ALBERT CITY, IOWA, US — Ag Partners’ Royal, Iowa, US, location is preparing the facility for fall harvest following an explosion that occurred in late August.

The explosion left a large hole in the concrete silo. 

Ag Partners does believe it will be ready to receive grain from this fall’s harvest. The company is making repairs and prepping grain handling equipment.

“We believe all bin space can be utilized this fall apart from 330,000 bushels of storage that is not usable due to the incident,” the company said. “Parts of the legging and conveyors need to be replaced; therefore, we have two millwright crews doing prep work, so we are ready to install parts as soon as we receive them. Parts will begin arriving over the next few days. We believe we can be partially functional within 10 days and fully functional sometime during the week of September 21.”

The company plans to utilize dump 3 as its pit is functional and can move 30,000 bushels of grain per hour and can leg grain to all the functional storage space in Royal.

“Thank you for your show of support over the years and during the recent incident at our Royal location,” the company said. “We are most fortunate that no one was hurt, and that the location will be mostly functional this fall.   

“Many industry experts, along with key leaders within Ag Partners, have provided guidance as to how we safely move forward this fall to facilitate the needs of our grain customers.”

Before the explosion, Ag Partner’s total licensed storage capacity is 55,200,000 bushels, according to Sosland Publishing’s 2020 Grain & Milling Annual.

Based on customer commitment and support Ag Partners intends to rebuild its Royal location to better accommodate future needs.

Alceco, an Iowa cooperative, recently acquired full ownership of Ag Partners from Cargill. Ag Partners provides products, services and market access in the areas of grain, agronomy, feed and petroleum. The company’s locations include retail and wholesale agronomy outlets, grain/petroleum facilities and feed mills throughout Iowa.