in what they called their services department, which was maintenance and engineering and construction. So I did a lot of that type of work for 12 or 13 years before I actually jumped into grain operations. And so the last 30 years or so I spent in grain operations themselves at small facilities from small country elevators up to large terminal elevators with uh varying levels of accountability and job responsibility. So it was just a great opportunity and a great time to be part of the of the ag business.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Awesome. Thank you for sharing. It’s clear you’ve seen just about everything there is to see in this business, which is why I’m excited to explore a topic that’s increasingly important during harvest temporary storage. So let’s start with the big picture, Bob. For someone new to grain operations, why does temporary storage matter so much? And when do facilities typically find themselves relying on it?
Bob Marlow:
That’s a great question. So before I delve into that just a little bit, I want to kind of build a little bit of a framework around the word temporary storage. Okay. I tend to think of it, and I’m not trying to change the topic here, but tend to think of it as not as contemporary or not as traditional storage. Okay. And even within temporary storage, you have a range from emergency storage, which is something that, you know, as we talked maybe before, things like a train doesn’t show up or a barge doesn’t show up on time, or you have some kind of a major problem at the facility where you can’t use your traditional, that that’s emergency, where it goes out, it stays out for a short amount of time, usually maybe weeks, maybe a couple months, depending on weather conditions. Okay. But then temporary storage, as it seems to have developed over the many years, and I’ve been since the early 80s, uh, I kind of jokingly say I have 30-some years of experience or 40-some years of experience in grain operations, but at the same time, I have 31-year experiences on temporary storage, each one being a little bit different every year because of weather conditions and crops and so forth. So, first I’ll just kind of put that framework out there. But temporary storage in the industry, it’s really a big part of it because it I would say right up front, it provides the avenue to store grains, usually that come in maybe at harvest time when you don’t have enough storage, uh, fixed storage to handle those. And at a time when you can, you know, you don’t have to make a large investment. Okay. Uh not nearly the investment that you’re going to make if you’re going to put up a steel tank or concrete storage. So temporary storage typically has has it doesn’t, um, doesn’t cost as much, so not putting up as much capital up front, you know. Um and in many cases, uh, temporary storage is also regulated. In many cases, most states regulate licensing of that storage space. So we’ll talk about that later, but that’s something that the temporary storage typically has to be picked up uh off the ground and brought back into the facility, generally within five to six months versus your other storage that can stay out longer.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
That’s uh great framing of first of all emergency storage and then also temporary storage. And compared to permanent storage, what do you see, Bob, as the biggest advantages and the biggest drawbacks on relying on temporary solutions?
Bob Marlow:
Yeah. Well, certainly temporary storage gives you uh a little more flexibility in that you can either use it, right, in a particular year, or it may set unused because of maybe crop conditions or markets, whatever’s going on in the marketplace. But one of the biggest advantages is the capital investment that a company would have to make, where maybe traditional storage, uh and these are numbers, they they just vary all over, but you know, traditional storage may cost three, five, seven, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars a bushel in cases of some concrete and so forth. Whereas temporary storage might be in cents per bushel, you know, fifty cents per bushel, or so so there’s a big investment uh difference there, you know. And so when you’re looking at return on investment, that temporary storage has a a big advantage over your traditional uh storage structure.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
So yeah, there’s a big appeal there.
Bob Marlow:
Yep.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
And the biggest drawbacks again on relying on temporary solutions.
Bob Marlow:
Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Well you know, the biggest drawbacks uh are is that you typically have more variable expenses that are reoccurring year after year. An example might be the the tarps or the covering that you use on the on a on a store temporary storage, they may have to be replaced every year. Um the cost of maybe additional machinery and labor to build or to put out these temporary storage structures and also to to bring them back in. Okay. Um and of course, one of the things we’ll talk about later uh as it relates there is the quality and the monitoring and your ability to manage that, the logistics of it can really can set apart you know traditional storage from temporary.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
So let’s talk about readiness now. When a facility is planning to use temporary storage, what are the first things they need to get right from a structural or you know design standpoint?
