Market Share Move
NORTH DAKOTA VENTURE ADDS STORAGE, HANDLING CAPACITY IN COMPETITIVE MARKET
NORTH DAKOTA
Oakes 
James Valley Grain LLC
Oakes, ND • 701-742-3363
Founded: 2001
Storage capacity: 8.5 million bushels at three locations
Annual volume: 30 million bushels
Total sales: $180-200 million
Number of employees: 21
Crops handled: Corn, soybeans,
hard red winter and hard red spring
wheat
Services: Grain handling and merchandising, trucking
Key personnel:
• Myron Jepson, general manager
• Wendy Frohling, assistant manager/.
merchandiser
• Jamie Mattson, operations manager
Supplier List
Aeration fans................. WESTEEL
Bearing sensors.............LV Controls
Bin sweeps.............Springland Mfg.
Bucket elevators.............Nordstrong
Equipment Ltd.
Catwalk............... Warrior Mfg. LLC
Contractor....FWS Industrial Projects
USA Inc.
Control system............. LV Controls
Conveyors....Nordstrong Equipment
Ltd., Hi Roller Conveyors
Elevator buckets.............Tapco Inc.
Engineering....FWS Industrial Projects
USA Inc., Doug Iverson Engineering
Grain dryer...GSI/Zimmerman Grain
Dryers
Grain temperature system........ OPI
Level indicators............ Omart-Vega
Millwright.. Diversified Services Inc.
Motion sensors............ LV Controls
Motors....WEG Electric Motors Corp.
Speed reducers..................... Dodge
Steel storage.................. WESTEEL
Truck scale.................Webster Scale
James Valley Grain LLC’s rail terminal at Oakes, ND, with 1 million bushels worth of new steel
storage visible at left. Aerial photo by Rob Siverson.
Boosting annual bushel volume has become a necessity at James Valley Grain LLC
in Oakes, ND, both as a result of increased
crop production and increased competition.
“Our local crop production this year continued to increase faster than the national trend
yield,” says Myron Jepson, general manager,
a 19-year veteran of the grain industry whocame to James Valley Grain two years ago,
after serving as grain merchandiser for Grain
Millers Inc. in Eden Prairie, MN.
“That was true this year, even though we
lost 22% of our normal planted acreage due
to spring flooding.,” he continues.
In terms of competition, Gavilon Grain,
Columbia Grain International, and several
local cooperatives all have large grain elevator operations in that part of southeastern
North Dakota. James Valley Grain partially
represents the local cooperative contingent
as a joint venture founded in 2001 between
Norway Spur Farmers Cooperative and South
Dakota Wheat Growers Association.
As a part of keeping up with the competition,
James Valley Grain spent $5.3 million in 2010 on
an expansion that included the addition of 1 million
bushels of upright steel storage, a new 10,000-bph
grain dryer – the Oakes terminal’s second dryer
– and related grain handling equipment.
As general contractor, James Valley Grain
turned to FWS Industrial Projects USA Inc,,
Winnipeg, MB (800-553-0007), which built
the original rail terminal 10 years ago. The
engineering was completed by FWS and Doug
Iverson Engineering, Minnetonka, MN (952920-2330), Diversified Services Inc., Hayden,
ID (208-762-5566), served as millwright.
Construction on the project began May 1,
and the completion date was Oct. 28.
General Manager Myron Jepson. Photos by Ed Zdrojewski.
Reprinted from Nov/Dec 2010 issue of GRAIN JOURNAL
bushels, respectively.
The larger of the two tanks stands
105 feet in diameter and 90 feet tall
at the eaves. It has outside stiffeners, a
flat bottom, a 10,000-bph Springland
6000 Series zero-entry sweep auger,
and 26-cable OPI grain temperature
monitoring system. A set of six 25-hp
Westeel centrifugal fans deliver 1/5 cfm
per bushel worth aeration through infloor ducting in an H-pattern.
The smaller tank stands 62 feet in
diameter and 90 feet tall at the eaves.
James Valley Grain now operates two Zimmerman grain dryers at Oakes, including newest
10,000-bph model at right.
Steel Storage
The DSI crew constructed two
WESTEEL corrugated steel tanks, with
rated capacity of 750,000 and 250,000
Myron Jepson demonstrates the height of
a tunnel housing a 60,000-bph Hi Roller
reclaim conveyor.
It is outfitted similarly to the 105-foot
tank, but has only eight grain temperature monitoring cables and only four
centrifugal fans that, nonetheless, supply
1/4 cfm per bushel of aeration.
Grain Handling
Grain is carried out to the new storage from existing equipment via a set of
20,000-bph Nordstrong drag conveyors.
The tanks, in turn, empty onto a set
of 60,000-bph Hi Roller belt conveyors
in above-ground tunnels running back c
Ground level view of the James Valley
Grain terminal on a rainy fall morning,
with 750,000-bushel and 250,000-bushel Westeel tanks at left.
to an existing shipping leg. Jepson notes
that the company opted for an extra
large 8-foot-x-6-foot tunnel, in order
to make it easier for workers to enter
to perform cleanup and maintenance.
New Dryer
In addition, James Valley Grain
installed a new 10,000-bph Zimmerman tower dryer, the highest-capacity
commercial tower grain dryer currently
available on the market. Jepson notes
that the venture’s South Dakota Wheat
Growers partner sourced the dryer along
with a number of dryers it was installing
as
part of expansion projects this year
_________________________
“Our local crop production this year
continued to increase faster than
the national average. That was
true, even though we lost 22% of
our normal planted acreage due to
spring flooding.”
-Myron Jepson, James Valley Grain LLC
_________________________
in South Dakota (see page 38).
The new dryer is the second at Oakes.
The company continues to operate an
older 5,000-bph Zimmerman dryer
adjacent to the new dryer, and the two
together allow two commodities to be
dried simulataneously.
Jepson says the new dryer utilizes
an Algas-SDI propane heating system
to heat the gas to 180 degrees prior to
firing, an energy-saving measure that
has contributed to operation at as low
as 1,800 gallons of fuel per hour.
The dryer received relatively little use
this past harvest. However, since grain
came in relatively dry this year. Jepson
says the two dryers handled only 650,000
bushels of grain during the fall harvest.
Other new equipment at Oakes includes a new pair of 120-foot pit-type
truck scales from Webster Scale for
incoming and outgoing truck traffic.
Ed Zdrojewski, editor