For cooperative farmer-owners in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, the CHS soybean processing facility at Fairmont, Minn., has become a key connector to the global market. The recently expanded facility is celebrating its 20th year in operation.
After soybeans harvested by area farmers arrive at the plant, they are inspected and graded, then crushed to produce soy oil, soybean meal and other soy byproducts to meet domestic and global demand.
“The size and scale of the Fairmont operation is pretty impressive. Crushing up to 215,000 bushels per day makes us one of the largest soybean processors in the United States,” says Brandon Nordstrom, director of production operations at Fairmont.
“This facility is huge to the farmers around here,” says Kevin Mosloski, Fairmont maintenance technician. “During harvest, [you’ll see] 1,000 to 1,200 trucks in a day.”
Before the Fairmont facility opened two decades ago, area farmers had to drive more than an hour to deliver soybeans. “In our first few harvests, we were extremely busy because [farmers] were easily able to drive 15-20 minutes, come here, dump their trucks and go right back out into the field,” says Missy Neitel, Fairmont shipping and receiving technician.