Bob Marlow:
Yeah. Uh first thing I would say is right on the top of the list is is securing um you know approval from your licensing agency, right? For instance, in the state of Indiana, you’d go to the Indiana Department of Ag and apply for permit to put out temporary storage. Okay. And you’d want that to have that in place before you ever start moving the process. And then it’s really a function of of planning. Of uh, you know, I’ll I’ll just kind of go down through you, you you know, there’s so many steps, but it’s it’s not a whole lot different for temporary storage than it is for permanent. And in some cases, it even requires more planning because of its where where its location could be or or whatever. So there’s so many things that you know you have to you have to take into consideration: tarps, pads, aeration. Will you have aeration? What will you have some type of monitoring? What type of utilities are available? What site are you going to use? Site preparation is a big thing. Um I’ll share a story later, but you have to make sure that you don’t have, you know, you’re not trying to build this temporary storage over a power line right-of-way or underneath a power line right-of-way or other utilities, um, that you don’t have a county tile that’s running through that piece of property that all of a sudden you find out that you can’t build on top of it. Um and do you have access to utilities? What about the electrical for the fans and neighbors permits? Some counties, some may require permits to operate out there. There’s so many things that have to be taken into effect, not including the timing itself for preparation of the pad and location and drainage, and it’s everything you have to do for contemporary storage, but it can be because of the space that’s generally involved in putting these up, it it could be um a much bigger project.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
There’s a lot to get right.
Bob Marlow:
Excuse me. Yes, a lot to get right, and and all it takes is just a little bit to be off.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Yeah, yeah, a lot to get right preparing the system. So now let’s shift a little bit towards day-to-day operations and what it takes. What are some key safety or maintenance practices that facilities sometimes overlook?
Bob Marlow:
Right. Well, on a day-to-day basis, you know, I would say right up near the top of it is monitoring as best you can the condition of the pile, the physical condition, if you have fences, of keeping the tarps, the covering, whatever type of covering you have, keeping those tight. Um, you know, the monitoring, if if you have the ability to monitor using either CO2 monitoring or temperature monitoring, some use those, which is a good thing to do, right? That type of monitoring. Safety issues, I’ll speak but from the Midwest, where you have snow and ice, those structures can have a large buildup of snow and ice on those that could come sliding off of the tarp structures and and you know, strike employees. Safety is from falls, where employees, while they’re building you know, slips and falls, while they’re building the the structures or after it’s built, then you have to go around and maybe tighten the tarps up and so forth. So there’s uh they they have their own unique set of safety things that you really need to take close monitoring of, particularly if you have winter conditions that you have to deal with. So, you know, cables, for instance, some operators put cables around the the uh fences to keep the kind of help hold them together. Well, then that could present a risk to someone when they’re possibly working in the area and a cable clamp gives gets loose. So there’s just there’s a lot of safety things that you need to take care of, but basically looking for rips and tears in the tarps to make sure that they’re tight and snug, the fans are operating. Um, those are those are some of the day-to-day monitoring type of issues that you you should really zero in on.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
You mentioned to me earlier uh grain quality is the biggest deal when it comes to temporary storage, even more than structure or setup. Why is that?
