The Ag Innovation Campus in Crookston, which will be located south of Titan Machinery, took another step closer to getting up and running on Monday, July 26 when they broke ground and started moving the dirt around.
The crew is preparing the site by clearing out the topsoil and other groundwork needed. “There is a lot of topsoil that we have to take off and move into different areas on the site,” said the Ag Innovation Campus project manager Jim Lambert. “They will build retention ponds, berms, and other things like that. The extra dirt will be used by the City of Crookston as they are in need of some topsoil for some other projects they are working on and we are happy to share.”
The building itself will be more towards the south end of the lot and we will be building towards the east of the property.
The earthwork will take a couple of months, then they will start the construction of phase one of the project. “We are still dealing with the impacts of COVID and material prices and delivery times,” said Lambert. “We still anticipate crushing beans next summer. We plan to have the building up and all the equipment relocated and ready to operate next summer.”
To see the groundwork finally underway has been rewarding for Lambert. “Every project has its ups and downs, but this has been exceptionally challenging. The City of Crookston has been great to work with. They are very helpful, very understanding and I can’t say enough about the staff working in the city. We appreciate all their help,” said Lambert.
The first phase of the project will be less than they originally planned because of COVID, but the Ag Innovation Center will be the same when all the phases are complete. “We had to scale back on the first stage of the building because of COVID,” said Lambert. “After the first stage is complete we anticipate continuing to build and have the initial vision standing in Crookston.”
The Ag Innovation Campus will be a research facility for agricultural products like soybeans. “It will be a teaching, research, and industrial incubation facility and the small mechanical crush will initially start out with soybeans. Initially, we will start out with soybeans, conventional-type soybeans, and we will be looking at non-GMO soybeans, organic soybeans, and really specialty type of things for research purposes,” said Lambert. “If you have new soybean genetics, or if you want to get enough product for feeding trials you will be able to come to the Ag Innovation Campus and do that. We are excited about cover crops and we look forward to experimenting with cover crops to make the byproducts viable and add more value to the farm for more on-farm profits.”
Lambert added that they plan to have a site camera up and running and when they do they will let KROX know so people can watch the progress of the construction.
