Cooperative expansion project includes new liquid, dry fertilizer facilities

WATERMAN, Ill. — An expansion project at Conserv FS Waterman Service Center is significantly increasing the size of the location with the construction of both dry and liquid facilities.

“This $12.5 million investment will take our facility from 4 to 25 acres for this phase,” said Adam Day, Conserv FS agronomy sales and marketing manager. “There’s more to come in the future with more warehouse space and upgrades to our office and shop facilities.”

The Conserv FS Board of Directors has been working on this project for several years.

“The board sat down about three years ago and started a strategic planning process,” Day said. “They identified the volume of movement and where the largest potential for agriculture was going to be and the territory around this facility was highlighted as the first place we needed to target.”

“DeKalb County is one of the best agricultural counties in the state and our facilities were not as efficient,” said John Henning, president of the Conserv Board of Directors, during the groundbreaking event.

“Many of our farms are built on what our previous generations did for us,” said Henning, who grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa hay on his farm near Marengo. “Conserv FS has been around for almost 100 years and this is what a co-op is all about, we need to build for the future.”

Although the last year has really proven that no one knows what the future will be, Henning said, he believes there’s going to be farming in the Waterman area for a long time.

“We think this is a strategic area for us and we want to continue to grow,” he said.

“We want to make sure we are well prepared to serve the next generation of our customers,” said Dave Swigart, CEO and general manager of Conserv FS. “We want to make sure we provide our customers with an unbeatable experience and if we do that we believe we’ll be around for another 100 years.”

The project includes the replacement of the dry fertilizer building.

“Our 55-year-old, 1,400-ton dry fertilizer building will be replaced with a 7,500-ton building,” Swigart said. “That will substantially improve our load times and it is going to be equipped with technology to integrate it with our blending, logistics and billing software.”

The new liquid facility will include a 1 million gallon nitrogen solution storage tank.

“It will also have a state of the art 80-by-230-foot crop protection mixing facility and warehouse,” Swigart said.

“There will be two full-time outbound crop protection lines, as well as a 24-hour inbound and outbound solution lane that can also flex to a third outbound crop protection lane,” Swigart said. “There is a fourth lane dedicated to inbound crop protection products, as well as outbound packaged goods.”

“The liquid facility is needed because of the timeliness issues with planting,” said Bob Buchholz, a Conserv FS board member and farmer who grows corn and soybeans near Waterman. “With adverse weather and farmers gearing up with larger equipment to get more work done in a shorter period of time, our old facilities weren’t efficient enough so now we should be able to shorten the load out time.”

The Waterman Conserv FS facility services farmers in about a 35-mile area, Day said.

“But with this expansion, this facility will also be a supply point for the remainder of our territory from here to Janesville, Wisconsin,” he said. “This location services four counties directly, but indirectly it will service all 14 counties and we expect the buildings to be completed in August and operating in September.”

Expanding the Waterman center will help the company effectively provide products and services to its customers.

“The growers of the territory have expanded their operations to increase their efficiency so it is time for us to step up and do the same,” Day said.

“A cooperative is great because we can offer services to our fellow farmers and we’re buying things together and sharing the profits,” Henning said. “We are able to get a better deal because we’re pooling everything together so we can be more efficient to grow our crops.”

For more information about Conserv FS, go to www.conservfs.com.