Bob Marlow:
Well, grain quality, while it’s you know important in all storage structures, uh, with outdoor storage, temporary storage, there are additional challenges. Typically speaking, uh most storage temporary storage structures have a flexible membrane, a tarp that goes over the the that covers up the grain, and they have fans either around the perimeter or in some cases in a center tower that pull air in and hold a negative to keep the tarps in place. Okay. Well, as you know, we don’t have control of weather conditions. And I’ll use this as an example. In January in the Midwest, normally your temperatures might be 15, 20, 30 degrees, but all of a sudden a warm front comes through and it’s 55 or 60 degrees out, right? The fans are on running trying to hold the tarps in place, the storm goes through, you know. The worst case is that you lose power, right? Now there’s nothing to hold the tarps in place, and the tarps blow off, and then you get, you know, it’s exposed to the to the to the environment. That’s just one thing to be aware of that that has a challenge from a grain quality standpoint. Also, from a grain quality standpoint, you know, grains are a living organism, so they’re sensitive to both moisture and temperature. So the introduction of additional moisture that could take place by running the fans continuously, pulling air in to hold the tarps in place could re-introduce moisture that you don’t want, you know, within that grain mass, causing possibly molds to start growing again, insect infestations. They’re just more difficult and they require a different mindset to manage those differently than you might uh typical, you know, content or traditional storage.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
That’s a powerful point, Bob, because once those problems start, they’re hard to stop. What are some proactive steps operators can take early on to reduce those risks?
Bob Marlow:
Well, let’s just look at the fan operation once as a good example of something to take a look at. You could invest in standby generators or a standby generator system that would allow you to keep some fans running to hold the tarps in place so you don’t, you know, in that instance, you don’t have that. It’s an investment up front, but it is one that could pay dividends, particularly if you happen to be in a storm-prone area. The other that I would highly recommend would be uh controllers that you would install that would actually operate the fans based on wind speed. Some operators that I’ve talked to over the years, they fill their temporary storage, they pull their tarps on, they turn the fans on, and they walk away. And the fans are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week for whatever that time frame is that the grain’s out there. And the reason is the fear is, and you don’t want to lose the tarps, right? You want to hold the tarps in place. Well, that’s also an expensive process of running the fans all that time. And during that time, you have to, as I said before, keep in mind that you’re pulling in possibly air that you don’t want that’s laden with moisture and those types of things, that could cause issues. So by using controllers, you could, based on wind speed, you could only run fans when the winds are such that you couldn’t keep your tarps in place, if you know what I mean. And then when it’s not windy out, the fans are off. And once you’ve kind of cooled your grain mass down, you want to keep it cool. You don’t want to be warming it back up and introducing moisture and temperature to it.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
So let’s talk about the real costs. I know whole grain podcast listeners, many of them are working at facilities, maybe there are vendors and suppliers too, of course, who are thinking about making investments in temporary storage, or some of them have done that. And let’s talk about cost. That’s another big piece of this puzzle. What are some of the hidden or maybe a better word is often overlooked costs that come with temporary storage?
Bob Marlow:
Right. I would suggest that an operator who has temporary storage that they develop some form of a system to track these type of costs. But typically you would have costs, reoccurring costs every year, for instance, maybe for pad preparation, where you have to go out and do some blacktop work or concrete work where you know that would be exceptional costs that you might not have with traditional storage. Aeration fans and aeration tubes. Um that’s a cost that you need to take into effect because sometimes during the reclaim of the grain, those those tubes get damaged and have to be replaced. Um the electric costs to operate fans, fill systems, and so forth, uh, and other variable costs. It’s been my experience that you have a significant amount of labor that’s involved in these processes, you know, to not just build the pile, but also to pull the tarps back up in place and you know, remove the tarps and do sampling and many of the things that you would do on a normal, you know, uh in a normal facility where you’re regular tanks and so forth, you can easily pull samples out of the bottom. Most temporary storage systems don’t have that kind of ability. So tracking the cost of how much you know, the uh the money that you might wrap up in pest control, right? Not only just for, let’s say, animals like deer and so forth that could, you know, get around it, but also pests, insects, and and the cost of uh they’re very difficult to fumigate, unlike a traditional structure. So those could be uh really additional costs. Uh there’s a lot of uh things that I think you have to take into consideration risk and trying to manage that, that uh mitigate those risks. So but there’s a lot of costs, and they’re variable and they typically repeat year after year, okay, which is a little bit different than you would have with traditional storage. So keeping track of those costs helps you determine on a year-to-year basis on whether it’s economical to even use that temporary storage. Okay. I’ve had instances where the market is basically dictating to you how long you might keep that grain out on the storage pad. But if you have, you know, you have a lot of expenses to put it out and bring it back in, it may not be worth it to use it at all. You know what I’m saying? So tracking those costs gives you the ability to make judgment, to make decisions on whether it that’s the that’s the where you want to put your commodities at.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
That’s interesting commentary. Thanks, Bob. Uh that’s maybe it makes me think, Bob, how should facilities weigh those costs against investing in more permanent storage solutions? Is there a point where the math just doesn’t make sense anymore?
