WEST FARGO, N.D. — The annual Big Iron Farm Show at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds aims to show farmers the latest in technology and equipment. This year’s 40th show featured a new product that aims to reduce work and improve safety for farmers facing clumping in their grain bins.
Leading Edge Industries of Groton, S.D., debuted the Bin SumpPRO system at Big Iron. The product, a retrofit kit for grain bin sweep systems, will break up 99% of the clumps from immature commodities, ice chunks, crust or foreign material that would otherwise plug the sump, said Shawn Gengerke, a fifth-generation farmer who is founder and CEO of Leading Edge Industries.
He said the idea for the system came from his own problems on the farm and looking for ways to improve the situation. Grain bin issues and deaths of people who have entered bins have become all-too-common hazards on farms in the Upper Midwest, particularly in the last few years of wet and poor crop conditions.
“If the sump plugs, it forces us to go in and try to get it unplugged, otherwise the grain will spoil or we can’t get the grain (to) empty,” Gengerke said.
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Gengerke noted that a South Dakota man had died after becoming entrapped in grain just days before Big Iron. He hopes Bin SumpPRO can help eliminate deaths and injuries, as well as the stress caused by stuck grain.
“It’s to keep the farmers safe, to keep people out of the bins, to alleviate a lot of issues that we do have, the stress that is caused when we can’t get our bins unloaded,” he said.
Leading Edge Industries touts Bin SumpPRO as quick to install. For more information, visit https://www.leadingedgeind.com/bin-sump-pro or call 605-397-2020.
