Nate Reznechek, GSI’s crop nutrient equipment sales manager, said the new technology is a first-of-its-kind in the industry that includes two towers (retail and wholesale) combined into one single tower.
“This technology saves several hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital expenses, without sacrificing throughput speeds or blend quality, while servicing two load-out lanes simultaneously,” he said. “It's a win-win for the growers and the co-op. We expect to see additional customers adopting this new technology as the industry strives to provide more service to their customers on tighter budgets.”
Reznechek said other benefits of InterSystems’ hybrid blend tower technology include added flexibility enabling the operator to service more customers and built-in, fail-safe redundancy to control mission-critical functions.
He added that the InterSystems blend tower product offering includes single, double, and triple weigh-hoppers, encompassing both vertical and horizontal blending with the latest impregnation technology to deliver the very best in customer solutions.
“In today’s rapidly changing ag market, it will be those with the most flexibility to adapt to customer requirements and market conditions that will succeed,” Reznechek said. “This benefit, along with other InterSystems product advantages, strengthens our customers’ position in a very competitive and demanding environment.”
GSI’s InterSystems brand supports the full-site crop nutrients blending process, including high-speed equipment that can process 800-1,200 tonnes per hour through truck receiving or railroad access and up to 1,200 tonnes per hour by barge or ship. It also offers the latest equipment for ingredient storage, truck loading, open tripper belt conveyor for commodity flat storage, blending (with blend tower options offering up to 300 tonnes capacity), and facility design and layout.
Its entry into the fertilizer material handling segment in 2015 provides synergy with grain customers already being served by GSI, a leading manufacturer of grain storage bins, dryers and material handling equipment for farms and commercial elevators.
“We saw an opportunity to reach out to the ag co-op segment that already knows and respects GSI,” said Reznechek. “We are also filling a gap in the market by specializing in higher-quality, heavy-duty fertilizer processing systems.”
With its recent entry into the fertilizer business, Rezhechek said GSI and its parent company, AGCO Corporation, now support production agricultural from end to end – including equipment for tillage, planting, application and harvesting, seed treatment production, fertilizer material handling, and grain storage and conditioning.
“This broad scope gives AGCO the ability to invest in new ideas and innovations that benefit farmers and the supply chain,” said Reznechek. “Although we are new to fertilizer handling, GSI’s crop nutrient business already has the expertise and resources to be a major player in the industry.”
The GSI crop nutrient portfolio now includes Willmar spreaders and tenders. Following a million-dollar investment by AGCO in GSI’s Omaha production facility, Willmar products are now engineered and manufactured alongside the InterSystems brand of dry fertilizer material handling equipment. Integrating the Willmar production into the Omaha facility is designed to provide synergy with GSI’s crop nutrient business and support quality enhancements planned for the Willmar product line.