Bob Marlow:
Well, there could be, certainly. I mean, I know many, many operators that are very successful at managing their temporary space. Okay. Uh, and they’ve been successful for a number of years. And I think part of that, and when I looked at those organizations and where I worked, I thought we were good at managing that space. Now, did we have were those, were there a was there a year that it didn’t work out so well? Okay. But the the final analysis I just think comes down to when you’re trying to make this decision on what you’re going to do, you have to weigh these short-term investments against the long-term, and also then all these variable costs that come into play every year. Um and and and put that in the equation along with the quality. Did you uh you know sometimes um it it happens where there’s some some things that you can’t control as well on these large temporary structures, and you have a damage problem or whatever that might be, that could cause a significant financial impact to the company, not just short term, but long term.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
So I want to see if you’re willing to share some lessons from the field. With uh all your years in the industry, I’m sure you’ve seen temporary storage done well and not so well. Could you share an example of a success story where it all kind of came together?
Bob Marlow:
Sure. Uh, you know, I know I know, as I mentioned, I know many operators that have invested in temporary storage and continue to use their storage. And what they did was is they made a commitment up front to do alcohol, would do the right thing when they were building it. Okay. Uh, you know, they made sure the pad was good and solid and well sloped so water wouldn’t drain. They they they they invested in in adequate aeration systems. Some of them even went so far as to invest in grain cleaners to clean the grain prior to going out to storage right there near the pile. Uh many have invested in the technologies of CO2 monitoring and temperature monitoring and fan control. So those those type of investments, while um they’re not cheap, okay, the they though those those type of investments can pay dividends long term. And there’s there’s many cases of that, many, many operators uh that have done that successfully. We did that, you know, we we managed, tried to manage those piles as best we could from a quality standpoint. We we kept track of the quality, so we had a very good idea of of what what what we put out on the pile or on the st on the storage structure and what we brought back in, you know. And you know, really it’s it’s a function of risk mitigation, it’s a function of getting everyone within the organization from the top down committed to the use of that and and understanding that it is a little bit different business than just your traditional storage structures.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Nice. Thanks for sharing, Bob. On the flip side, is there a story that still sticks with you as a lesson learned the hard way?
Bob Marlow:
Oh, yes, yes. You know, and I it I’ve I had a few of them over the years, uh, but um, and I’ll share with this one rather quickly, and and I’ll and I’ll tie it back to I’ve talked about CO2 monitoring, but I’ll tie it back to that in its in its uh entirety. We were building a storage at a facility, and um of course we we can’t control the weather, okay, and we were running out of space, so we started building the temporary storage. It had been used off and on over the years. Um but as we were building it, it started raining. And it rained, it seemed like almost every day. Okay, but we couldn’t not put grain out there simply because of space considerations. All right. So almost every day we got a little bit of rain on this, and eventually we were we had the structure done. This was one that I was excuse me, a cover on last. So you didn’t put the cover on until you couldn’t put the cover on until it was completely built. And needless to say, uh, within a few weeks, uh, even less than that, you could smell, you could walk around the outside of the fan, you could smell that there was something going on, uh, you know, that kind of sour smell. And and uh uh so I started uh we’d been kind of playing with CO2 monitoring and doing some of this. Was this was in the early 90s, um, and Purdue was working with us on this, and so I started doing some CO2 sensing, and we had levels that were just kind of off the charts. Um and and that that alone uh helped us to make a decision that we needed to pick that pile up almost immediately. So here we were in the middle of harvest, and we were not only trying to handle the inbound receipts coming from the farm and other elevators, but at the same time we were reclaiming this pile and bringing it back into the elevator. And and then later on we put another pile back out. But just it was it was it was a very challenging time, and without without sharing a lot of numbers, if anyone listening to this would know it went out as number one corn and it came back sample grade, and in just a short amount of time, that’s how quickly things can happen. So it it’s just uh it’s just one of those uh things that sticks with you, and and even even today it makes my makes me a little nervous just thinking about it.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
So thanks for sharing, Bob. Wow, that’s that’s good to have that uh shared with everybody and all our listeners because there’s so much interest in this. And just I’m curious how uh how using uh your great wealth of experience, how is temporary storage evolving? I mean, are there new technologies, methods, or best practices that are making it easier to manage today than it was, let’s say, 10 or 20 years ago?
