In a fertilizer warehouse in Nebraska, a John Deere 644 loader is learning to do one of ag retail’s hardest-to-staff jobs without a person in the cab. And simultaneously, it could be redesigning ag retail’s dry fertilizer status quo.
Working with partners Polymath Robotics and KSI, Stueve Construction is preparing to commercialize Project FAST — Fully Autonomous Smart Terminal — with the goal of automating the loader first and eventually the entire dry fertilizer warehouse.
Stueve has completed a working prototype and is preparing to expand the system to six locations. One of its loaders is on display at this week’s MAGIE show in Bloomington, Ill.
Stueve Construction CEO Jim Bishop says the idea didn’t come from chasing shiny technology. It came from repeated customer conversations.
“The industry keeps telling us it’s all about people,” Bishop says. “They say it’s their biggest constraint. It determines where facilities are built, how large they are and where expansions happen. The constraint is around resources. This technology allows customers to change their operational mindset.”
Stueve has a history of facility innovation — including the rodless building — and saw an opportunity to bring automation already common in other industries into ag retail.
“The ultimate vision is that the fertilizer building is autonomous,” Bishop says. “It’s like a car wash: You punch in your code, drive in, get your blend and drive out.”
How the System Works
The workflow begins when orders flow from the retailer’s ERP system into the control system. From there, the system sends commands to the loader, which knows which bin(s) to go to, how many scoops to pull and where to dump product. LIDAR scanners map bin inventory and help guide reclaim, while the blending and conveyor systems are integrated so the loader and fixed equipment operate as one process.
Data from the loader and bin volumes can also feed into an online portal or through an API.
Bishop says fertilizer warehouses are a better autonomy environment than many others because three big challenges are already minimized: there’s no need for people in the loader’s working area, the environment is controlled so weather is not a factor, and dry fertilizer is a manufactured, predictable product.
“We’re improving cycle times and testing edge cases to improve the technology,” Bishop says.
With the prototype complete and additional sites planned, the company is now focused on safety protocols, service models, insurance and hazard and risk assessments.
Could Automation Change The Footprint of Ag Retail?
“Ultimately, the market will tell us what the future looks like,” Bishop says. “In recent years, there’s been a lot of focus on consolidating facilities and driving efficiency — but a lot of those decisions come down to who can run the facility and where you can find people. If labor is no longer the same constraint, does that allow you to build closer to growers and provide more convenience? Does it mean more smaller buildings? Does it allow co-ops to stay in local communities? Time will tell if that’s where the market wants to go, but we’re having significant conversations about the strategic impact this could have.”
For ag retailers, Project FAST could create several new options:
- Extend hours without adding labor
- Preload fertilizer before the morning rush
- Reassign experienced employees to higher-value work
- Build or operate facilities in places where labor is scarce
- Potentially reconsider the trend toward larger consolidated facilities
- Serve growers with more convenience
Automation is coming to ag retail, and Stueve wants to be the company that helps bring it there. The company is standing up a new business entity, Stueve Innovation, to support Project FAST and future technology projects for ag retailers.
One such project is taking the autonomous loader concept and applying it to skid steers.
“If you have a floor system, you can fill hoppers simultaneously with multiple loaders working together,” Bishop says. “It’s just another way to break the constraints we’re seeing in the market.”
Project FAST is designed to be integrated as a retrofit or as part of a new build. Bishop says the company has developed commercial models, with retrofit projects starting around $300,000 upfront, plus an annual software subscription of about $170,000.
“This is a solvable problem in the industry. And we got to the point of, ‘Why not us?’” Bishop says. “We want to be the service provider to drive the industry forward.”
