The Ag Innovation Campus (AIC) invited KROX, the Red River Farm Network, Agweek, and KRJB to the construction site of its innovation campus on Ingersoll Ave., just off Highway 75. They gave us insights into the future of the campus’s construction and a tour of the inside of the processing plant.
The Ag Innovation Campus is a construction project happening in Crookston that began last summer that will create a one-of-a-kind, non-profit facility that is being completed in three different phases. The first and current phase is the completion of a Crush Plant that will process about eight truckloads of locally grown soybeans daily. The second phase will add a large office complex for its workers, and the third phase will construct a research facility for the campus. The campus is an idea developed by the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council to help agriculture find new uses for crops by assisting farmers and researchers in sharing, creating, and testing new ideas for agriculture. “Our whole objective here is that people should think of this as a research facility first that has the ability to process oil from oil seed crops,” soybean farmer and Ag Innovation Board of Directors Chair Mike Skaug explained. “We’re going to start with the processing first because that’s going to give us a baseline as the production of the processing, and it’s going to generate revenue for us to start other phases of the Campus’ operation.” Skaug also reported that the campus will be great for farmers that grow multiple crops in Crookston to help them in providing identity preservation for their crops, especially soybeans.
The campus’s focus with the creation of the plant will focus mainly on oil extraction of the plants and beans to help find new products and uses that people can use in the future. “Those farmers out here in the Red River Valley are looking at their field location, and they want to know that the seeds they put in the ground are going to yield. They want to know what the crop will look like when they harvest and its value. That’s where the Ag Innovation campus and AURI will provide an opportunity to get those early plannings in the region. Whether that’s new crop genetic traits, improved or changes in oil quality or protein through a processing center that’s right-sized for those new traits,” Ag Innovation Campus AURI Board representative Jimmy Gosse explained. “Secondarily but not far behind that important step is value-added new chemistry that can be done with those products. It may be identifying new traits in the meal for livestock feeding advantages or conversion technology for processing the oil. Whether it’s a new oil profile or an increase in total oil, the Ag Innovation Campus provides a proving ground to not only take the product that’s been grown in the region and shown to have good yields but then also that its downstream products are of a higher value of the currently grown seeds.” Along with the research being completed at the campus, the AIC is also looking to provide learning opportunities for students at the University of Minnesota Crookston and other local agriculture schools and be a place for the crushing industry to train new or elevate employees into their system.
With the creation of the plant, the campus has partnered with Energy Management Solutions to oversee the campus’s management and help with staffing in the local area, as it will open up many new jobs for Crookston in the coming years. However, folks shouldn’t expect a flood of new jobs right away, as the plant’s construction will only give about 20 positions available when it is complete in early summer, with jobs ranging from management to machine operations. But as more phases of the project are completed, more jobs will become available and give more opportunities to farmers in Crookston to share their products more than ever. “Within the industry we’re in, it’s going to put a spotlight on the Crookston community. This is not going to be your normal processing facility where we’re kicking out products,” Energy Management Solutions CEO Bill Paulsen explained. “The intention of this facility is research. We will operate a full-fledge crush facility, but we’re going to be putting a spotlight on Crookston because we’ll be bringing other companies in to trial their products. It will allow Crookston to show itself to the different companies and individuals that will be coming in for the Ag Innovation campus.” Skaug and the board noted they are still reaching out to other companies for more sponsorships and will inform the public when more deals are finalized.
The campus has hired BR Construction and Consulting for the construction and design of the campus’s first phase, which has currently completed the building of the Crush plant, along with the bulk bean, oil, and meal tanks outside of the plant. With the foundation completed, the plant is about four weeks in progress of adding sheetrock and the crush and press machines. Project manager Brian Ruschy reported that the plant should be completed by the beginning to the middle of the summer and cost about $18.5 million. He reported that they currently don’t have dates for the subsequent two phases of the campus but are gathering other engineering sketches to begin planning their construction. To help cover the costs of the Campus’ construction, Ag Innovation has been reaching out to several potential sponsorships to help collect money for the construction and receive market developments for the campus in the future. “Farmer’s Union Enterprise expressed interest in being a part of Phase 1. We’ve been talking with them for several months, and we’ve come up with a plan and an agreement with them, and with that, they’ll add a financial contribution to the facility that we’re very happy about. We’re going to have many synergies together where we can work together as a board of directors.” Mike Skaug explained. “They’ll also have one seat on the Campus’ Board of Directors, and they’ll be able to see what’s happening. We’ll be able to receive from them the ability for marketing developments, and we’ll be able to partner with other industries that they can connect us with.”
The Ag Innovation Campus would like to thank the City of Crookston for being receptive and supportive of the campus and welcomes anyone to come on a tour of the processing plant when construction is finished in the summer. To learn more about the campus and see a video of what the Crush Plant and Campus will look and operate like, you can go to aginnovationcampus.org and click on About. To learn more about how you can help the AIC, you can contact the Ag Innovation campus at 218-275-2750 or email them on their website. Pictures of the inside of the Processing Plant can be seen below-