Bob Marlow:
I think so. I think the uh you you see more uh operators embracing and using, for instance, I’ve mentioned it several times, CO2 technology, which really uh gives you some indication of what’s going on inside of that grain mass. Uh CO2 technology, fan controllers, uh wireless connections, where I’m not familiar with all of the systems that are out there, but there are ones that are, you know, are have the connectivity to Wi-Fi and to the internet, and you can manage things, you know, basically setting it home almost and do those things. I know that there’s been uh a fair amount of work going into aeration and the design of the aeration to better uh cool and try to maintain the grain mass. For many years, originally the fans were basically there just to kind of hold the tarps in place. And so I see some operators that are paying close attention, more closely being tuned into that. So um there’s probably others out there, but but those in particular can on the and and it really impacts the grain quality side probably the most.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
So yeah, yeah, thanks for sharing. So there’s monitoring tech, better aeration solutions. Do you see improved tarps over the years?
Bob Marlow:
Tarps have changed. Uh we we’ve seen where uh the very early years the tarps were were heavy vinyl tarps that were very heavy and hard to manage, and they had so many seams, you know, the bolded seams were many of the style in the early years. Now you see many of them are large pieces that are sewn together. Uh, and there’s even contractors that will come in and and install those tarps on your piles for you if you don’t have the manpower. So there’s been a change in that in particular. Um I I’m not I’m not keyed into some of the if there’s newer tarp styles out there. Many, many have gone to what I’ll call cover on first. And really what that involves is is having a cover over the structure so that when you’re filling the grain, it’s always underneath the tarps. Okay. And so it’s not exposed to weather conditions during the building of the of the of the pile. Many operators have gone to that style. versus the cover on last where you’re building the pile and you can’t you don’t put the covers on until you’re all done, which might be, you know, a week, ten days, depending on how fast you’re going out there or the size of the pile, it could be a significant amount of time that the grain is exposed to uh weather conditions.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
So great uh feedback. Thank you. Bob, I’m curious, do you think we’ll see even more facilities using temporary storage in the future? Or will the industry shift back toward permanent solutions?
Bob Marlow:
Well, of course it it’s going to come down to generally it’s return on investment and and money and and how much it costs to to do these things. I know of I know of a number of operators that have uh taken their temporary storage out altogether and have put up you know steel tanks and concrete and so forth to replace those simply because they had some rather uh sizable losses that they you know they incurred with with the temporary storage. I think you’re gonna continue to see its use. You know there’s all forms of it out there but but I think you’re gonna continue to see its use because it it’ll still play a part in the industry. It’s a judgment that you have to make when you’re getting ready to to add storage if it’s going to be permanent or fixed and or it’s temporary I should say. So what it’s it’s really I believe it’s here to stay and maybe technologies will allow us to better control quality and so forth that that’s that’s out there.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Thank you. If you had to give operators a short checklist before harvest just a few key points to to make sure their temporary storage is ready what would be on it.
Bob Marlow:
Well uh first and foremost I would go back to an acronym that’s been used many times in the industry that was developed by some folks at Purdue University called SLAM S L A M. Okay. Which really stands for sanitize clean is the S. The L is load level core A is aerate and and M is maintain or monitor right and and those those if you start with that S part the the preparation side of ensuring that your pad is clean and ready for service and that there’s no leftover grains when you’re getting ready to build this that you keep in mind that you may not want to use the same moisture levels that you might put in in more traditional storage you may not want to use that out on a out on a temporary storage. But following those principles I think is is where you really need to start and just to make sure that you’ve kind of checked all those boxes off and and be be prepared and plan. Planning is you know once it’s there okay you have to plan on what you’re going to do and with the timing on when you’re going to build it when the logistics work you know how does that fit with your facility how does it fit with your merchandising plan you know all those things combined I I think uh planning is is is the number one thing in the in the process.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
And finally Bob if you could leave our listeners with one piece of advice about balancing cost safety and grain quality when it comes to temporary storage what would that be?
Bob Marlow:
I would say do your planning look at the the benefits of of temporary storage uh take a you know it it plays a part in our agriculture and our business and weigh that against the cost of more permanent storage and make sure that you take you know take a look at all those I’ll say hidden costs that you may not see if in a traditional facility make sure you you take a look at those costs and the impacts that it can have on your facility and make sure that it fits your facility. And it works with the rest of the operation. Okay. Not just more storage just for the simple stake sake of more storage but that it it it fits logistically with how you can manage your facility.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Fantastic and you shared some of those hidden costs but temporary storage there’s a lot a lot of interest in this so you’ve given this some complete thought and thorough investigation you shared this with our podcast listeners so very appreciative of this as I know a lot of ears will be listening to this episode on this topic. I mean Bob it’s a fantastic conversation thank you so much for sharing your decades of insights with us and we look forward to having you lead some of our Jeeps and K-State programs our in-person programs so thank you for that. I’ll leave some information about that as well but really appreciate you taking time to spend some time with our whole grain podcast listeners. Thank you.
Bob Marlow:
Thank you Jim I appreciate it and I hope that you know there’s maybe just a piece of maybe what we talked about today that somebody can take back to their facility or take with them that helps them in the management of their grain storage.
Jim Lenz, GEAPS:
Yes absolutely so kind thank you thank you that wraps up today’s episode of the Jeeps Whole Grain podcast. A big thank you to Bob Marlowe for joining us and sharing his decades of experience and hard-earned wisdom on managing temporary storage effectively. As we’ve heard today temporary storage can provide flexibility and cost advantages but it also requires planning discipline and a proactive approach. Grain quality safety and logistics can shift quickly in these environments and success often comes down to preparation, monitoring and having the right systems in place I’d like to leave you with a few questions to reflect on and perhaps discuss with your team first one when was the last time we reviewed or updated our temporary storage plan? Are we confident it’s ready for next harvest? This harvest? What steps are we taking or could we take to better protect grain quality in piles? Think about moisture, molds, insects, myotoxins, shrink and damage third question how do we currently account for the true costs of temporary storage? Are there areas where hidden or recurring costs may be slipping through? And finally what warning signs or red flags should our team be watching for during storage and how will we respond quickly to prevent losses? Remember Jeeps offers resources to help you grow, strengthen your operations and stay ahead, including more than 25 online and on-demand courses, hands on training with our Jeeps K State programs, a searchable library of over 200 industry videos, interactive webinars, our next gen path program for interns and early career professionals, a globally recognized credentialing program, a digital grain glossary, and local Jeeps chapters for maintenance days and networking. And of course don’t miss Jeeps Exchange, the industry’s premier event visit Jeeps.com to explore more ways to learn, grow and connect. I’m Jim Lenz, Director of Global Education and Training at Jeeps. Thanks for listening and until next time, keep feeding fueling and clothing the world
